vehicles 0.6.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/jp.yml

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+# plates/jp.yml — Japan (PRD-PLATES gate L3).
+#
+# EVERY format, class, colour and dimension claim in this file is read off one
+# of three instruments, in the original Japanese, from the e-Gov Laws Search
+# consolidated texts and the Form drawings they carry:
+#
+#   * 道路運送車両法 — Road Transport Vehicle Act, Act No. 185 of 1 June 1951.
+#     The enabling statute. 第十九条 obliges display of the registration number
+#     plate; 第七十三条第一項 does the same for kei and motorcycle VEHICLE
+#     numbers; 第九十七条の三 for 126-250 cc motorcycles.
+#   * 自動車登録規則 — Automobile Registration Regulations, Ministry of
+#     Transport Ordinance No. 7 of 20 February 1970, in force 1 March 1970
+#     (附則 1), repealing the 1951 Regulations of the same name. 第十三条 is the
+#     composition rule; 別表第一 the place-name list; 別表第二 the class codes;
+#     別表第三 the use marks.
+#   * 道路運送車両法施行規則 — Enforcement Regulations, Ministry of Transport
+#     Ordinance No. 74 of 16 August 1951. 第十一条 + Form No. 1 = the registered
+#     plate; 第四十五条 + Forms No. 12/13 = kei and >250 cc motorcycle plates;
+#     第六十三条の二 + Forms No. 14/15 = 126-250 cc motorcycles and their
+#     temporary plates; 第二十五条/第二十六条の六 + Forms No. 3/5 = temporary
+#     operation and dealer-transport plates; 別表第二の四/第二の五 = the kei
+#     class codes and use marks; 別表第三 = the motorcycle use marks.
+#
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 1. THE COMPOSITION IS FOUR FIELDS, AND IT IS ENACTED IN FULL.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項, verbatim:
+#
+#   「自動車登録番号は、次に掲げる文字をその順序により組み合わせて定めるものとする。
+#     一　自動車の使用の本拠の位置を管轄する運輸監理部又は運輸支局（…）を表示する文字
+#     　　（別表第一）
+#     二　自動車の種別及び用途による分類番号を表示する二字以下のアラビア数字又は最初の
+#     　　字がアラビア数字であつて、その他の字がアラビア数字若しくはローマ字若しくは
+#     　　これらの組合せである三字（別表第二）
+#     三　自動車運送事業の用に供するかどうかの別等を表示する平仮名又はローマ字（別表第三）
+#     四　四けた以下のアラビア数字」
+#
+# Translation (ours): a registration number is the combination, in that order,
+# of (1) characters indicating the transport office having jurisdiction over
+# the vehicle's base of use (Appendix Table 1); (2) a class code of TWO OR
+# FEWER Arabic numerals, OR THREE characters of which the first is an Arabic
+# numeral and the rest are Arabic numerals, Roman letters, or a combination
+# (Appendix Table 2); (3) a hiragana or Roman letter indicating whether the
+# vehicle is used for a motor carrier business, etc. (Appendix Table 3); and
+# (4) FOUR OR FEWER Arabic numerals.
+#
+# Item 2 is doing a great deal of work and is the key to Japanese era
+# inference. It sanctions THREE grammars at once — one or two digits, three
+# digits, and three characters containing Roman letters — and this file cuts
+# them into three series apiece because they began on three different dates.
+#
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 2. THE ASCII-PROJECTION RULE — how a kanji-and-hiragana plate is modelled
+#    inside a dataset whose serial alphabet is A-Z and 0-9.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# PRD-PLATES §2.6 fixes the serial alphabet at A-Z 0-9 and the emitted
+# separators at "-" and " ". A Japanese plate prints kanji and hiragana. The
+# line drawn here, and it is drawn once for the whole file:
+#
+#   `format.pattern`, `format.regex` and the twins describe THE ASCII
+#   PROJECTION of the plate — the statutory fields whose characters lie in the
+#   serial alphabet, concatenated IN THE STATUTORY ORDER of 第十三条, with a
+#   single space (U+0020, an emitted separator) standing at each position where
+#   a non-Latin field sits between two Latin ones.
+#
+# So 「品川　300　あ　20-46」 projects to `300 20-46`, and its regex is
+# '\A3\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'. The office mark and the use mark are NOT
+# dropped from the dataset — they are carried on every series in
+# `format.fields[]`, with the script recorded, and resolved by two decode
+# tables that are themselves primary law:
+#
+#   plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml   (別表第一, 140 rows, 138 distinct marks)
+#   plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml      (別表第三 x2 + 別表第二の五, four sets)
+#
+# THE ONE PLACE THE PROJECTION IS NOT LOSSY IS ALSO THE INTERESTING ONE: where
+# the use-mark field holds a ROMAN letter rather than a hiragana — the
+# duty-exempt foreign-owner sets (ＥＨＫＭＴＹ / ＡＢ) and the ＣＬＶ+hiragana
+# motorcycle combination — that letter IS in the serial alphabet and therefore
+# appears in the projection. `300 Y 20-46` is a real projected string and
+# jp-registered-usforces is its series.
+#
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 3. THE PRINTED SERIAL, AND WHY THE DOT IS NOT A SEPARATOR.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Field 4 is 「四けた以下のアラビア数字」 — four or fewer digits. The statutory
+# drawing shows the four-digit case with a HYPHEN between the second and third
+# digit (`20-46`), which is an emitted separator and is what `pattern` spells.
+# The drawing ALSO shows the three-or-fewer case (Form No. 1 figure その三):
+# the empty leading positions are filled with CENTRED DOTS, dimensioned in the
+# drawing as circles of 12 mm diameter (18 mm on the 440 mm plate). Those dots
+# are PADDING, not punctuation and not digits: they carry no information, they
+# are not in `_meta/separators.yml`, and every regex in this file is written
+# for the four-digit printed form with the shorter forms recorded in notes.
+# A consumer normalising a photographed plate should delete the dots before
+# matching — which is safe precisely because they encode nothing.
+#
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 4. THE COLOUR MATRIX IS STATUTORY. This is not folklore, and it is not a
+#    "convention": it is a remark in a ministerial-ordinance Form.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#   Form No. 1  remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に
+#                            白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、
+#                            国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」
+#   Form No. 12 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字と
+#                            し、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通
+#                            大臣の定めるところによる。」
+#   Form No. 13 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字、
+#                            枠は白色とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字、枠は緑色
+#                            とすること。」
+#   Form No. 14 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字と
+#                            し、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とすること。」
+#
+# i.e. registered private = green on white; registered for-hire = white on
+# green; kei private = black on yellow; kei for-hire = yellow on black;
+# >250 cc motorcycles = the registered colours PLUS a border in the opposite
+# colour; 126-250 cc motorcycles = the registered colours, no border.
+#
+# TWO CONSEQUENCES THIS FILE ACTS ON. First, "事業用/自家用" is a legal use
+# category, not a body type, and it is ALSO what selects the use-mark set — so
+# the colour and the hiragana are two readings of one fact, which is why
+# commercial issue is modelled as a `variants:` sub-entry on each series rather
+# than as a parallel series: the ASCII projection is identical, only the colour
+# and the use-mark set change (PRD-PLATES §2.3's own test). Second, the closing
+# words 「国土交通大臣の定めるところによる」 delegate everything else — the
+# illuminated (字光式) plate, the figure plates, the large-plate colours — to a
+# ministerial notice that was NOT pinned in this pass. Every hex below is
+# therefore `hex_basis: observed` inside a statutorily NAMED colour, the same
+# posture plates/gb.yml takes for BS AU 145e and plates/de.yml for
+# "grünes Kennzeichen". No chromaticity claim is made.
+#
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# 5. REGEX POLICY (identical to plates/gb.yml and plates/nl.yml).
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# `format.regex` is the LINT-ROUND-TRIPPABLE regex: the lint generates serials
+# from `format.pattern` (9 -> any digit, L -> any letter) and requires the
+# regex to accept every one, so `regex` can never be narrower than the
+# pattern's own alphabet. Where the statutory grammar is narrower than what the
+# pattern DSL can spell, the grammar goes in `regex_strict`. That happens
+# exactly once by construction: the 大型特殊 grid row's leading digit is 9,
+# which the DSL reserves as its digit token, so `pattern` cannot pin it — see
+# jp-registered-large-special-*, whose `regex_strict` carries the real leading
+# 9 and whose `matching:` stays strict.
+jurisdiction: jp
+authority:
+  name: "国土交通省 (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) — 地方運輸局/運輸監理部/運輸支局/自動車検査登録事務所 for registered vehicles; 軽自動車検査協会 (Light Motor Vehicle Inspection Organization) administers kei inspection"
+  url: "https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/jidosha_tk6_000036.html"
+binding: vehicle
+binding_note: >-
+  The number attaches to the VEHICLE and to its 使用の本拠の位置 (base of use),
+  not to the owner. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第二項 keeps an existing number valid
+  when the office's jurisdiction is later redrawn, or when the base of use
+  moves within a municipality affected by such a change — so a place-name mark
+  can outlive the boundary that produced it, and a vehicle is not re-plated on
+  a house move until some other registration event forces the issue.
