<<Super Casual Notes 117>> Thursday, November 30, 2023 [Online License Renewal and Vision Issues Due to Glaucoma]

[1986 characters]
Good morning. This is Iriya.
Today is a story about driver's licensesand vision.

In early November, my driver's license renewal postcard arrived.
I had been gold status until then, but in January before COVID, I accidentally entered a no-entry bus rotary and got a ticket, so this time it will be a one-hour general lecture. I wanted to keep my gold status, but oh well...

Now, in Chiba Prefecture where I live, I have to go to either the Makuhari License Center or the Nagareyama License Center, but it seems that
a new attempt at license renewal began in 2020.

As written on the front of the renewal postcard, in Chiba Prefecture, excellent driver lectures and general lectures can be taken online
. This is experimental, and is currently only implemented in limited prefectures, but it is said that it will be
rolled out nationwide from the end of 2024.

Wow, this is a huge help.
I don't have to go out of my way to stand in the crowded lines at the license center. Even if you renew at a police station, the process involves attending a lecture at a designated driving school on a designated date, so sometimes schedules don't match up, and I think
taking the lecture online has become truly comfortable.

Lazyand not good with new thingsas I am, I decided to try this online course on the first day of the license renewal period—the one-month window surrounding my birthday (my birthday is November 13th, so October 13th)—first thing in the morning.
It feels great to get things done early.
The procedure was also very simple.

My smartphone is not an iPhone, but an Android, so I accessed the Google Chrome browser to go to the police station website for license renewal.

1. Register by scanning your My Number card to verify your identity, then
2. enter your license number, etc.,
3. follow the flow for the already categorized general or excellent driver courses and watch the respective training videos.
4. During the process, there are 3 to 4 facial photo captures to ensure you are properly watching the video (the camera screen opens automatically and guides you to take the photos) and answering questions three times to check if you understand the content, and finally, you complete an optional survey to finish.

This took a little over an hour in total.

I went to the police station counter with the license photo I had prepared in advance, the 3,300 yen renewal fee, my driver's license, and the renewal postcard.

... Actually, I had one concern regarding this license renewal.

That was the issue regarding the decline in my right eye's vision.
In the spring of 2021, I had my fifth major glaucoma attack and underwent laser surgery at a university hospital. My eye pressure has since gone down and remains stable, but my vision has indeed declined, and when I take visual field tests, my right eye is in a state where it is about 80% to 90% difficult to see.

Because of this, I thought about whether I should return my license, but after consulting with doctors, the license center, and the police station, I was told that if the sum of corrected vision in both eyes is 0.7 or higher, it is fine, so I felt relieved and proceeded with the renewal.

In my case, when I wear glasses, my left eye is about 1.3 to 1.4, and my right eye is about 0.4.

However, saying 0.4 is just in terms of a vision test. Since glaucoma manifests symptoms in various ways, there are cases where vision drops overall, and cases where vision is missing in spots like moth-eaten fabric.
In the case of my right eye, both of those elements are combined, so with the naked eye it becomes 0.01 to 0.02. With the naked eye, if I hold up one hand and look at my fingertips, I cannot see anything except my ring finger and little finger. From this,
my vision is almost entirely dependent on my left eye. I have glaucoma in both eyes, so there have been times during one of my attacks when only my left eye was bad. However,
the progression of visual field loss was faster in my right eye.

Each agency told me that it is okay to renew my license, but I am the one who actually grips the steering wheel and drives.
I must not cause an accident, so every time I get in the car, I resolve to brace myself and thoroughly check for safety.

I hate to say it myself, but (while complacency is also bad), even before my eyes got bad, I was quite the safe-driving type, and that became the case due to lessons learned from a shocking experience in the past. (Though it's not very convincing since I got a ticket for entering a no-entry zone...).

When you go out on the road, you must keep an eye on pedestrians, bicycles, and various other targets. Even if you are told it is okay,
if something actually happens, you are the one who will be held responsible. That is why, all the more, no matter how much I am tailgated by cars behind me at a crosswalk,
when turning right, I always slow down and check to the point of being tedious. There are lessons and beliefs about safe driving
that I feel I must absolutely uphold, but I would like to write about that in detail next time.

Returning to the topic, I had my visual field test at the station counter, received the okay, had the expiration date stamped on the back of my license, and the renewal was complete.
According to the police officer,
if you have 0.7 or better in your better eye and a visual field of 150 degrees or more, it is fine.

I finished the online lecture by watching the video at 8:00 AM, and the renewal procedure was finished before 10:00 AM.

Since the pandemic, I have become uncomfortable in crowds, so I have been dreading license renewal for several years, but the best thing was that my vision was okay.

Well then, thank you for reading this far. And may tomorrow be a wonderful day for all of you...