Unlike Malaysian driving schools and their Perodua Axias, the default learner driver’s car in Japan is not a little kei car, but sedans, ranging from early model Toyota Crown to a Mazda 2 Sedan or a Honda City (driving school specs, not sold to public) – odd considering the fact that kei cars dominate Japanese roads.

In a country where public transportation is super-efficient, parking and toll charges are super expensive, and the shaken bi-annual vehicle inspection charges for cars over 3 years old are rigged to penalize drivers for keeping old cars, few young people are keen to own a car.

Also read: Even Japanese driving schools don’t use Kei cars, is our Perodua Axia even good enough?

In Japan, driving schools are seen as a sunset business – there is still demand for it, but with little growth potential.

The cost to get a driving license in Japan is around 250,000 Yen (about RM 9,500). As such, getting a driver’s license ranks very far down a young person’s priority list.

Despite being home to some of world’s biggest automotive brand names, driving and owning a car in Japan is a privilege, not a right. The country is planned around super-efficient and reliable public transport networks.

To stay in business, Japanese driving schools need to be creative in drawing more students. The Cosmo driving school in Fukuyama, Hiroshima for example, figured out that since getting a driving license is a luxury for many young people, why not just go all the way and promote its services as an indulgence in luxury?

In February, the school added a Toyota Harrier to its fleet and it worked! Enquiries started flooding in, with many student applicants saying they will pay, but only if they can learn driving in the Harrier.

Cosmo driving school is not the only one. Several other driving schools in Japan have already started replacing their fleet with higher-end Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz models as their training cars.