+instrument:
+  act:
+    citation: "道路運送車両法（昭和二十六年法律第百八十五号） — Road Transport Vehicle Act, Act No. 185 of 1951"
+    promulgated: "1951-06-01"
+    key_articles: "第十一条 (plate issue + sealing), 第十九条 (display obligation, registered vehicles), 第二十条 (destruction/return), 第五十九条-第六十条 (inspection; vehicle numbers for kei and >250 cc motorcycles), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation, vehicle numbers), 第九十七条の三 (126-250 cc motorcycles)"
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185"
+  registration_regulations:
+    citation: "自動車登録規則（昭和四十五年運輸省令第七号） — Automobile Registration Regulations, MOT Ordinance No. 7 of 1970"
+    promulgated: "1970-02-20"
+    in_force: "1970-03-01"
+    in_force_text: "附則 １: 「この省令は、昭和四十五年三月一日から施行する。」 ２: 「自動車登録規則（昭和二十六年運輸省令第六十二号）は、廃止する。」"
+    key_provisions: "第十三条 (composition), 別表第一 (office marks), 別表第二 (class codes), 別表第三 (use marks)"
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007"
+  enforcement_regulations:
+    citation: "道路運送車両法施行規則（昭和二十六年運輸省令第七十四号） — Enforcement Regulations, MOT Ordinance No. 74 of 1951"
+    promulgated: "1951-08-16"
+    key_provisions: "第十一条 + 第一号様式/第一号様式の二, 第二十五条 + 第三号様式, 第二十六条の六 + 第五号様式, 第三十六条の十七/十八, 第四十五条 + 第十二号様式/第十三号様式, 第六十三条の二 + 第十四号様式/第十五号様式, 第六十三条の四, 別表第二の四, 別表第二の五, 別表第三"
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074"
+  alphabet_amendment:
+    citation: "平成二十八年十二月二十八日国土交通省令第八十七号 — MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 28 December 2016"
+    in_force_text: "附則第一条: 「この省令は、平成二十九年一月一日から施行する。ただし、第一条（第一号様式備考（６）の改正規定を除く。）、第二条、第三条及び第四条（第十三条第一項第二号の改正規定及び別表第二の改正規定を除く。）の規定は、平成二十九年四月一日から施行する。」"
+    effect: >-
+      Read the proviso carefully, because it splits the same reform across two
+      dates. The general commencement is 1 JANUARY 2017. The delayed
+      1 April 2017 commencement expressly EXCLUDES (a) the amendment to Form
+      No. 1 remark (6) and (b) the amendments to 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項
+      第二号 and 別表第二 — so the three-character class code carrying Roman
+      letters, and the plate-geometry remark that makes room for it, took
+      effect for REGISTERED vehicles on 2017-01-01, while the corresponding
+      Enforcement-Regulations changes (including the kei table 別表第二の四)
+      took effect on 2017-04-01.
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条; e-Gov revision ids 345M50000800007_20170401_428M60000800087 and 326M50000800074_20170401_428M60000800087"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Jurisdiction-wide facts, cited once and referenced per series.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+common:
+  projection:
+    rule: "pattern/regex describe the ASCII projection: statutory fields in A-Z 0-9, in 第十三条 order, one space per intervening non-Latin field. See header §2."
+    worked_example: "「品川　300　あ　20-46」 -> `300 20-46`; 「品川　300　Y　20-46」 -> `300 Y 20-46`; 「山形　い　20-46」 (>250 cc motorcycle, no class code) -> `20-46`; 「6　山形　い　20-46」 (126-250 cc motorcycle, class code FIRST) -> `6 20-46`."
+  class_codes:
+    note: >-
+      別表第二 (registered vehicles, re 第十三条) and 別表第二の四 (kei, re
+      第三十六条の十七) are the closed statutory lists of class codes. Both are
+      printed in FULL-WIDTH characters (１ = U+FF11, Ａ = U+FF21); the plate is
+      embossed and the dataset's regexes are half-width ASCII, which is the
+      §2.6 serial alphabet. Both tables are small and closed, so they are
+      inlined here rather than given a _decode file (PRD-PLATES §2.4).
+    registered_rows:
+      - range: "１　貨物の運送の用に供する普通自動車"
+        codes: "１、１０から１９まで、１００から１９９まで、１０Ａから１９Ｚまで、１Ａ０から１Ｚ９まで及び１ＡＡから１ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "２　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１１人以上の普通自動車"
+        codes: "２、２０から２９まで、２００から２９９まで、２０Ａから２９Ｚまで、２Ａ０から２Ｚ９まで及び２ＡＡから２ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "３　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１０人以下の普通自動車"
+        codes: "３、３０から３９まで、３００から３９９まで、３０Ａから３９Ｚまで、３Ａ０から３Ｚ９まで及び３ＡＡから３ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "４　貨物の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        codes: "４、６、４０から４９まで、６０から６９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "５　人の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        codes: "５、７、５０から５９まで、７０から７９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "６　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する普通自動車及び小型自動車"
+        codes: "８、８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "７　大型特殊自動車（次号に規定するものを除く）"
+        codes: "９、９０から９９まで、９００から９９９まで、９０Ａから９９Ｚまで、９Ａ０から９Ｚ９まで及び９ＡＡから９ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "８　自動車抵当法第２条ただし書に規定する大型特殊自動車"
+        codes: "０、００から０９まで、０００から０９９まで、００Ａから０９Ｚまで、０Ａ０から０Ｚ９まで及び０ＡＡから０ＺＺまで"
+    kei_rows:
+      - range: "１　貨物の運送の用に供する自動車"
+        codes: "４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "２　人の運送の用に供する自動車"
+        codes: "５０から５９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+      - range: "３　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する自動車"
+        codes: "８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+    kei_collision: >-
+      THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT DECODE FACT IN THE JAPANESE SYSTEM, and it is a
+      collision rather than a code. Compare 別表第二 row 5 (registered 小型 passenger)
+      「５、７、５０から５９まで、７０から７９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から
+      ７９９まで…」 with 別表第二の四 row 2 (KEI passenger) 「５０から５９まで、５００
+      から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで…」. The multi-character blocks are
+      IDENTICAL. The same holds for goods (4/6) and for special-purpose (8); the
+      only differences are that the registered table additionally opens each row
+      with a bare single character, and that the kei goods row has no 60-69
+      two-digit block. So a class code of 500 does NOT tell a decoder whether it is
+      looking at a 小型乗用車 on a white plate or a kei car on a yellow one — and
+      the two plates are THE SAME SIZE, 330 x 165 mm, because Form No. 1 and Form
+      No. 12 give the same dimensions. COLOUR IS THE ONLY DISCRIMINATOR, and it is
+      statutory (Form No. 1 remark (3) against Form No. 12 remark (3)). A parse API
+      given a class code and a serial but no colour must return BOTH the
+      jp-registered-small-* and the jp-kei-* candidates; this dataset makes that
+      possible by carrying them as separate series with identical regexes and
+      different `design.background`. Enthusiast sources report a practical
+      partition inside the shared range (kei clustering at 58x); NO PRIMARY for any
+      such partition was secured and none is asserted.
+    grammar_finding: >-
+      Each three-character range decomposes as leading digit + two characters
+      each of which may be a digit OR a Roman letter: 「３００から３９９まで」
+      (digit,digit) + 「３０Ａから３９Ｚまで」 (digit,letter) + 「３Ａ０から３Ｚ９
+      まで」 (letter,digit) + 「３ＡＡから３ＺＺまで」 (letter,letter) is the
+      complete cross-product, so the statutory three-character class code is
+      exactly `d[0-9A-Z]{2}`. That is what makes the alnum series' regexes
+      exact rather than approximate.
+    alphabet_gap: >-
+      別表第二 permits Ａ through Ｚ without exclusion. Enthusiast sources report
+      that only a subset is actually issued (the letters that cannot be misread
+      as digits). NO PRIMARY for any such restriction was secured in this pass,
+      so no `regex_strict` narrowing the class-code alphabet appears anywhere in
+      this file, and the restriction is recorded as an open question rather than
+      asserted. A verifier who pins the notice should add the twins then.
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 verbatim; https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 verbatim; both accessed 2026-08-02"
+  colours:
+    registered_private: "白地に緑文字 — green characters on white (Form No. 1 remark (3))"
+    registered_forhire: "緑地に白文字 — white characters on green (Form No. 1 remark (3))"
+    kei_private: "黄地に黒文字 — black characters on yellow (Form No. 12 remark (3))"
+    kei_forhire: "黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black (Form No. 12 remark (3))"
+    motorcycle_private: "白地に緑文字、枠は緑色 — green on white with a GREEN border (Form No. 13 remark (3))"
+    motorcycle_forhire: "緑地に白文字、枠は白色 — white on green with a WHITE border (Form No. 13 remark (3))"
+    temporary: "白地に黒文字、斜線は赤色 — black on white with a RED DIAGONAL STRIPE (Form No. 3 remark (4))"
+    dealer: "白地に黒文字、枠は赤色 — black on white with a RED FRAME (Form No. 5 remark (3))"
+    imperial: "銀色地に金文字 — gold characters on a silver ground, 梨地 (matte) with the drawn pattern (Form No. 1-2 remarks (2)-(3))"
+    hex_basis_note: >-
+      The instrument NAMES every colour and NUMBERS none. Every hex in this
+      file is `hex_basis: observed` inside a statutorily named colour; the
+      chromaticity, if it is written down anywhere, is in the ministerial
+      notice that Form No. 1 remark (3) and Form No. 12 remark (3) both defer to
+      (「国土交通大臣の定めるところによる」), which was not pinned — recorded gap.
+    source: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # Forms No. 1, 1-2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 15 and their 備考"
+  dimensions:
+    large: { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, name: "大型番号標" }
+    medium: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm, name: "中型番号標" }
+    small: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm, name: "小型番号標" }
+    source_primary: "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # the Form drawings themselves carry the figures: Form No. 1 shows 330 (440) x 165 (220); Form No. 12 shows 330 x 165; Forms No. 13 and 14 show 230 x 125"
+    source_corroboration: "https://www.n-p.or.jp/plate_size.html  # 一般社団法人全国自動車標板協議会 (National Automobile License Plate Council) size chart: 大型標板 44 cm x 22 cm, 中型標板 33 cm x 16.5 cm, 小型標板 23 cm x 12.5 cm — an exact match to the drawings, from the body that manufactures the plates"
+    threshold: "The 440 x 220 mm plate is not optional and not a size class the owner picks: Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso ties it to 普通自動車 of >= 8,000 kg gross vehicle weight, >= 5,000 kg maximum load, or >= 30 seats."
