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One of my favourite things to do with the livery editor in GTS is to make authentic looking license plates. Since most of my street cars that I use in public lobbies are set up for various types of cruising on the 4 Tokyo highway circuits, I like to use authentic looking Japanese license plates.
I’ve managed to find a number of different blank Japanese plates, and I’ve found myself a set of green numbers (from a player named POPGOOSE, they have a ton of great stuff), and I understand the basic format of where to put the numbers. The Kanji characters, I don’t really understand, but I just use the same ones that came on my base plate (I have a few different plates from different prefectures).
The first thing I would like to know, from someone who understands the format better - if I want to make a random, generic JDM plate (to put on a “civilian” car in a photo shoot), is there anything about either the 3 top digits, or the 4 larger bottom digits that is supposed to follow any kind of pattern? Or are those numbers generated completely at random?
The second thing, and this will be more confusing
Custom Plates:
I understand how to do really basic custom plates, for example an R34 GTR with the plate number • • 3 4, or an RX7 with the plate number • • • 7. What I’m looking for help with, is doing more complex custom plates.
I’ve read that people will make custom plates, using 4 numbers, that are actually puns, or plays on words. We do the same in English, when I was a kid I remember seeing a 911 with the plate I8A 4RE (I ate a Ferrari).
I found this forum thread that’s all about the plate numbers on the cars in Initial D:
http://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=28448
Looking at the numbers, and at pictures from the show, the cars are all using a 5 digit number, instead of the 4 digits normally seen on Japanese plates. The general conclusion is that the creator did this to avoid any conflicts with having a real person’s real plate end up in a anime about illegal street racing. It also gave him more characters to play with. In these forums, I’ve seen people say that the plate on Takumi’s AE86 basically reads “Thank you 86”.
So, this is kind of what I’m after. Combos of numbers that can make puns, or plays on words, in Japanese; but keeping to the correct 4 digit format.
I’d also be interested in cool things to do with the top 3 numbers. So far I just put either the top speed, the max HP, or a lap time around a circuit like Tsukuba, as the 3 digit number on the top. What other creative things can I do with these three numbers?
Some basic phrases I’d be interested in using are 2 or 3 digit number combos that say
“Thank you”
“Love”
“Master”
“Top (highest level)”
“Demon/Monster”
Or anything else really.
Also, if anyone has knowledge of some of the specific number plates that were used on various character cars from any of the Tokyo Extreme Racer series of games, I’d be interested in it. Same thing for any of the plates from the Wangan Midnight anime series, or any other car related show/game from Japan.
Edit: so thanks to some helpful members, and some better googling by myself, I’ve managed to find everything I need.
Here’s a wiki all about the top 2 or 3 digits, as well as the Kanji characters on the top row.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Japan
The characters have to do with where the license was issued.
Format for the top 2/3 digits:
2 digits is for plates issued before 1999
3 digits is for plates issued after 1999
The first digit of the number is the chassis identification code.
- 1 & 2 are for trucks and busses
- 3 is for passenger vehicles over 2000cc
- 4 is for small vans, trucks, and wagons from 660-2000cc *
- 5 is for passenger vehicles from 660cc - 2000cc *
- 6 and 7 are for 3 wheeled cars and trucks.
- 77 through 79 are “overflow” for 5
- 8 is for special vehicles which need to be inspected every year
- 9 is for extremely special vehicles (or tractor/fork lift)
* Addenum: For a car to qualify for a 4xx/5xx plate, a car must have dimensions not exceeding 4700 mm (15.4 ft) long, 1700 m (5.6 ft) wide and 2000 mm (6.6 ft) high in addition to engine not exceeding 2000cc - any violation gives you a 3xx plate.
Hiragana: this is the small character which appears on the lower row, before the four large numbers.
White plates can have the following Hiragana
さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆよらりるろれわ
Green plates can have the following Hiragana
あいうえかきくけこを
Here is a tutorial teaching all about Hiragana, including how to pronounce each different character
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
As far as the colours go:
- Green numbers on white is for private vehicles
- White numbers on green is for commercial vehicles
- Black numbers on yellow is for private Kei cars (less than 660cc)
- Yellow letters on black is for commercial Kei cars
Here’s another page dedicated to deciphering Japanese plates. Says the same thing as the wiki, but also provides a list of all the characters which can be used (there’s a limited number of them)
http://www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/japan.htm
Goroawase:
Here is a wiki explaining Japanese number puns, including dozens of examples of 2 and 3 digit numbers that can be used to make various words.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay
Edit 2:
Another page explaining Japanese word play with numbers, which is actually called Goroawase.
