Japanese car insurance

The crash was a shock, painful emotionally and psychologically rather than physically. My wife and son were the only two in our little black 600cc Suzuki. Two other cars were involved. The culprit (the words "stupid cow" were mentioned) rushing to get her daughter to juku (cram school) on time in her little silver Suzuki, and the other victims, a family in their little white Suzuki. A coming together of Suzukis. A grand total of 1800ccs of flimsy, metallic Suzuki engineering gathering together for the first time since the factory, like long lost siblings in a less than joyful reunion.

The insurance, too, was a shock and painful to boot. Bashing your forehead against an unyielding wall for several days tends to cause pain. Resistance to impassivity is difficult to maintain. Your forehead hurts, but the wall appears not to have suffered any damage. In fact, a week later it manages to speak in the same dispassionate tones that it was using on day one. The wall doesn't give a monkey's.

The insurance logic is warped, and you just get a sneaky suspicion that the insurance companies are all in cahoots. In Japan, it seems, blame is shared pretty much no matter what. The insurance companies put their heads together and come up with a percentage share of blame for each of the parties involved. The police wash their hands of the affair. So, even if you are not to blame, you usually get hit with a percentage of the costs, and therefore all the problems with working out whether to pay out of your own pocket, or let your insurance company cover it and see your premiums rise spectacularly for the following year. If you want complete absolution then you can take on the insurance company yourself, but this is not good for your health. They have constructed an elaborate set of hurdles that you need to clear before you get anywhere near a glimpse of the finish line. It just ain't worth it ... and don't they know it.

We're pretty sure that we were 0% to blame for the accident. The silver Suzuki pulled out, gung-ho fashion, onto a main road and hit the unsuspecting white Suzuki. Hi-ho-gung-ho silver then careered across the centre of the road into our blameless, black Suzuki and my wife and son. The humans were thankfully unharmed which is more than can be said for the vehicles. Externally our car had the equivalent to a few bruises, a broken nose, displaced cheekbone and a bit of blood, but under the surface the damage was fairly extensive (internal bleeding of a serious nature). Total damages come to more than half the cost of the car.

Coughing up ourselves when we feel blameless goes against the grain, but the forehead is hurting too much to keep nutting that wall. AIU is our insurance company. Here is the full version of an interesting interview with an associate company of AIU that have started an insurance service in English for foreigners in Japan. The guy who set it up answers a frequently asked question,

Are there some differences in insurance practices between Japan and the West?

One area of difference is probably third party compensation. If you are in a crash, even if you are the one crashed into, you are still liable for a certain amount. You have to take responsibility. Foreigners might find it hard to understand why they are responsible when they get hit. However, the law says that because your vehicle was also moving, you have to be liable for 5% or 10% or whatever.

So like it or lump it, we'll be taking part of the blame. Perhaps its our fault anyway. An academic study has shown that if you have a dark colored car, you are more likely to be passively involved in a collision. Do what they do in Japan - buy white or silver!