Japanese License Plate

(Please note that, to avoid any claims of invasion of privacy, I have deliberately modified the leading hiragana character the four-digit number. This would represent a forged plate in Japan! )

The illustration shows what a Japanese License plate might look like. The top line contains the name of the issuing office (長岡 Nagaoka, as shown in the above photo) and a vehicle class code. The bottom line contains a hiragana character and a four-digit serial number divided into two groups of two digits separated by a hyphen. Any leading zeros are replaced by centered dots.

A license plate in Japan thus follows this format: KK?*H##-## (e.g., 足立500き21-41), where KK is the name of the issuing office in kanji, H is a hiragana, ? is a 5 for vehicles less than 2000 cc and a 3 for vehicles greater than 2000 cc (other numbers are less common—1 for large trucks, 2 for buses, etc. [1]), * is a number from 0 to 99 (pre-1971 license plates will omit this), and # is a number from 0* to 9 (*leading zeros are replaced by centered dots).

(source: Wikipedia)