+  decode:
+    office_marks: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+    use_marks: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml"
+
+series:
+    - id: jp-registered-goods-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [truck, van]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "19 99-99"
+        regex: '\A1\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "１、１０から１９まで、１００から１９９まで、１０Ａから１９Ｚまで、１Ａ０から１Ｚ９まで及び１ＡＡから１ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        The heavy-truck block; a 1-series plate on a green ground is a licensed
+        freight carrier. TWO-DIGIT CLASS CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions
+        「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the two-digit block for this range
+        explicitly. period.start is the in-force date of the 1970 Regulations (1
+        March 1970) and carries period_evidence: instrument-in-force for exactly
+        the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a CONSOLIDATION documenting an older
+        practice, not the date the practice began. Two-digit codes are universally
+        dated to October 1967 (first prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by
+        secondary sources; neither was pinned to an instrument in this pass and
+        neither is asserted as the start. period.end 1999 is likewise secondary:
+        ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide switch to three digits to 14 May 1999,
+        and no two-digit code has been ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one
+        remain valid indefinitely, which is why this series is `ended` rather than
+        withdrawn, and why it still matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-goods-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [truck, van]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "199 99-99"
+        regex: '\A1\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "１、１０から１９まで、１００から１９９まで、１０Ａから１９Ｚまで、１Ａ０から１Ｚ９まで及び１ＡＡから１ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        The heavy-truck block; a 1-series plate on a green ground is a licensed
+        freight carrier. THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary
+        issue. The period claim is the weakest in this file and is labelled
+        accordingly. What IS primary: the 運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper)
+        for 1998 records that the 希望番号制 (desired-number system) started
+        「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26 named areas — and the
+        desired-number system is what the third digit exists to serve. What is NOT
+        primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves. ja.wikipedia gives 19 May
+        1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the nationwide switch. THE
+        TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT AVERAGED HERE: the White
+        Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch, the encyclopaedia for
+        the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-goods-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [truck, van]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "1LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A1(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "１、１０から１９まで、１００から１９９まで、１０Ａから１９Ｚまで、１Ａ０から１Ｚ９まで及び１ＡＡから１ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        The heavy-truck block; a 1-series plate on a green ground is a licensed
+        freight carrier. ROMAN LETTERS IN THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese
+        grammar and the cleanest era signal on the plate. Any letter in the class
+        code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not
+        admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 took effect on 1 January
+        2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of
+        the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are issued only when the numeric
+        block for a place-and-class combination is exhausted, so they appear first
+        in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia reports the first issue on 12 January
+        2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as secondary corroboration and not as this
+        series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-bus-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [bus]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "29 99-99"
+        regex: '\A2\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "２、２０から２９まで、２００から２９９まで、２０Ａから２９Ｚまで、２Ａ０から２Ｚ９まで及び２ＡＡから２ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１１人以上の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        The seating threshold is ELEVEN, not the ten-plus-driver figure enthusiast
+        sources repeat. TWO-DIGIT CLASS CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions
+        「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the two-digit block for this range
+        explicitly. period.start is the in-force date of the 1970 Regulations (1
+        March 1970) and carries period_evidence: instrument-in-force for exactly
+        the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a CONSOLIDATION documenting an older
+        practice, not the date the practice began. Two-digit codes are universally
+        dated to October 1967 (first prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by
+        secondary sources; neither was pinned to an instrument in this pass and
+        neither is asserted as the start. period.end 1999 is likewise secondary:
+        ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide switch to three digits to 14 May 1999,
+        and no two-digit code has been ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one
+        remain valid indefinitely, which is why this series is `ended` rather than
+        withdrawn, and why it still matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-bus-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [bus]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "299 99-99"
+        regex: '\A2\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "２、２０から２９まで、２００から２９９まで、２０Ａから２９Ｚまで、２Ａ０から２Ｚ９まで及び２ＡＡから２ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１１人以上の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        The seating threshold is ELEVEN, not the ten-plus-driver figure enthusiast
+        sources repeat. THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary
+        issue. The period claim is the weakest in this file and is labelled
+        accordingly. What IS primary: the 運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper)
+        for 1998 records that the 希望番号制 (desired-number system) started
+        「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26 named areas — and the
+        desired-number system is what the third digit exists to serve. What is NOT
+        primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves. ja.wikipedia gives 19 May
+        1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the nationwide switch. THE
+        TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT AVERAGED HERE: the White
+        Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch, the encyclopaedia for
+        the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-bus-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [bus]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "2LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A2(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "２、２０から２９まで、２００から２９９まで、２０Ａから２９Ｚまで、２Ａ０から２Ｚ９まで及び２ＡＡから２ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１１人以上の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        The seating threshold is ELEVEN, not the ten-plus-driver figure enthusiast
+        sources repeat. ROMAN LETTERS IN THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese
+        grammar and the cleanest era signal on the plate. Any letter in the class
+        code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not
+        admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 took effect on 1 January
+        2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of
+        the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are issued only when the numeric
+        block for a place-and-class combination is exhausted, so they appear first
+        in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia reports the first issue on 12 January
+        2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as secondary corroboration and not as this
+        series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-passenger-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "39 99-99"
+        regex: '\A3\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "３、３０から３９まで、３００から３９９まで、３０Ａから３９Ｚまで、３Ａ０から３Ｚ９まで及び３ＡＡから３ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ３　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１０人以下の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        The flagship series: this is the ordinary Japanese saloon, and the one
+        number every Japanese driver can read off a plate. TWO-DIGIT CLASS CODE
+        ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the
+        two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the in-force
+        date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries period_evidence:
+        instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a
+        CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date the practice
+        began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967 (first
+        prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources; neither was
+        pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted as the start.
+        period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide
+        switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit code has been
+        ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid indefinitely, which
+        is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn, and why it still
+        matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-passenger-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "399 99-99"
+        regex: '\A3\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "３、３０から３９まで、３００から３９９まで、３０Ａから３９Ｚまで、３Ａ０から３Ｚ９まで及び３ＡＡから３ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ３　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１０人以下の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        The flagship series: this is the ordinary Japanese saloon, and the one
+        number every Japanese driver can read off a plate. THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC
+        CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period claim is the weakest
+        in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS primary: the 運輸白書
+        (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records that the 希望番号制
+        (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26
+        named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third digit exists
+        to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves.
+        ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the
+        nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT
+        AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch,
+        the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a
+        verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-passenger-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "3LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A3(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "３、３０から３９まで、３００から３９９まで、３０Ａから３９Ｚまで、３Ａ０から３Ｚ９まで及び３ＡＡから３ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ３　人の運送の用に供する乗車定員１０人以下の普通自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        The flagship series: this is the ordinary Japanese saloon, and the one
+        number every Japanese driver can read off a plate. ROMAN LETTERS IN THE
+        CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest era signal on
+        the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or
+        later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87
+        of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and
+        別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are
+        issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class combination is
+        exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia
+        reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as
+        secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-goods-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "49 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[46]\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４、６、４０から４９まで、６０から６９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ４　貨物の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        ONE statutory range, TWO leading digits: 4 and 6 are the same vehicle
+        class, 6 being the overflow block opened when 4 filled. TWO-DIGIT CLASS
+        CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the
+        two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the in-force
+        date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries period_evidence:
+        instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a
+        CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date the practice
+        began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967 (first
+        prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources; neither was
+        pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted as the start.
+        period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide
+        switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit code has been
+        ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid indefinitely, which
+        is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn, and why it still
+        matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-goods-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "499 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[46]\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４、６、４０から４９まで、６０から６９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ４　貨物の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        ONE statutory range, TWO leading digits: 4 and 6 are the same vehicle
+        class, 6 being the overflow block opened when 4 filled. THREE-DIGIT
+        NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period claim is the
+        weakest in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS primary: the
+        運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records that the 希望番号制
+        (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26
+        named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third digit exists
+        to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves.
+        ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the
+        nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT
+        AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch,
+        the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a
+        verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-goods-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "4LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[46](?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４、６、４０から４９まで、６０から６９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ４　貨物の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        ONE statutory range, TWO leading digits: 4 and 6 are the same vehicle
+        class, 6 being the overflow block opened when 4 filled. ROMAN LETTERS IN
+        THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest era signal
+        on the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or
+        later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87
+        of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and
+        別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are
+        issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class combination is
+        exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia
+        reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as
+        secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-passenger-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "59 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[57]\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５、７、５０から５９まで、７０から７９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ５　人の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        5 and 7 are ONE statutory range; the 7 block is the overflow, which is why
+        a 7-series plate is not a different kind of car from a 5. TWO-DIGIT CLASS
+        CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the
+        two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the in-force
+        date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries period_evidence:
+        instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a
+        CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date the practice
+        began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967 (first
+        prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources; neither was
+        pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted as the start.
+        period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide
+        switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit code has been
+        ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid indefinitely, which
+        is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn, and why it still
+        matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-passenger-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "599 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[57]\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５、７、５０から５９まで、７０から７９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ５　人の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        5 and 7 are ONE statutory range; the 7 block is the overflow, which is why
+        a 7-series plate is not a different kind of car from a 5. THREE-DIGIT
+        NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period claim is the
+        weakest in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS primary: the
+        運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records that the 希望番号制
+        (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26
+        named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third digit exists
+        to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves.
+        ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the
+        nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT
+        AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch,
+        the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a
+        verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-small-passenger-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "5LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[57](?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５、７、５０から５９まで、７０から７９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ５　人の運送の用に供する小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        5 and 7 are ONE statutory range; the 7 block is the overflow, which is why
+        a 7-series plate is not a different kind of car from a 5. ROMAN LETTERS IN
+        THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest era signal
+        on the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or
+        later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87
+        of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and
+        別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are
+        issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class combination is
+        exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia
+        reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as
+        secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-special-purpose-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "89 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８、８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ６　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する普通自動車及び小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        The 8-series carries ambulances, fire appliances, hearses, refrigerated
+        bodies, camper conversions and mobile shops — the statute names
+        sprinklers, advertising vehicles and hearses expressly. TWO-DIGIT CLASS
+        CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists the
+        two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the in-force
+        date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries period_evidence:
+        instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES states — it is a
+        CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date the practice
+        began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967 (first
+        prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources; neither was
+        pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted as the start.
