For some reason, living in Japan robs a person of the ability to open the hood of their car. When I lived in the U.S., I was quite comfortable giving my car a tune-up, changing oil and spark plugs, and even replacing the odd head gasket, but since coming to Japan I find I haven’t touched a car’s engine in fifteen years. My wife is indicative of most Japanese on the subject of auto maintenance — she once said to me, “I opened my hood once, but I didn’t know which one was the engine.” This is partially due to excellent service here, with uniformed gas station employees who will cheerfully check your oil and air when you buy a tank of gas, but another reason is sha-ken, a government-mandated automobile maintenance check-up you have to get every two years. The sha-ken check-up is expensive, costing $800 or more, although this amount includes various taxes and a required form of auto insurance, but the upside is that cars are safer and almost never break down. The sha-ken check-ups have a somewhat cynical purpose too: when the next one rolls around, it’s common for people to buy a new car instead rather than pay the check-up fee for the old car, which no doubt contributes millions to car manufacturers’ bottom lines as people replace their cars at a faster pace than they otherwise would.
