The Aptitude Test by the National Agency for Automotive Safety and Victims’ Aid (NASVA) has been conducted for commercial vehicle drivers for about 50 years. The Aptitude Test evaluates the driver's personality, mental and physical functions, and driving tendencies through questionnaires and psychomotor tests, and aims to change their driving behavior to be safer by providing advice based on the test results. This paper provides an overview of the Aptitude Test and the various issues currently under discussion regarding test updates.

Trucking is integral to domestic logistics, serving as a lifeline for people's lives and the economy. In domestic industrial activity and in people's lives, it is indispensable. The social mission of the logistics industry is to continue to provide stable, safe, and reliable transportation services. Faced with a falling birthrate and aging population, the logistics industry is under pressure to address a shortage of young drivers. It must also restructure its transportation system in accordance with laws on work style reform, such as those that curb long working hours. This report summarizes the current situation and issues in the logistics industry.

Visual field impairment can affect drivers, but just how it affects them is often surprisingly unknown. The reality is that some people can drive safely even if they have a visual field impairment. This paper outlines how visual field impairment and drivers’ licenses are related, and presents the current state of analytics for how visual field impairment affects driving. It will introduce activities that the author is currently involved in, such as driving outpatient clinics and the use of driver assistance technologies in ophthalmology, and spreading awareness to deepen understanding of visual impairment.

Japan's Road Traffic Act was amended on April 27 2022 (Act No.32 of 2022) and the regulation on level 4 driverless automated transportation services was also enacted. The Act classified "operation" without a driver as "specified automated operation" and introduced a permission system in which the implementation of autonomous operation by the automated operation device is monitored by the supervisor of automated guided vehicle (and the specified automated operation chief and the site action implementer). Although specific automated driving is conceptually "driving" and who the driver is should be checked, Japan has little interest in this, and discussions have been more focused on the specific issue of the appropriate scope of specified automated driving. Whether specified automated operation will be permitted for truck platooning on highways and for the operation of cars that belong to individuals is the issue to be examined going forward.

In recent years, various new modes of vehicle have appeared in accordance with the advancement of technology. Regarding electric scooters, before the enforcement of the revised Road Traffic Act in 2022, it was obligatory to obtain the driver's license and to follow the correspondent rules to the vehicle classification. On the other hand, it was discussed in the legislative process that some of the regulations could be relaxed for those modes of vehicle that meet certain size and top-speed requirements. In result, a new vehicle classification called "Specified Small Motorized Bicycles" was established under the revised Road Traffic Act in 2022, for the purpose to ensure safe and comfortable traffic environment for all modes of transportation.