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/goroawase-japanese-numbers-wordplay/
Apparently, 8820141 means, “tastes good to your mother”
There’s a link on that page to a Goroawase generator and database, but it’s all in Japanese, so I haven’t got a hope in hell of figuring it out (yet, this is kind of motivating me to try to learn some Japanese lol). But if there’s some GTP members who speak and read Japanese, maybe they’d be kind enough to do some translating for us, so we can come up with some really badass jdm license plates
Edit 3: finding the goods now. Here’s a page that has the top 200 requested license plates for japan.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~iu8y-tti/rank01.html
Some of them are easy to figure out why, but again, because I can’t read the Japanese, some of the other number combos are a mystery to me.
Here’s a bunch of the Goroawase I’ve found so far:
13 = “meaning”
14 = “stone”
15 = “strawberries”
16 = “hi-ro” = “Hero”
23 = “Ni-san” = “Nissan”
26 = “bath”
29 = “meat”
32 = “water”
39 = “thank you”
45 = “after death”
46 = “white”
53 = “trash”
55 = “go go”
57 = “dust”
63 = “tasteless”
73 = “wave”
74 = “secret/stealthy”
82 = “hearts”
85 = “box”
87 = “flower day” or “banana day”
90 = “bear”
96 = “black”
109 = “Shibuya” (district in Tokyo)
222 = “cat day”
313 = “sandwich day”
315 = “highest”, “supreme,” “ultimate”
415 = “good kid day”
634 = “Masashi”, an old name for where Tokyo now stands
712 = “Knife”
888 = “haha” (I think you can do more 8s for more ha’s)
889 = “hurry”
893 = “Yakuza”
906 = “late”
1100 = “king of beasts” (this one is mine!! 3867!!)
1129 = “good clothes day”
3315 = “say let’s go”
3867 = “don’t touch it”
4155 = “ready go go”
4946 = “reads a lot / oft read”
5572 = “coconut”
9182 = “cutie honey”
0840 = “good morning”
.4 = “angle”
.59 = “heaven”
4649 is kind of a special one. It stands for Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu, which is apparently a complex phrase that doesn’t translate well, but roughly means “nice to meet you”, or “please help me”.
I’ve managed to find a number of different blank Japanese plates, and I’ve found myself a set of green numbers (from a player named POPGOOSE, they have a ton of great stuff), and I understand the basic format of where to put the numbers. The Kanji characters, I don’t really understand, but I just use the same ones that came on my base plate (I have a few different plates from different prefectures).
The first thing I would like to know, from someone who understands the format better - if I want to make a random, generic JDM plate (to put on a “civilian” car in a photo shoot), is there anything about either the 3 top digits, or the 4 larger bottom digits that is supposed to follow any kind of pattern? Or are those numbers generated completely at random?
The second thing, and this will be more confusing
Custom Plates:I understand how to do really basic custom plates, for example an R34 GTR with the plate number • • 3 4, or an RX7 with the plate number • • • 7. What I’m looking for help with, is doing more complex custom plates.
I’ve read that people will make custom plates, using 4 numbers, that are actually puns, or plays on words. We do the same in English, when I was a kid I remember seeing a 911 with the plate I8A 4RE (I ate a Ferrari).
I found this forum thread that’s all about the plate numbers on the cars in Initial D:
http://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=28448
Looking at the numbers, and at pictures from the show, the cars are all using a 5 digit number, instead of the 4 digits normally seen on Japanese plates. The general conclusion is that the creator did this to avoid any conflicts with having a real person’s real plate end up in a anime about illegal street racing. It also gave him more characters to play with. In these forums, I’ve seen people say that the plate on Takumi’s AE86 basically reads “Thank you 86”.
So, this is kind of what I’m after. Combos of numbers that can make puns, or plays on words, in Japanese; but keeping to the correct 4 digit format.
I’d also be interested in cool things to do with the top 3 numbers. So far I just put either the top speed, the max HP, or a lap time around a circuit like Tsukuba, as the 3 digit number on the top. What other creative things can I do with these three numbers?
Some basic phrases I’d be interested in using are 2 or 3 digit number combos that say
“Thank you”
“Love”
“Master”
“Top (highest level)”
“Demon/Monster”
Or anything else really.