+        period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide
+        switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit code has been
+        ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid indefinitely, which
+        is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn, and why it still
+        matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-special-purpose-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "899 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８、８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ６　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する普通自動車及び小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        The 8-series carries ambulances, fire appliances, hearses, refrigerated
+        bodies, camper conversions and mobile shops — the statute names
+        sprinklers, advertising vehicles and hearses expressly. THREE-DIGIT
+        NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period claim is the
+        weakest in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS primary: the
+        運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records that the 希望番号制
+        (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26
+        named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third digit exists
+        to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves.
+        ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the
+        nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT
+        AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch,
+        the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a
+        verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-special-purpose-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "8LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８、８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ６　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する普通自動車及び小型自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        The 8-series carries ambulances, fire appliances, hearses, refrigerated
+        bodies, camper conversions and mobile shops — the statute names
+        sprinklers, advertising vehicles and hearses expressly. ROMAN LETTERS IN
+        THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest era signal
+        on the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT to 2017 or
+        later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT Ordinance No. 87
+        of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号 and
+        別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters are
+        issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class combination is
+        exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia
+        reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as
+        secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-large-special-2digit
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [tractor, machine]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "99 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A9\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "９、９０から９９まで、９００から９９９まで、９０Ａから９９Ｚまで、９Ａ０から９Ｚ９まで及び９ＡＡから９ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ７　大型特殊自動車（次号に規定するものを除く）"
+          pattern_dsl_note: >-
+            This range's leading digit is 9, which the pattern DSL reserves as its
+            DIGIT TOKEN, so `format.pattern` cannot pin it and `format.regex` is
+            correspondingly WIDE — it accepts every leading digit, not just 9.
+            `format.regex_strict` carries the real statutory grammar with the
+            literal leading 9, and a consumer scoring candidates MUST read the
+            strict twin here rather than `regex`. VERIFIER DECISION POINT, flagged
+            rather than buried: PRD-PLATES §2.7's test asks whether the regex is
+            wider than what the authority issues, and here it is, which argues for
+            `recall-only`; `strict` is recorded instead because the sourced grammar
+            IS present in the record as the strict twin, and because plates/nl.yml
+            took exactly this route for nl-sidecode11-agricultural, whose L-prefix
+            the same DSL collision hides. Overrule it to recall-only (dropping the
+            twin) if the house reading is the other one.
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        Agricultural tractors and road machinery big enough to need registration;
+        the one grid row whose leading digit CANNOT be written into
+        format.pattern, because 9 is the pattern DSL's digit token. TWO-DIGIT
+        CLASS CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists
+        the two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the
+        in-force date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries
+        period_evidence: instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES
+        states — it is a CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date
+        the practice began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967
+        (first prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources;
+        neither was pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted
+        as the start. period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates
+        the nationwide switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit
+        code has been ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid
+        indefinitely, which is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn,
+        and why it still matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-large-special-3digit
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [tractor, machine]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "999 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{3} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A9\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "９、９０から９９まで、９００から９９９まで、９０Ａから９９Ｚまで、９Ａ０から９Ｚ９まで及び９ＡＡから９ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ７　大型特殊自動車（次号に規定するものを除く）"
+          pattern_dsl_note: >-
+            This range's leading digit is 9, which the pattern DSL reserves as its
+            DIGIT TOKEN, so `format.pattern` cannot pin it and `format.regex` is
+            correspondingly WIDE — it accepts every leading digit, not just 9.
+            `format.regex_strict` carries the real statutory grammar with the
+            literal leading 9, and a consumer scoring candidates MUST read the
+            strict twin here rather than `regex`. VERIFIER DECISION POINT, flagged
+            rather than buried: PRD-PLATES §2.7's test asks whether the regex is
+            wider than what the authority issues, and here it is, which argues for
+            `recall-only`; `strict` is recorded instead because the sourced grammar
+            IS present in the record as the strict twin, and because plates/nl.yml
+            took exactly this route for nl-sidecode11-agricultural, whose L-prefix
+            the same DSL collision hides. Overrule it to recall-only (dropping the
+            twin) if the house reading is the other one.
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        Agricultural tractors and road machinery big enough to need registration;
+        the one grid row whose leading digit CANNOT be written into
+        format.pattern, because 9 is the pattern DSL's digit token. THREE-DIGIT
+        NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period claim is the
+        weakest in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS primary: the
+        運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records that the 希望番号制
+        (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May 1998, in 26
+        named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third digit exists
+        to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates themselves.
+        ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May 1999 for the
+        nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998) AND ARE NOT
+        AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the 希望番号 launch,
+        the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are cited so a
+        verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-large-special-alnum
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [tractor, machine]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "9LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A9(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "９、９０から９９まで、９００から９９９まで、９０Ａから９９Ｚまで、９Ａ０から９Ｚ９まで及び９ＡＡから９ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ７　大型特殊自動車（次号に規定するものを除く）"
+          pattern_dsl_note: >-
+            This range's leading digit is 9, which the pattern DSL reserves as its
+            DIGIT TOKEN, so `format.pattern` cannot pin it and `format.regex` is
+            correspondingly WIDE — it accepts every leading digit, not just 9.
+            `format.regex_strict` carries the real statutory grammar with the
+            literal leading 9, and a consumer scoring candidates MUST read the
+            strict twin here rather than `regex`. VERIFIER DECISION POINT, flagged
+            rather than buried: PRD-PLATES §2.7's test asks whether the regex is
+            wider than what the authority issues, and here it is, which argues for
+            `recall-only`; `strict` is recorded instead because the sourced grammar
+            IS present in the record as the strict twin, and because plates/nl.yml
+            took exactly this route for nl-sidecode11-agricultural, whose L-prefix
+            the same DSL collision hides. Overrule it to recall-only (dropping the
+            twin) if the house reading is the other one.
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        Agricultural tractors and road machinery big enough to need registration;
+        the one grid row whose leading digit CANNOT be written into
+        format.pattern, because 9 is the pattern DSL's digit token. ROMAN LETTERS
+        IN THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest era
+        signal on the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT to
+        2017 or later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT Ordinance
+        No. 87 of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to 第十三条第一項第二号
+        and 別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay). The letters
+        are issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class combination
+        is exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices; ja.wikipedia
+        reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is recorded as
+        secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-construction-2digit
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [machine]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 1999 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "09 99-99"
+        regex: '\A0\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "０、００から０９まで、０００から０９９まで、００Ａから０９Ｚまで、０Ａ０から０Ｚ９まで及び０ＡＡから０ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ８　自動車抵当法第２条ただし書に規定する大型特殊自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971, last issued 1999"
+      notes: >-
+        A whole grid row that exists for one reason: which mortgage statute the
+        machine falls under. The 0-series is bulldozers and excavators. TWO-DIGIT
+        CLASS CODE ERA. 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 and 別表第二 lists
+        the two-digit block for this range explicitly. period.start is the
+        in-force date of the 1970 Regulations (1 March 1970) and carries
+        period_evidence: instrument-in-force for exactly the reason PRD-PLATES
+        states — it is a CONSOLIDATION documenting an older practice, not the date
+        the practice began. Two-digit codes are universally dated to October 1967
+        (first prefectures) and April 1971 (nationwide) by secondary sources;
+        neither was pinned to an instrument in this pass and neither is asserted
+        as the start. period.end 1999 is likewise secondary: ja.wikipedia dates
+        the nationwide switch to three digits to 14 May 1999, and no two-digit
+        code has been ISSUED since. Plates already carrying one remain valid
+        indefinitely, which is why this series is `ended` rather than withdrawn,
+        and why it still matters to a parse API in 2026.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-construction-3digit
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [machine]
+      period: { start: 1998 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-dated
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "099 99-99"
+        regex: '\A0\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "０、００から０９まで、０００から０９９まで、００Ａから０９Ｚまで、０Ａ０から０Ｚ９まで及び０ＡＡから０ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ８　自動車抵当法第２条ただし書に規定する大型特殊自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the place-name mark and it resolves through the statutory
+        table in plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml. It names the OFFICE of the
+        vehicle's base of use at the moment the number was assigned — not the
+        keeper's address, and not necessarily the current location: 第十三条第二項
+        preserves a number across a boundary redraw. The class code carries no
+        geography at all.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/hakusyo/transport/heisei10/topic/11.html  # 運輸白書 平成10年: 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で希望ナンバー制を実施した」 + the 26 areas and the 26 lottery numbers"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: 分類番号3桁化 dated 1998-05-19 (pilot) and 1999-05-14 (nationwide) — tagged secondary, see notes"
+      notes: >-
+        A whole grid row that exists for one reason: which mortgage statute the
+        machine falls under. The 0-series is bulldozers and excavators.
+        THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC CLASS CODE — the current ordinary issue. The period
+        claim is the weakest in this file and is labelled accordingly. What IS
+        primary: the 運輸白書 (Ministry of Transport White Paper) for 1998 records
+        that the 希望番号制 (desired-number system) started 「１０年５月６日より、全国２６地域で」 — 6 May
+        1998, in 26 named areas — and the desired-number system is what the third
+        digit exists to serve. What is NOT primary: the 3-digit rollout dates
+        themselves. ja.wikipedia gives 19 May 1998 for the pilot areas and 14 May
+        1999 for the nationwide switch. THE TWO DATES DISAGREE (6 vs 19 May 1998)
+        AND ARE NOT AVERAGED HERE: the White Paper is the better evidence for the
+        希望番号 launch, the encyclopaedia for the class-code rollout, and both are
+        cited so a verifier can resolve it.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-construction-alnum
+      class: agricultural
+      categories: [machine]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "0LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A0(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "０、００から０９まで、０００から０９９まで、００Ａから０９Ｚまで、０Ａ０から０Ｚ９まで及び０ＡＡから０ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二 row: ８　自動車抵当法第２条ただし書に規定する大型特殊自動車"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第一号" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) issue of the SAME class code and the SAME projected
+          format, on the inverted colours Form No. 1 remark (3) prescribes:
+          白地に緑文字 for 自家用, 緑地に白文字 for 事業用. It is a sub-entry and not
+          a series because the ASCII projection is identical (PRD-PLATES §2.3:
+          "a color-only variant of the same format+period is a sub-entry").
