Once the vehicle has arrived in France, either on your own or via a forwarding agent, you will have to pay customs duties and VAT. To register a car in Japan, you will have to pay 10% in customs duties based on the purchase price of the vehicle. Then you will have to pay French VAT at the rate of 20% based on the purchase price of the vehicle and the customs fees.

This is a very important and sometimes very costly stage. You have to prove that your vehicle complies with very strict European standards. Your vehicle has to be type-approved.
This type-approval process involves submitting an individual type-approval to the Dreal in your region. You will need to compile a technical file and provide a certificate of conformity (non-compliance or partial compliance). The Real will then carry out the mandatory tests for noise, simplified braking, field of vision, pollutant emissions, weighing, interference suppression, as well as bringing the vehicle into compliance and, finally, validation by the Dreal inspector. At the end of the process, you will receive a PV de réception à titre isolée (certificate of approval) for registering a car in Japan.

The manufacturer's certificate of conformity certifies that the vehicle, when it leaves the factory, complies with all the requirements laid down by the EU in terms of EC type-approval and European certificate of conformity. A vehicle with a European certificate of conformity is therefore compliant in Europe, and will therefore be able to move freely in all European countries, since its certificate of conformity proves that it has been type-approved in Europe for the purpose of registering a car in Japan. The European certificate of conformity is also valid throughout the European Community in order to obtain a vehicle registration document. The certificate of conformity is only available for vehicles manufactured for the European market.