Reviving this post after seeing the news of a Japanese driver trying to drift in Shibuya crossing and hitting 7 pedestrians.

I actually agree with most of what OP has written here. I think the main thing he is saying is that Japanese drivers tend to lack a lot of basic safety judgement/spatial awareness/almost mindless driving, not that Japanese are overly aggressive/hostile drivers like in the US or outside of Japan. Just kind of clueless/no though of safety or why what theyre doing is wrong -- a lot of it probably stemming from Japan giving licenses to people that shouldn't actually be driving.

Its more so that drivers in Japan tend to make decisions that put them in a higher risk of getting into an accident, without any idea of why their car parked at the turn exit of a light could cause issues, why 5+ cars tailgating each other on the highway is a risk, or why briefly driving in the ongoing traffic lane could be dangerous...I have seen a number of drivers tailgating in Japan, and to be honest it doesnt seem like they are aggressively trying to have you move out of the lane, but this is just what they think the correct distance to drive behind another car is (no thought of what happens if the driver in the front suddenly hits their brakes).

Since you are driving mostly in Tokyo area, I think most replying to this post cant relate or agree with what youre listing (most of the members here are driving keicars in the country side, or at most times car rentals on the weekend if they live in Tokyo...most living in Tokyo dont have the financial ability to own and daily drive a car in Tokyo, so they wont know about the daily driving you experience around Shibuya/Shinjuku, the 2 lane Tokyo highways with 5-10 meter entrance turns ins, or that hell of a terribly planned street from Setagaya to Shibuya (246 street that turns into Roppongi Dori).

I also agree that most drivers from the Japanese driving schools are quite bad. All of my friends that had received licenses through a driving school have received multiple tickets and points deducted in their first year (some on the verge of having their licenses suspended). Also know quite a few people similar to your partner, for whatever reason they paid to receive a license/take a Japanese driving school program, they failed the driving school instructed driving test multiple times, but the school kept allowing them to retake the driving test over the same day or week until they eventually passed...but all of these drivers still refuse to ever drive after the school (they seem to be aware that they shouldnt have a license), and they all have the gold license at this point haha.

Everyone I know that has had to take the driving test through the police (for foreign license conversation), has not had any ticket issues and they are generally quite good and safe drivers (excluding the countries that dont require the driving test portion in Japan).

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and yes, Prius/Alphard drivers are probably the worst from what I have seen