+          What changes with the colour is the USE-MARK SET, which is a decode
+          fact: 別表第三 group 1 (あいうえかきくけこを) for 事業用 against group 2
+          (さすせそたちつてとなにぬねのはひふほまみむめもやゆらりるろ) for 自家用.
+          The `taxi` class flag is the nearest term in _meta/classes.yml; the
+          Japanese category is 自動車運送事業の用に供する自動車, which covers taxis,
+          route and charter buses and licensed freight carriers alike.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the two-colour rule, verbatim in common.colours"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 groups 1 and 2 — the two use-mark sets the colour selects"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項: the four-field composition, and 別表第二 (第十三条関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): 「自動車登録番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 and remarks (4)-(7) + the drawing: 330 x 165 mm, (440 x 220) for the vehicles in the remark (4) proviso"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二 row for this range, verbatim in common.class_codes.registered_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the 2017-01-01 commencement of the 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 amendments"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: first alphabet plate issued 2018-01-12 at 練馬"
+      notes: >-
+        A whole grid row that exists for one reason: which mortgage statute the
+        machine falls under. The 0-series is bulldozers and excavators. ROMAN
+        LETTERS IN THE CLASS CODE — the newest Japanese grammar and the cleanest
+        era signal on the plate. Any letter in the class code dates the ASSIGNMENT
+        to 2017 or later, because 第十三条第一項第二号 did not admit one before MLIT
+        Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 took effect on 1 January 2017 (the amendments to
+        第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 are expressly carved OUT of the 1 April 2017 delay).
+        The letters are issued only when the numeric block for a place-and-class
+        combination is exhausted, so they appear first in the busiest offices;
+        ja.wikipedia reports the first issue on 12 January 2018 at 練馬, which is
+        recorded as secondary corroboration and not as this series' start.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-goods-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "49 99-99"
+        regex: '\A4\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "４０から４９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei van and kei truck — the working half of the yellow-plate fleet.
+        TWO-DIGIT KEI CLASS CODE. 別表第二の四 lists the two-digit block for this range
+        and 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字のアラビア数字」. Note what the appendix does NOT
+        do: unlike the registered table it has no SINGLE-digit form at all, so a
+        one-character class code never appears on a kei plate. period.start is the
+        1970 Regulations' in-force date (instrument-in-force, a consolidation
+        date, not the practice's start). period.end 2005 is SECONDARY:
+        ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide kei switch to three digits and the kei
+        desired-number system to 4 January 2005, seven years after the
+        registered-vehicle change. The two-digit block is still PRINTED in the
+        current appendix, so it remains legally available; the end recorded here
+        is an issuance claim, not a repeal claim, and is flagged as such.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-goods-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "499 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[46]\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "４０から４９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Kei numbers use the SAME statutory office table as registered vehicles,
+        by the express cross-reference in 道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第二項
+        (「…自動車登録規則…の別表第一に定めるところによる。」). A kei plate therefore decodes to a place
+        with exactly the registered plate's confidence and exactly its caveats.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei van and kei truck — the working half of the yellow-plate fleet.
+        THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC KEI CLASS CODE — the current ordinary kei issue. THE
+        OVERFLOW BLOCKS ARE NOT SYMMETRIC WITH THE TWO-DIGIT ONES, and this is the
+        fact a parse API needs: 別表第二の四 gives kei goods
+        「４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで」 — a 40-49 two-digit block but BOTH
+        400-499 and 600-699 in three digits. There is no 60-69 two-digit kei
+        block, so a 6-leading two-digit kei code does not exist while a 6-leading
+        three-digit one does. period.start 2005 is secondary (ja.wikipedia, 4
+        January 2005); no instrument was pinned for it and period_evidence says
+        so.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-goods-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [van, truck]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "4LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[46](?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで、４０Ａから４９Ｚまで、６０Ａから６９Ｚまで、４Ａ０から４Ｚ９まで、６Ａ０から６Ｚ９まで、４ＡＡから４ＺＺまで及び６ＡＡから６ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: １　貨物の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "４０から４９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the commencement proviso that gives the kei table 2017-04-01"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei van and kei truck — the working half of the yellow-plate fleet.
+        ROMAN LETTERS IN THE KEI CLASS CODE. Same reform as the registered grid,
+        different commencement date, and the difference is in the proviso rather
+        than in a separate instrument: MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 carves
+        自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 out of its delayed commencement, giving
+        registered vehicles 2017-01-01, but the KEI table 別表第二の四 sits in the
+        Enforcement Regulations amended by that ordinance's 第一条, whose only
+        carve-out is Form No. 1 remark (6) — so the kei alphabet commenced
+        2017-04-01. Both are 2017 in integer-year terms, which is what
+        period.start records, and the three-month split is recorded here rather
+        than lost.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-passenger-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "59 99-99"
+        regex: '\A5\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５０から５９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "５０から５９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei passenger car, the single most numerous vehicle class on Japanese
+        roads. TWO-DIGIT KEI CLASS CODE. 別表第二の四 lists the two-digit block for this
+        range and 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字のアラビア数字」. Note what the appendix
+        does NOT do: unlike the registered table it has no SINGLE-digit form at
+        all, so a one-character class code never appears on a kei plate.
+        period.start is the 1970 Regulations' in-force date (instrument-in-force,
+        a consolidation date, not the practice's start). period.end 2005 is
+        SECONDARY: ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide kei switch to three digits
+        and the kei desired-number system to 4 January 2005, seven years after the
+        registered-vehicle change. The two-digit block is still PRINTED in the
+        current appendix, so it remains legally available; the end recorded here
+        is an issuance claim, not a repeal claim, and is flagged as such.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-passenger-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "599 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[57]\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５０から５９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "５０から５９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Kei numbers use the SAME statutory office table as registered vehicles,
+        by the express cross-reference in 道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第二項
+        (「…自動車登録規則…の別表第一に定めるところによる。」). A kei plate therefore decodes to a place
+        with exactly the registered plate's confidence and exactly its caveats.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei passenger car, the single most numerous vehicle class on Japanese
+        roads. THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC KEI CLASS CODE — the current ordinary kei
+        issue. THE OVERFLOW BLOCKS ARE NOT SYMMETRIC WITH THE TWO-DIGIT ONES, and
+        this is the fact a parse API needs: 別表第二の四 gives kei goods
+        「４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで」 — a 40-49 two-digit block but BOTH
+        400-499 and 600-699 in three digits. There is no 60-69 two-digit kei
+        block, so a 6-leading two-digit kei code does not exist while a 6-leading
+        three-digit one does. period.start 2005 is secondary (ja.wikipedia, 4
+        January 2005); no instrument was pinned for it and period_evidence says
+        so.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-passenger-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "5LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[57](?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "５０から５９まで、５００から５９９まで、７００から７９９まで、５０Ａから５９Ｚまで、７０Ａから７９Ｚまで、５Ａ０から５Ｚ９まで、７Ａ０から７Ｚ９まで、５ＡＡから５ＺＺまで及び７ＡＡから７ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ２　人の運送の用に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "５０から５９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the commencement proviso that gives the kei table 2017-04-01"
+      notes: >-
+        The kei passenger car, the single most numerous vehicle class on Japanese
+        roads. ROMAN LETTERS IN THE KEI CLASS CODE. Same reform as the registered
+        grid, different commencement date, and the difference is in the proviso
+        rather than in a separate instrument: MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 carves
+        自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 out of its delayed commencement, giving
+        registered vehicles 2017-01-01, but the KEI table 別表第二の四 sits in the
+        Enforcement Regulations amended by that ordinance's 第一条, whose only
+        carve-out is Form No. 1 remark (6) — so the kei alphabet commenced
+        2017-04-01. Both are 2017 in integer-year terms, which is what
+        period.start records, and the three-month split is recorded here rather
+        than lost.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-special-purpose-2digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck]
+      period: { start: 1970, end: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "89 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ３　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "８０から８９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "two Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        Kei campers and kei mobile shops; the row has no single-digit form at all.
+        TWO-DIGIT KEI CLASS CODE. 別表第二の四 lists the two-digit block for this range
+        and 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 sanctions 「二字のアラビア数字」. Note what the appendix does NOT
+        do: unlike the registered table it has no SINGLE-digit form at all, so a
+        one-character class code never appears on a kei plate. period.start is the
+        1970 Regulations' in-force date (instrument-in-force, a consolidation
+        date, not the practice's start). period.end 2005 is SECONDARY:
+        ja.wikipedia dates the nationwide kei switch to three digits and the kei
+        desired-number system to 4 January 2005, seven years after the
+        registered-vehicle change. The two-digit block is still PRINTED in the
+        current appendix, so it remains legally available; the end recorded here
+        is an issuance claim, not a repeal claim, and is flagged as such.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-special-purpose-3digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck]
+      period: { start: 2005 }
+      period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "899 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8\d{2} \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ３　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "８０から８９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three Arabic numerals" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Kei numbers use the SAME statutory office table as registered vehicles,
+        by the express cross-reference in 道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第二項
+        (「…自動車登録規則…の別表第一に定めるところによる。」). A kei plate therefore decodes to a place
+        with exactly the registered plate's confidence and exactly its caveats.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: kei three-digit class codes and the kei desired-number system from 2005-01-04"
+      notes: >-
+        Kei campers and kei mobile shops; the row has no single-digit form at all.