Also, if anyone has knowledge of some of the specific number plates that were used on various character cars from any of the Tokyo Extreme Racer series of games, I’d be interested in it. Same thing for any of the plates from the Wangan Midnight anime series, or any other car related show/game from Japan.
Edit: so thanks to some helpful members, and some better googling by myself, I’ve managed to find everything I need.
Here’s a wiki all about the top 2 or 3 digits, as well as the Kanji characters on the top row.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Japan
The characters have to do with where the license was issued.
Format for the top 2/3 digits:
2 digits is for plates issued before 1999
3 digits is for plates issued after 1999
The first digit of the number is the chassis identification code.
- 1 & 2 are for trucks and busses
- 3 is for passenger vehicles over 2000cc
- 4 is for small vans, trucks, and wagons from 660-2000cc *
- 5 is for passenger vehicles from 660cc - 2000cc *
- 6 and 7 are for 3 wheeled cars and trucks.
- 77 through 79 are “overflow” for 5
- 8 is for special vehicles which need to be inspected every year
- 9 is for extremely special vehicles (or tractor/fork lift)
* Addenum: For a car to qualify for a 4xx/5xx plate, a car must have dimensions not exceeding 4700 mm (15.4 ft) long, 1700 m (5.6 ft) wide and 2000 mm (6.6 ft) high in addition to engine not exceeding 2000cc - any violation gives you a 3xx plate.
Hiragana: this is the small character which appears on the lower row, before the four large numbers.
White plates can have the following Hiragana
さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆよらりるろれわ
Green plates can have the following Hiragana
あいうえかきくけこを
Here is a tutorial teaching all about Hiragana, including how to pronounce each different character
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
As far as the colours go:
- Green numbers on white is for private vehicles
- White numbers on green is for commercial vehicles
- Black numbers on yellow is for private Kei cars (less than 660cc)
- Yellow letters on black is for commercial Kei cars
Here’s another page dedicated to deciphering Japanese plates. Says the same thing as the wiki, but also provides a list of all the characters which can be used (there’s a limited number of them)
http://www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/japan.htm
Goroawase:
Here is a wiki explaining Japanese number puns, including dozens of examples of 2 and 3 digit numbers that can be used to make various words.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay
Edit 2:
Another page explaining Japanese word play with numbers, which is actually called Goroawase.
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/goroawase-japanese-numbers-wordplay/
Apparently, 8820141 means, “tastes good to your mother”
There’s a link on that page to a Goroawase generator and database, but it’s all in Japanese, so I haven’t got a hope in hell of figuring it out (yet, this is kind of motivating me to try to learn some Japanese lol). But if there’s some GTP members who speak and read Japanese, maybe they’d be kind enough to do some translating for us, so we can come up with some really badass jdm license plates
Edit 3: finding the goods now. Here’s a page that has the top 200 requested license plates for japan.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~iu8y-tti/rank01.html
Some of them are easy to figure out why, but again, because I can’t read the Japanese, some of the other number combos are a mystery to me.
Here’s a bunch of the Goroawase I’ve found so far:
13 = “meaning”
14 = “stone”
15 = “strawberries”
16 = “hi-ro” = “Hero”
23 = “Ni-san” = “Nissan”
26 = “bath”
29 = “meat”
32 = “water”
39 = “thank you”
45 = “after death”
46 = “white”
53 = “trash”
55 = “go go”
57 = “dust”
63 = “tasteless”
73 = “wave”
74 = “secret/stealthy”
82 = “hearts”
85 = “box”
87 = “flower day” or “banana day”
90 = “bear”
96 = “black”
109 = “Shibuya” (district in Tokyo)
222 = “cat day”
313 = “sandwich day”
315 = “highest”, “supreme,” “ultimate”
415 = “good kid day”
634 = “Masashi”, an old name for where Tokyo now stands
712 = “Knife”
888 = “haha” (I think you can do more 8s for more ha’s)
889 = “hurry”
893 = “Yakuza”
906 = “late”
1100 = “king of beasts” (this one is mine!! 3867!!)
1129 = “good clothes day”
3315 = “say let’s go”
3867 = “don’t touch it”
4155 = “ready go go”
4946 = “reads a lot / oft read”
5572 = “coconut”
9182 = “cutie honey”
0840 = “good morning”
.4 = “angle”
.59 = “heaven”
4649 is kind of a special one. It stands for Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu, which is apparently a complex phrase that doesn’t translate well, but roughly means “nice to meet you”, or “please help me”.
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