My Supra's Jap Plates.

Was randomly looking through my Export Certificate, when i came across my Supra's old registration number from Japan, and i thought id have a bit of a look on the net and research what it all meant.

Below are what i found, if anybodys interested lol. I just wanted to know a bit of history about my Supra.

Not sure if its all correct and accurate, but i had a go lol.

Below is how the plate would of looked on my Supra from 1994 to 2006 in Japan, i think.

I would love to find out about my car's life before it came to the uk, all i've got prior to 2003 when it was imported is the owners manual and what looks like a service book, the rest is in english! Is there a way of finding out who imported it?

The company who exported my car, wrote the export cert in english, and their website is also english.

I suppose it depends who exported your car.

Showa Trade Co. LTD exported mine.

all exports come in both languages they just kept the Japanese ones as you don't them for dvla

I'm having some made for shows. Good of you to post up the meanings

"Shina" means goods and you're correct "kawa" means river. The translation from Kanji into Hiragana is slightly different though with "Shinagawa" and not "Shinakawa". I'm not sure why as my Kanji is terrible, but "gawa" means "side" so that may be why. I believe Shinagawa used to be a major port, hence the name and the Kanji (notice how the first kanji looks like boxes and the second a river...). Goods by the side of the river... Now it's full of office blocks and expensive restaurants.

"ne" can mean any number of things (including the example you gave), but in this case it's just a kana symbol with no specific meaning. Many others are also used to give the necessary number of registrations.

When you buy a car you can request specific numbers and if they're available within your area they'll let you have them for a small fee. E.g. when I bought my R34 they gave me "34". The top number on my plate is "340". I've never bothered to find out what it means, assumed it was another random number and they gave me second 34 on there just to make me look a complete tart.

Interesting to know Nick, i suppose that 'goods by the river' makes sense now, i was only translating via google images and wikipedia lol, so i wasn't sure how accurate i was.

I see your location is Japan, do you live there permanently?

When I took my carper out the other day and switched it for a black one I found loads of Japanese money and a Japanese parking ticket

How do you translate Japanese on the internet? would be good to find out where it has been and on what date.

Well i had my reg number in english, so it was a case of searching for the word, like typing "Shinagawa Hiragana" into google, and then looking for the relevant symbols.

But it could be harder when you have Japanese to start with.

I've lived here for almost 4 years now.

There aren't any good online translators that I know of, but to get a general idea babel fish is OK.

http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/

Mine are still on my car I was told it came from Tokyo, I guess we'll find that out soon enough.

interesting stuff

'Ne'! You have a car that was once owned by one of the knights that say 'Ne'!

Dont suppose you have a ferocious white rabbit in the car too do you?

I'd love to know my cars history.

Mine are still on my car I was told it came from Tokyo, I guess we'll find that out soon enough.

is that legal in england? or are you not in england?

By the way, looks like you need a light refurb. Your chrome is peeling

Edit:

Just seen you are in Canada. You are allowed to keep the Japanese plate on over there?

Mine are still on my car I was told it came from Tokyo, I guess we'll find that out soon enough.

"Nerima", north Tokyo.

interesting stuff

 

'Ne'! You have a car that was once owned by one of the knights that say 'Ne'!

Dont suppose you have a ferocious white rabbit in the car too do you?

 

I'd love to know my cars history.

I bet he's got a shrubbery on the back seat....

Ive got it all lol.

Done a bit of Photoshopping lol,

is that legal in england? or are you not in england?

 

By the way, looks like you need a light refurb. Your chrome is peeling

 

Edit:

Just seen you are in Canada. You are allowed to keep the Japanese plate on over there?

Hehe, I have glass headlights waiting to be put in as soon as spring hits. We're not allowed to keep the plates either, just somehow along the way as it was being shipped over, Canadian customs forgot to take off the original plates. I'm not one to point it out to them, since JDM kids are offering me the equivalent of 200 pounds for them already

Also, thanks Nick for clearing up where the car came from!