+        THREE-DIGIT NUMERIC KEI CLASS CODE — the current ordinary kei issue. THE
+        OVERFLOW BLOCKS ARE NOT SYMMETRIC WITH THE TWO-DIGIT ONES, and this is the
+        fact a parse API needs: 別表第二の四 gives kei goods
+        「４０から４９まで、４００から４９９まで、６００から６９９まで」 — a 40-49 two-digit block but BOTH
+        400-499 and 600-699 in three digits. There is no 60-69 two-digit kei
+        block, so a 6-leading two-digit kei code does not exist while a 6-leading
+        three-digit one does. period.start 2005 is secondary (ja.wikipedia, 4
+        January 2005); no instrument was pinned for it and period_evidence says
+        so.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-special-purpose-alnum
+      class: standard
+      categories: [ambulance, motorhome, truck]
+      period: { start: 2017 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "8LL 99-99"
+        regex: '\A8(?:\d[A-Z]|[A-Z]\d|[A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "８０から８９まで、８００から８９９まで、８０Ａから８９Ｚまで、８Ａ０から８Ｚ９まで及び８ＡＡから８ＺＺまで"
+          class_code_note: "別表第二の四 row: ３　散水自動車、広告宣伝用自動車、霊きゆう自動車その他特種の用途に供する自動車"
+          two_digit_block: "８０から８９まで"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第一号 + 第二項 (which applies 自動車登録規則 別表第一)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第二号 + 別表第二の四", form: "three characters, first a numeral, containing at least one Roman letter" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 + 別表第二の五" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十七第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFD400" }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 (for-hire) kei issue: Form No. 12 remark (3) inverts the colours to
+          黒地に黄文字 — yellow characters on black. Same class code, same projected
+          format, so a sub-entry rather than a series (PRD-PLATES §2.3). THE USE-MARK
+          SET INVERTS WITH IT, AND IT INVERTS AGAINST THE REGISTERED TABLE: 別表第二の五
+          group 1 gives 事業用 kei vehicles り and れ, which are PRIVATE marks on a
+          registered plate. Colour is what disambiguates; see
+          plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml, which exists mainly to stop that inversion
+          being decoded backwards.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」"
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 groups 1 and 2, verbatim"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七 (the four-field kei composition) and 別表第二の四 (第三十六条の十七関係): the class-code ranges quoted in common.class_codes.kei_rows"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第二号 + 第十二号様式 remark (3): 「車両番号標の塗色は、事業用自動車にあつては黒地に黄文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては黄地に黒文字とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」; the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の四 and 別表第二の五 verbatim; accessed 2026-08-02"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第五十九条 (検査対象軽自動車 defined), 第六十条第一項 (the vehicle number is assigned on first inspection), 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation)"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 附則（平成二八年一二月二八日国土交通省令第八七号）第一条 — the commencement proviso that gives the kei table 2017-04-01"
+      notes: >-
+        Kei campers and kei mobile shops; the row has no single-digit form at all.
+        ROMAN LETTERS IN THE KEI CLASS CODE. Same reform as the registered grid,
+        different commencement date, and the difference is in the proviso rather
+        than in a separate instrument: MLIT Ordinance No. 87 of 2016 carves
+        自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 and 別表第二 out of its delayed commencement, giving
+        registered vehicles 2017-01-01, but the KEI table 別表第二の四 sits in the
+        Enforcement Regulations amended by that ordinance's 第一条, whose only
+        carve-out is Form No. 1 remark (6) — so the kei alphabet commenced
+        2017-04-01. Both are 2017 in integer-year terms, which is what
+        period.start records, and the three-month split is recorded here rather
+        than lost.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-classcode-1digit
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus, tractor, machine]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "9 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          class_code_range: "別表第二 opens every one of its eight rows with a bare single character: １、２、３、４、５、６、８、９、０"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "digits", in_projection: true, form: "ONE Arabic numeral" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第二: every row's code list begins with the bare single character (１、２、３、４、６、５、７、８、９、０) before the two- and three-character blocks"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 第十三条第一項第二号: 「二字以下のアラビア数字」 — 'two or fewer', which is what admits the one-character form"
+        - "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本のナンバープレート  # secondary: single-digit class codes gave way to two-digit codes from October 1967, nationwide by April 1971"
+      notes: >-
+        THE OLDEST SHAPE STILL IN THE STATUTE. Every row of 別表第二 opens with a BARE
+        SINGLE CHARACTER before its two- and three-character blocks, so a
+        one-digit class code remains a lawful Japanese registration number in 2026
+        — it is simply not issued any more. matching is RECALL-ONLY and
+        deliberately so: this one regex is the union of all eight statutory ranges
+        (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 0 are between them every digit), so a match
+        says only 'this string has a shape Japan has issued', never which class
+        the vehicle is. Splitting it into eight single-digit series would have
+        produced eight regexes of the form '\\A3 \\d{2}-\\d{2}\\z' whose union is
+        exactly this one, at the cost of eight ids that no consumer can tell apart
+        from a plate photograph. It is here for recall, and for the honest
+        statement that Japan never withdrew the form.
+
+    - id: jp-registered-usforces
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car, van, truck]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "999 L 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d[0-9A-Z]{2} [A-Z] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A\d[0-9A-Z]{2} [EHKMTY] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          use_marks: "ＥＨＫＭＴＹよ (別表第三 group 4) — six Latin capitals and one hiragana"
+          ascii_use_marks: "EHKMTY"
+          note: "The hiragana member よ cannot appear in the ASCII projection and is therefore outside both regexes; a plate carrying よ is this series but will not match. Recorded as a known incompleteness rather than papered over."
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第二号 + 別表第二 — the ORDINARY class codes; this series is defined by field 3, not field 2" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "ローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Latin", in_projection: true, statute: "自動車登録規則 第十三条第一項第三号 + 別表第三 group 4", form: "one of ＥＨＫＭＴＹよ" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        plate_variants:
+          - { w: 440, h: 220, unit: mm, note: "大型番号標 — Form No. 1 remark (4) proviso: 普通自動車 of 8,000 kg or more gross vehicle weight, 5,000 kg or more maximum load, or 30 or more seats. The drawing carries both sets of dimensions, the large one in parentheses throughout (remark (7))." }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: >-
+            Form No. 1 remarks (4)-(6) and the statutory drawing. Widths shrink when
+            the office mark is four characters (尾張小牧, 伊勢志摩) and shrink again
+            when the class code is three characters rather than two; remark (5)
+            gives a separate 33 x 28 mm box to a three-character mark whose second
+            character is ケ. On the 440 x 220 mm plate every figure in parentheses
+            applies instead.
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第十一条: 「自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式による。」 — the glyphs are the drawing in Form No. 1, exactly the British and German posture (PRD-PLATES §6). No typeface is named anywhere in the instrument."
+          licence: "e-Gov Laws Search publishes the instrument and its Form drawings; the drawings are Japanese government works published inside a ministerial ordinance. Cite and build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/345M50000800007  # 別表第三 group 4: 「日本国籍を有しない者が所有する自家用自動車で、法令の規定により関税又は消費税が免除されているもの及び別に国土交通大臣が指定するもの」 -> ＥＨＫＭＴＹよ"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/345M50000800007  # 第十三条第一項第三号: the use-mark field is 「平仮名又はローマ字」 — Roman letters are on the face of the rule, not an exception to it"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3): the colours are the ordinary 自家用 colours; nothing in the Form distinguishes this series visually except the mark itself"
+      notes: >-
+        THE ONE JAPANESE PLATE WHOSE ASCII PROJECTION IS COMPLETE. Everywhere else
+        in this file the use-mark field is hiragana and drops out of the
+        projection; here 別表第三 group 4 fills it with a Latin capital, which IS in
+        the §2.6 serial alphabet, so `300 Y 20-46` is a fully projected Japanese
+        plate. The category is statutory and is about CUSTOMS, not about armed
+        forces: 「日本国籍を有しない者が所有する自家用自動車で、法令の規定により関税又は消費税が免除されているもの」 — privately
+        owned vehicles of non-Japanese nationals exempted from customs duty or
+        consumption tax, plus anything the Minister separately designates. class
+        is recorded as `standard` rather than `military` for exactly that reason:
+        _meta/classes.yml defines military as an armed-forces REGISTRATION SYSTEM,
+        and this is an ordinary civil registration with a distinguishing use mark.
+        The plate is popularly the 'Y plate' after its most-photographed member.
+        period.start is the 1970 Regulations' in-force date and is an instrument
+        date, not the date the arrangement began.
+
+    - id: jp-kei-usforces
+      class: standard
+      categories: [car, van]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "599 L 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[0-9][0-9A-Z]{2} [A-Z] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A[458][0-9A-Z]{2} [AB] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          use_marks: "ＡＢ (別表第二の五 group 4)"
+          ascii_use_marks: "AB"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 別表第二の四 — the ordinary kei ranges 4/6, 5/7 and 8" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "ローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Latin", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 別表第二の五 group 4", form: "Ａ or Ｂ" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFD400", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+          serial_height_mm: 80
+          top_line_height_mm: 40
+          office_mark_width_mm: 30
+          office_mark_width_4char_mm: 22
+          class_code_width_4char_mm: 23
+          note: "Form No. 12 remarks (4)-(7); the drawing gives 330 x 165 mm with no large-plate variant, because 検査対象軽自動車 never reach the weight thresholds in Form No. 1 remark (4)."
+        font:
+          name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+          statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第二号: 検査対象軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十二号様式."
+          licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第二の五 group 4: 「日本国籍を有しない者が所有する自家用自動車で、法令の規定により関税又は消費税が免除されているもの。」 -> ＡＢ"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十七第一項第三号 (「平仮名又はローマ字」) and 別表第二の四 (the class-code ranges the strict twin restricts to)"
+      notes: >-
+        THE KEI COUNTERPART OF THE Y PLATE, AND ITS ALPHABET IS DIFFERENT. Where a
+        registered duty-exempt vehicle takes one of ＥＨＫＭＴＹよ, a kei one takes Ａ or
+        Ｂ and nothing else (別表第二の五 group 4 — note also that the kei row omits the
+        「及び別に国土交通大臣が指定するもの」 tail its registered sibling carries, so the kei
+        category is the narrower of the two). The strict twin additionally pins
+        the class code to the three kei ranges, which the round-trippable regex
+        cannot do while still accepting every serial the pattern generates.
+        Colours are the ordinary kei 自家用 colours: black on yellow.
