Imagine you are planning to go on an international vacation. And you want to be able to drive - just in case a reason for doing so comes up.

Since you will be going outside of central Europe you (correctly) assume that your swiss drivers license will not suffice. You know theres something called “International Driving Permit”, which seems to be an internationally standardised version of your drivers license. You can get it made at your local Strassenverkehrsamt - the price for it varies wildly between Cantons however.

So you decide to go and get that IDP, pack it in your luggage and get on your plane confidently you won’t encounter any problems :)

You are wrong!⌗

Here is where it gets really fun. You will be allowed to drive in some countries. But not all.

So Switzerland bases its International Driving Permits on the “Vienna Convention on Road Traffic” which was concluded in Vienna in 1968. For all practical purposes this means that with an IDP issued by Switzerland you will be allowed to drive whatever vehicle is part of your license in all the other countries that are part of the above convention without any problems. Trivially this includes Austria, seeing as it hosted the Conference that came up with the treaty. It also includes a bunch of other countries (86 total according to Wikipedia).

Now sadly, your destination is Japan. Japan is not a party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. This means you are out of luck. On the upside the trains are super fast and comfy and there is not really a reason to drive anyway (other than the insanely funny looking, street-driving go-kart tours that are somehow a tourist attraction in all major cities in Japan of course).

What you actually should have gotten is an Translation of your swiss license in Japanese.

Funnily Japan actually issues IDPs to its citizens too. But these are based on the “1949 Convention on Road Traffic” to which Switzerland is in turn not a party but still reckognizes the IDPs that are issued based on it!

There are of course some real Alpha countries like Vietnam who are a party to both Conventions and whose IDPs are valid in all countries that reckognize either of these two Conventions!

Now why is Japan a part of the 1949 Convention but not the one in 1968? Nobody knows.

But what is far more mind-boggling is that Switzerland isn’t a party to the 1949 Convention. Because what I have omitted before now is the location of that earlier Conference which resulted in the older Convention.

It took place in Geneva!⌗

Switzerland is no party to an international Convention on Road Traffic Laws which was signed in its own territory.

So that is why - before going on an international Vacation - you need to read through the list of parties to an international Convention that was concluded more than half a Century ago.

:)