Article 75Responsibilities of Motor Vehicle Users; Related Considerations

①It is prohibited for a motor vehicle user (including the user of heavy towable vehicles; the same applies hereinafter in this Article, paragraph (1) of the following Article, and Article 75-2-2, paragraph (2)) (or the primary or deputy driving safety supervisor or any other person in a position to directly manage the operations of its motor vehicles; referred to as a " user, supervisor, or manager" in the following paragraph) to order or allow a driver of its motor vehicles to engage in the conduct set forth in one of the following items in connection with the business of the user:

③Before issuing an order pursuant to the preceding paragraph, a public safety commission must hear the opinion of the supervising administrative agency for the relevant services if the user of a motor vehicle that would be subject to the order is a passenger motor carrier under the Road Transportation Act or a person engaged in Type II cargo transportation services under the Cargo Forwarder Service Act.

④Irrespective of the category of proceedings for hearing statements of opinion under Article 13, paragraph (1) of the Administrative Procedure Act (Act No. 88 of 1993), a public safety commission seeking to issue an order pursuant to paragraph (2) must hold a hearing.

⑤To hold a hearing as referred to in the preceding paragraph, a public safety commission must notify the relevant persons as under Article 15, paragraph (1) of the Administrative Procedure Act and issue public notice of the date and place of the hearing, by one week prior to the hearing date.

⑥If a person is notified as referred to in the preceding paragraph in the way that Article 15, paragraph (3) of the Administrative Procedure Act prescribes, the reasonable period of time to be set aside before the hearing date pursuant to paragraph (1) of that Article must not be less than two weeks.

⑦The proceedings on the hearing date referred to in paragraph (4) must be open to the public.

⑧On finding it to be necessary to do so, the person presiding over the hearing referred to in paragraph (4) may request the appearance of witnesses who have expert knowledge about road traffic or persons connected with the matter at issue so as to hear their opinions or circumstances.

⑨A public safety commission that has issued an order pursuant to paragraph (2) must issue a document to the user of the motor vehicle subject to the order giving the information that Cabinet Office Order prescribes, including the number of the identification plate of any motor vehicle that the user may neither drive nor allow others to drive, and must affix a mark in the format that Cabinet Office Order prescribes in a conspicuous place on the front of any such motor vehicle.

⑩A person purchasing a motor vehicle to which a mark has been affixed pursuant to the preceding paragraph from auser or from a third party who holds title to its use may apply to a public safety commission, pursuant to Cabinet Office Order, for removal of that mark. In such a case, the public safety commission must remove the mark.

⑪It is prohibited for any person to damage or deface a mark affixed pursuant to paragraph (9); and it is prohibited for any person to remove such a mark until after the end of the period during which the motor vehicle is prohibited from being driven.