+
+    - id: jp-motorcycle-over250
+      class: motorcycle
+      categories: [motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第一号 + 第二項" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第二号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第三号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        border: { color: "#00693E", width_mm: 8, note: "Form No. 13 remark (3): 「自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字、枠は緑色とすること」 — the border is PRESCRIBED, not decorative, and its colour inverts with the plate's. The 8 mm width is read off the drawing." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+        serial_height_mm: 60
+        top_line_height_mm: 30
+        office_mark_width_mm: 22
+        office_mark_width_4char_combination_mm: 17.5
+        note: "Form No. 13 remarks (4)-(6) and the drawing: 230 x 125 mm overall, 22 mm office-mark width, dropping to 17.5 mm where a four-character office mark meets a two-character use mark, in which case the Roman letter of the combination is 19 mm wide."
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第三号: 二輪の小型自動車の車両番号標 is 第十三号様式."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      region_encoding_mechanism: >-
+        Field 1 is the same statutory office mark as every other Japanese
+        number, by the cross-reference in 第三十六条の十八第二項 to 第三十六条の十七第二項 and thence
+        to 自動車登録規則 別表第一.
+      variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { background: { color: "#00693E", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }, foreground: "#FFFFFF", border: { color: "#FFFFFF" } }
+        note: >-
+          事業用 issue. Form No. 13 remark (3) inverts BOTH the plate and its border:
+          「事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字、枠は白色とし」. The use-mark set inverts too
+          — 別表第三 group 1 gives ゆりれ.
+        sources:
+          - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十三号様式 remark (3)"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十八第一項: 二輪の小型自動車の車両番号 is THREE fields — office mark, use mark, and four-or-fewer digits. There is NO class code."
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第四十五条第一項第三号 + 第十三号様式 remark (3) (colours + border) and remarks (4)-(6) + the drawing (230 x 125 mm)"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第七十三条第一項 (display obligation for 二輪の小型自動車), 第六十条第一項 (the number is assigned on first inspection)"
+      notes: >-
+        MOTORCYCLES OVER 250 cc, AND THE SHORTEST STATUTORY COMPOSITION IN JAPAN:
+        第三十六条の十八第一項 lists THREE fields, not four. There is no class code on this
+        plate at all, which is why its ASCII projection is the bare serial and why
+        this regex cannot distinguish a Japanese motorcycle from any other
+        jurisdiction's two-plus-two digit mark. The plate's identity is carried
+        almost entirely by its GEOMETRY AND BORDER — 230 x 125 mm with a
+        prescribed green border on white — which is exactly the case PRD-PLATES
+        §3's render layer exists to serve. matching is `strict` because the regex
+        is the sourced grammar of the projected field, not a widened union;
+        consumers should nonetheless treat a bare 99-99 hit as weak evidence and
+        lean on `design`.
+
+    - id: jp-motorcycle-over250-combination
+      class: motorcycle
+      categories: [motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "L 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[A-Z] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A[CLV] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          combination_prefix: "ＣＬＶ (別表第三 group 2 item (2) イ)"
+          ascii_combination_prefix: "CLV"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第一号 + 第二項" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第二号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第三号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        border: { color: "#00693E", width_mm: 8, note: "Form No. 13 remark (3): 「自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字、枠は緑色とすること」 — the border is PRESCRIBED, not decorative, and its colour inverts with the plate's. The 8 mm width is read off the drawing." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+        serial_height_mm: 60
+        top_line_height_mm: 30
+        office_mark_width_mm: 22
+        office_mark_width_4char_combination_mm: 17.5
+        note: "Form No. 13 remarks (4)-(6) and the drawing: 230 x 125 mm overall, 22 mm office-mark width, dropping to 17.5 mm where a four-character office mark meets a two-character use mark, in which case the Roman letter of the combination is 19 mm wide."
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第三号: 二輪の小型自動車の車両番号標 is 第十三号様式."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第三 group 2: 「（１）　次に掲げる文字 あいうえかきくけこ… （２）　次に掲げる文字をその順序により組み合わせたもの　イ　ＣＬＶ　ロ　（１）に掲げる文字」"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十三号様式 remark (6): the 17.5 mm office-mark width and 19 mm Latin-letter width prescribed 「自家用又は事業用の別等を表示する文字として文字の組合せを用いる場合」 — the physical confirmation that the combination is real"
+      notes: >-
+        THE TWO-CHARACTER USE MARK, AND THE ONLY ORDINARY PRIVATE JAPANESE PLATE
+        THAT PRINTS A LATIN CAPITAL. 別表第三 group 2 gives private motorcycles a
+        second form: a character from {Ｃ, Ｌ, Ｖ} FOLLOWED BY one of the ordinary
+        hiragana — Cあ, Lあ, Vあ and so on — which multiplies the available serial
+        space by three when the single characters run out. Form No. 13 remark (6)
+        confirms it physically by prescribing widths for the case where a 文字の組合せ
+        is used. In the ASCII projection the hiragana drops and the Latin capital
+        survives, so the projection is `C 20-46`: this series exists because that
+        string is a genuinely different printed shape from
+        jp-motorcycle-over250's, not a variant of it. The amendment that
+        introduced the combination was NOT pinned — period.start is the 1970
+        instrument date and is certainly too early for this form specifically,
+        which is a recorded weakness rather than a hidden one.
+
+    - id: jp-motorcycle-over250-usforces
+      class: motorcycle
+      categories: [motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "L 99-99"
+        regex: '\A[A-Z] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        regex_strict: '\A[ABEHKMTY] \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        charset:
+          use_marks: "ＡＢＥＨＫＭＴＹよ (別表第三 group 4)"
+          ascii_use_marks: "ABEHKMTY"
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第一号 + 第二項" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml", statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第二号 + 別表第三" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第三十六条の十八第一項第三号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        border: { color: "#00693E", width_mm: 8, note: "Form No. 13 remark (3): 「自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字、枠は緑色とすること」 — the border is PRESCRIBED, not decorative, and its colour inverts with the plate's. The 8 mm width is read off the drawing." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+        serial_height_mm: 60
+        top_line_height_mm: 30
+        office_mark_width_mm: 22
+        office_mark_width_4char_combination_mm: 17.5
+        note: "Form No. 13 remarks (4)-(6) and the drawing: 230 x 125 mm overall, 22 mm office-mark width, dropping to 17.5 mm where a four-character office mark meets a two-character use mark, in which case the Roman letter of the combination is 19 mm wide."
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第四十五条第一項第三号: 二輪の小型自動車の車両番号標 is 第十三号様式."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第三十六条の十八第一項第二号: the use-mark field for a motorcycle over 250 cc is 「平仮名又はローマ字」 and points at this same 別表第三"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十三号様式 remarks (3)-(6): colours, border and the widths that apply when a Roman letter stands in the use-mark position"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/api/1/lawdata/326M50000800074  # 別表第三 group 4: 「日本国籍を有しない者が所有する自家用自動車で、法令の規定により関税又は消費税が免除されているもの及び別に国土交通大臣が指定するもの」 -> ＡＢＥＨＫＭＴＹよ"
+      notes: >-
+        THE WIDEST DUTY-EXEMPT SET OF THE THREE. A registered vehicle gets ＥＨＫＭＴＹよ
+        and a kei one gets ＡＢ; a motorcycle over 250 cc gets the UNION, ＡＢＥＨＫＭＴＹよ,
+        which is the only place the two alphabets meet. Its projected shape
+        collides exactly with jp-motorcycle-over250-combination's — both project
+        to a Latin capital, a space and the serial — and the two are told apart
+        only by WHICH capital: {Ｃ, Ｌ, Ｖ} for the ordinary combination against
+        {Ａ,Ｂ,Ｅ,Ｈ,Ｋ,Ｍ,Ｔ,Ｙ} here. The sets are disjoint, which is why both series
+        can carry a `regex_strict` that genuinely discriminates, and why a
+        consumer must read the strict twins rather than the round-trippable regex
+        to tell them apart.
+
+    - id: jp-motorcycle-126-250
+      class: motorcycle
+      categories: [motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1970 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "9 99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第六十三条の四第一項第一号 — ONE Arabic numeral, and NO appendix is cited", form: "one digit" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml", statute: "第六十三条の四第一項第二号 + 第二項" }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, statute: "第六十三条の四第一項第三号 — again NO appendix is cited" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true, statute: "第六十三条の四第一項第四号" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+        serial_height_mm: 60
+        top_line_height_mm: 30
+        office_mark_width_mm: 22
+        office_mark_width_4char_mm: 17
+        note: "Form No. 14 remarks (4)-(6) and the drawing: 230 x 125 mm, and NO BORDER — the single visual difference from the >250 cc plate at Form No. 13, whose remark (3) prescribes one."
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第六十三条の二第四項: 検査対象外軽自動車の車両番号標 is 第十四号様式."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第六十三条の四第一項: FOUR fields, and uniquely the class code comes FIRST, before the office mark"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第六十三条の二第四項 + 第十四号様式 remark (3) (「事業用自動車にあつては緑地に白文字とし、自家用自動車にあつては白地に緑文字とすること」) and the drawing (230 x 125 mm, no border)"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第九十七条の三: 検査対象外軽自動車 are not inspected; the user notifies the District Transport Bureau and is assigned a vehicle number"
+      notes: >-
+        126-250 cc MOTORCYCLES (軽二輪), AND THE ONLY JAPANESE NUMBER WHOSE CLASS
+        CODE COMES FIRST. 第六十三条の四第一項 orders the fields class code, office mark,
+        use mark, serial — so the projection is `6 20-46` with the digit LEADING,
+        where every other Japanese series puts the office mark first. Two
+        statutory silences make this series weaker than its siblings and both are
+        on the face of the rule: the class-code item cites NO appendix (unlike
+        別表第二 and 別表第二の四) and the use-mark item cites NO appendix (unlike 別表第三 and
+        別表第二の五). The permitted values of both fields are therefore unsourced. Form
+        No. 14's drawing shows 6 in its worked example, which is an illustration
+        and is not asserted here as a rule. matching is RECALL-ONLY in
+        consequence: the regex admits every digit because nothing sourced narrows
+        it, so a match is a shape hit and not a class claim.
