How to become a Driving Instructor
Teaches the skills and knowledge needed to drive safely at a driving school, following the curriculum set by law.
Main tasks
- Interviewing learners, working out the best way to teach them and explaining how lessons work
- Preparing learner lists and training records and planning lesson schedules
- Sitting in the passenger seat of the training car, teaching learners how to drive and observing their driving
- Giving learners advice and explaining their results for each lesson topic
- Teaching road traffic law, safe driving and how cars work in the classroom using textbooks and videos
- Running learner permit tests
- Deciding with colleagues who passes the learner permit test
- Taking training cars out on public roads for on-road lessons
- Running driving skills tests
- Deciding with colleagues who passes the skills test
- Carrying out driving aptitude assessments and explaining the results
- Deciding with colleagues whether a learner has completed the course
- Preparing learners for the written test at the licence test centre
- Preparing learners for the practical test at the licence test centre
- Issuing completion and graduation certificates
- Running and marking cognitive function tests
- Teaching courses for older drivers
- Handling admin for older drivers' courses, such as managing bookings
- Running courses for new drivers who have broken traffic rules and for people whose licences were cancelled
- Running road safety classes for communities and schools
- Running courses for companies
- Handling learners' insurance
- Driving learners to and from the school
- Doing sales work to win new customers
- Looking after the school's driving course and repairing it where needed
- Cleaning and disinfecting the school
Workers in this job say high school or university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.
How to become one
No particular education is needed to start, but to gain the instructor qualification you need a driving licence for the type of vehicle you will teach. Once hired by a driving school, you either take pre-service training and staff courses, or complete a training course run by the Japan Safe Driving Center, and then sit the Public Safety Commission's driving instructor qualification review. You must be at least 21 to sit it. If you pass, you receive a driving instructor certificate and start work as an instructor after post-qualification training. On the recommendation of the school's manager, you can sit the Public Safety Commission's skills examiner qualification review and, if you pass, become a skills examiner. Excellent driving skills and knowledge of how cars work and the rules of driving are essential. You also need to explain things clearly, be considerate towards learners and teach carefully, paying close attention so that no accidents happen.
Ways in
- University: Education & Teaching degrees, Offered by 82 universities in Japan
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 指定自動車教習所指導員. English name and classification by Peernovo.
- National licence or qualification: Listed by job tag as a qualification related to this job (関連資格): 二級自動車整備士. English name and classification by Peernovo.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥5,025,500 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥300,400, and the middle half earn ¥255,000 to ¥372,000 a month.
- Pay measured for the wage survey group: Other teachers
- 0.80 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Related jobs
- Juvenile Training School Instructor
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- Japanese-Language Teacher
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Driving Instructor?
No particular education is needed to start, but to gain the instructor qualification you need a driving licence for the type of vehicle you will teach. Once hired by a driving school, you either take pre-service training and staff courses, or complete a training course run by the Japan Safe Driving Center, and then sit the Public Safety Commission's driving instructor qualification review. You must be at least 21 to sit it. If you pass, you receive a driving instructor certificate and start work as an instructor after post-qualification training. On the recommendation of the school's manager, you can sit the Public Safety Commission's skills examiner qualification review and, if you pass, become a skills examiner. Excellent driving skills and knowledge of how cars work and the rules of driving are essential. You also need to explain things clearly, be considerate towards learners and teach carefully, paying close attention so that no accidents happen.
How much does a Driving Instructor earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥5,025,500 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Other teachers, which covers several jobs.
Do you need a degree to become a Driving Instructor?
Not always. In this job's census occupation group, 58% of workers are university graduates. Ways in include: Education & Teaching degrees.
Will AI change the work of a Driving Instructor?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx）ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構（JILPT）作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ（IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx）ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト（job tag）より2026年10月4日にダウンロード（https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download）を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026