Japan is just a lot stricter than the US when it comes to driving in general. The minimum age is higher, the driving test is more difficult, it's easier to lose your license for traffic violations, speed limits are lower, mandated vehicle inspections are much more expensive/comprehensive, there is zero tolerance for drinking and driving (even one sip), etc. This is reflected in traffic fatality figures - 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people in the US vs 1.9 in Japan [1].

So while I'm not sure about the origin of manual vs automatic licenses specifically, it's not really surprising in the broader context of Japan's strict stance on driving.

In practice it means if you want to drive manual, you need to take the driving test in a manual. But seeing as how only 13% of foreigners pass Japan's practical driving test on the first attempt, and I hadn't driven manual in years, I wasn't looking to make things any more difficult for myself.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-road-incident...

[2] https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16392895

> This is reflected in traffic fatality figures - 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people in the US vs 1.9 in Japan

Deaths per X km driven would be a more useful statistics. Japan has such a well functioning public transport system which just leads to people driving less.

As of 2024 it was 4.7 fatalities per 1 billion kilometers driven in Japan, vs 7.8 in US - or about a 66% increase in relative risk in the US per kilometer driven.

Road fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles were also higher in the US, at 0.4 in Japan vs 1.3 in the US.

Japan does have a significantly larger share of deaths coming from pedestrians (36%) and cyclists (15%) vs the us (18.2% vs 2.9%, respectively) - which is one of the challenges of driving in Japan. You constantly have to be on the lookout for pedestrians and cyclists coming from any direction, often on narrower streets with obstructed visibility.

[1] https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/united-states-r...

[2] https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/japan-road-safe...

I live in Japan and it's pretty insane how close drivers get to pedestrians on narrow streets. And how everyone is so used to it the drivers barely slow down at all.

Even worse was when I lived in the countryside and I'd try to go for walks down the road and motorbikes absolutely maxing out would rocket past me not giving a shit about who or what was on the road. Kinda funny looking back how the most dangerous place I lived was the Japanese countryside

The Japanese countryside (which includes suburbs with some farms scattered about) makes American suburbs look pedestrian friendly by comparison. Talking from personal experience two days ago[0], I was in Nagano at night walking around unlit streets barely wide enough for one car, being constantly passed by both cyclists and cars. I felt like I needed high-vis. The closest I can think of would be the American East Coast, which also has lots of chaos layout streets, but even they usually have the money for streetlights and they don't have the severe space constraints of Japan.

Bonus points: near the end of the walk there was a two-lane road that I had to walk half a km to get to the nearest crossing for, and then half a km back. Bonus points for the one car dealership in front of my destination that was only fenced off on the back side just to spite me (or, more likely, they don't want people using it as a pedestrian cut-through). The road blocking my path was constantly jammed with cars. Somehow, Nagano invented the one-lane stroad! Also, Google Maps doesn't have a good understanding of crosswalk locations, because there was a closer one on the other side that you can't really see on foot at night.

[0] I am trying to go to as many Round1s as possible to get a title in Music Diver for playing the game in a bunch of prefectures. The game gets EOS'd at the end of the month (but only in Japan, which is unheard of). Round1 likes building giant locations in the middle of nowhere with terrible transit access. I think the one in Nagoya even had a shuttle bus from the train station - which I didn't use, lol.

[delayed]

It's the same in France (and most of Europe), you have two options for the practical driving test: and automatic only one, which you can attempt the exam for after 13h of lessons, and a manual + automatic one, which you can attempt after 20h of lessons. (in reality almost nobody manages it after 13/20h if you haven't driven before, the average is around 30h of lessons for manual).

If you took the automatic-only test, and have an automatic-only license, you can take an additional 7 hours of lessons to remove the automatic-only restriction from your license.

It does indeed make sense, since manual requires more skill, and attempting to drive a manual on the street without knowing how could be dangerous.

Funnily enough you can visit europe, and drive here on a canadian/US license, without ever having driven a manual.

I had driven manual for years, including in the UK on my Canadian license, but when I swapped my Canadian license for a UK one, I got an automatic only license because I had never taken a test in a manual. I haven't bothered upgrading because I drive electric these days, but it is mildly annoying.

> On the other hand, if you can't operate a manual properly, you aren't getting very far anyway

Or you’re launching towards a wall, or, worse, pedestrians, by accidentally dropping the clutch due to poor feathering control.

Here is a funny one, at least for Europe. Having moved from the US, from a state (not all have!) which has such an arrangement with France, I got my license "swapped" from the US one, to the French one, w/out automatic vs manual restrictions, so no issues about having driven the last 35 years out only automatic, before coming to France.

IDK why some parts of europe do that. Frankly it's stupid. Once you've driven your manual car for, IDK, a week, it's second nature like riding a bicycle.

The US does have separate license endorsements for manual in commercial trucks.

Well sure, but what do you do in the first hours of driving a manual? IF you've never driven one before, how can you legally be allowed to drive one on the road without training? Like, we could say that after you drove a truck for a week it's probably second nature, but there are very good reasons why we don't let people with a B class licence drive them. Ditto for trailers and buses and anything that's not a normal car up to 3.5 tonnes.

Wonder if it started because of hilly terrain, back when a MT was a nightmare on steep city roads (all over Mediterranean/Alpine cities) and just kept on out of inertia.