+
+    - id: jp-temporary-operation
+      class: temporary
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1951 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-statute
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han", in_projection: false, decode: "Form No. 3 remark (2)'s OWN table — NOT plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "四けた以下の数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+          - { n: 3, name: "斜線", en: "red diagonal stripe", script: "n/a", in_projection: false }
+          - { n: 4, name: "当該行政庁名", en: "name of the issuing authority", script: "Han", in_projection: false, note: "omitted where the plate is lent by a 運輸監理部長 or 運輸支局長 (Form No. 3 remark (1) proviso)" }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        stripe: { color: "#D7192D", orientation: diagonal, note: "Form No. 3 remark (4): 「臨時運行許可番号標の塗色は、白地に黒文字とし、斜線は赤色とすること。」 The red diagonal is the whole point of the plate: it says at a glance that the vehicle is unregistered and running on a time-limited permit." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第二十五条第一項: 臨時運行許可番号標は第三号様式による."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "none"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第三十四条-第三十六条: 臨時運行の許可 — a municipality or transport office may permit a vehicle without a valid registration to run for a limited period"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第二十五条第一項 + 第三号様式: remark (1) (the four printed elements), remark (2) (the SEPARATE office table), remark (4) (「白地に黒文字とし、斜線は赤色とすること」)"
+      notes: >-
+        THE RED-DIAGONAL PLATE. Its office table is NOT the registration table:
+        Form No. 3 remark (2) prints its own list of roughly sixty 運輸支局/自動車検査登録事務所
+        marks, containing none of the ご当地ナンバー place names, and Forms No. 5 and No.
+        15 both adopt it by reference. A decoder that resolves 知床 or 富士山 on a
+        red-striped plate has used the wrong table. That table is not transcribed
+        into _decode in this pass — recorded gap — because it is printed inside a
+        drawing PDF in a two-column layout that does not extract cleanly.
+        period.start 1951 is the Act's own promulgation year and is an
+        enabling-statute claim about the PERMIT REGIME (第三十四条), not about this
+        plate's design.
+
+    - id: jp-dealer-transport
+      class: dealer
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1951 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-statute
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han", in_projection: false, decode: "Form No. 3 remark (2)'s table, adopted by Form No. 5 remark (2)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "四けた以下の数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        border: { color: "#D7192D", note: "Form No. 5 remark (3): 「回送運行許可番号標の塗色は、白地に黒文字とし、枠は赤色とすること。」 A red FRAME, against the temporary plate's red DIAGONAL — the two are routinely confused and the instrument distinguishes them plainly." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+        font:
+        name: "statutory drawing (no named typeface)"
+        statutory_basis: "道路運送車両法施行規則 第二十六条の六第一項: 回送運行許可番号標は第五号様式による."
+        licence: "as Form No. 1 — cite, build to, never redistribute (PRD-PLATES §6)."
+      region_encoding: "none"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第三十六条の二: the 回送運行許可 regime — a permit held by a business rather than granted for one journey"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第二十六条の六第一項 + 第五号様式: remark (1) (office mark above, four-or-fewer digits below, plus the frame), remark (2) (the Form No. 3 office table), remark (3) (「白地に黒文字とし、枠は赤色とすること」), remark (8) (275 mm mounting-hole spacing on the large plate), remark (9) (a moulded plastic plate may omit the holes)"
+      notes: >-
+        THE RED-FRAMED TRADE PLATE (回送運行許可番号標), issued to dealers and transporters
+        against a 回送運行許可証 so that unregistered vehicles can be moved. It is the
+        plate most often confused with the temporary-operation plate, and the
+        instrument separates them cleanly: a red FRAME here (Form No. 5 remark
+        (3)) against a red DIAGONAL there (Form No. 3 remark (4)). Two details
+        worth having for the render layer, both from Form No. 5: remark (8) sets
+        the mounting-hole spacing to 275 mm on plates for the vehicles in Form No.
+        1 remark (4)'s proviso, and remark (9) permits a moulded plastic plate
+        with no mounting holes at all — the only place in the Japanese Forms where
+        a non-metal plate is contemplated.
+
+    - id: jp-temporary-kei
+      class: temporary
+      categories: [motorcycle]
+      period: { start: 1951 }
+      period_evidence: enabling-statute
+      matching: strict
+      format:
+        pattern: "99-99"
+        regex: '\A\d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han", in_projection: false, decode: "Form No. 3 remark (2)'s table, adopted by Form No. 15 remark (2)" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "四けた以下の数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 230, h: 125, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#000000"
+        border: { color: "#D7192D", width_mm: 10, note: "Form No. 15 remark (4): 「臨時運転番号標の塗色は、白地に黒文字とし、その内側に幅10ミリメートルの赤色の枠を付すること。」 — a 10 mm red frame INSIDE the plate edge, the one Japanese border whose width the instrument states in words rather than leaving to the drawing." }
+        emblem: { present: false }
+        rear_differs: false
+      region_encoding: "none"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326AC0000000185  # 第九十七条の三第一項-第三項: 検査対象外軽自動車 are notified rather than inspected, and the plate provisions are left to ministerial ordinance"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第六十三条の二第三項ただし書 + 第四項 + 第十五号様式: the 臨時運転番号標 lent to a 検査対象外軽自動車 for a test run or transfer, and its remarks (1)-(7)"
+      notes: >-
+        THE KEI TEMPORARY PLATE (臨時運転番号標), lent under 第六十三条の二第三項ただし書 where a
+        検査対象外軽自動車 must run for a test or a transfer before its vehicle number is
+        assigned. It is the smallest red-bordered plate in the system (230 x 125
+        mm) and the only one whose border width the instrument fixes numerically.
+        Distinct from jp-dealer-transport, which is a business's standing permit
+        rather than a one-vehicle loan, and from jp-temporary-operation, which
+        carries a diagonal rather than a frame.
+
+    - id: jp-imperial
+      class: government
+      categories: [car]
+      period: { start: 1951 }
+      period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "9"
+        regex: '\A\d\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "皇", en: "the character 皇 (kō, 'imperial'), upper line", script: "Han", in_projection: false }
+          - { n: 2, name: "数字", en: "serial, lower line", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        background: { color: "#C0C0C0", finish: "梨地 (matte, 'pear-skin')", hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#D4AF37"
+        emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "Form No. 1-2 remark (2): 「自動車登録番号標は、梨地に図示の紋様を配し、自動車登録番号は、浮出しとすること。」 — a drawn 紋様 (pattern) is part of the plate. PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder rule applies with unusual force here: the design is imperial insignia and no licence position was researched." }
+        rear_differs: false
+        characters:
+        stroke_width_mm: 4
+        note: "Form No. 1-2 remark (4): 「文字は、幅4ミリメートルとすること。」 — a STROKE width, not a character width, and the only such figure in the Japanese Forms."
+      region_encoding: "none"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十一条第二項: 「宮内庁の所管に属する自動車であつて、専ら天皇、皇后又は皇太后の用に供すべきものの自動車登録番号標は、第一号様式の二による。」"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式の二 remarks (1)-(5): 「上段の『皇』及び下段の数字をもつて表示する」; 梨地 + drawn pattern; 「銀色地に金文字」; 4 mm stroke"
+      notes: >-
+        THE IMPERIAL PLATE, and it is a ministerial-ordinance provision rather
+        than a courtesy: 第十一条第二項 requires Form No. 1-2 for vehicles under the
+        Imperial Household Agency used exclusively by the Emperor, Empress or
+        Empress Dowager. Gold characters on a silver matte ground, with a drawn
+        pattern, an upper-line 「皇」 and a lower-line numeral. matching is
+        RECALL-ONLY and must be: the identifying element is the character 皇, which
+        is not in the serial alphabet, so the ASCII projection is a bare digit and
+        a regex match on it says nothing at all. This is the clearest case in the
+        dataset of a plate whose identity survives the projection only in `design`
+        and `fields`. The Form does not state how many digits the number may have
+        — 「下段の数字」 without a count — so no width claim is made.
+
+    - id: jp-figure-local-2018
+      class: specialty
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 2018 }
+      period_evidence: agency-stated-date
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "999 99-99"
+        regex: '\A(?:\d{1,3}|\d[0-9A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        artwork: { monotone: "included in the issue fee", full_colour: "available on a donation of 1,000 yen or more (MLIT)" }
+        emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "The whole point of the plate is its artwork, and PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder rule therefore governs the render: no design is reproduced, and none was licence-researched." }
+        rear_differs: false
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3) closing clause 「…とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 — the delegation this programme hangs on; the ministerial notice itself was NOT pinned"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十一条 + 第一号様式: the base plate the artwork is laid over is unchanged, which is why the number itself is the ordinary one"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/zugaranumber_top/  # 図柄ナンバープレート（地方版）: 「【第1弾】2018年10月1日～ 【第2弾】2020年5月11日～ 【第3弾】2023年10月23日～ 【第4弾】2025年5月7日～」; eligible: 自家用登録車, 事業用登録車, 自家用軽自動車"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/jidosha_tk6_000031.html  # MLIT: 「平成３０年１０月頃より、地域の魅力ある風景や観光資源を図柄にしたプレートの交付を開始します。」 and 「当面、地域毎に１種類とする」"
+      notes: >-
+        THE REGIONAL FIGURE PLATE (地方版図柄入りナンバープレート) — a DESIGN programme laid over
+        an ordinary number, in four waves whose start dates MLIT publishes:
+        2018-10-01, 2020-05-11, 2023-10-23 and 2025-05-07. matching is RECALL-ONLY
+        for the nl-export reason: the plate carries whatever number the vehicle
+        already has, so the regex is the union of the one-, two- and
+        three-character class-code shapes and a match is a shape hit and nothing
+        more. The legal hook is the closing clause of Form No. 1 remark (3),
+        「国土交通大臣の定めるところによる」, which defers everything beyond the base two-colour
+        rule to a ministerial notice — that notice was NOT pinned in this pass, so
+        the programme is sourced to MLIT's own authority pages and period_evidence
+        is agency-stated-date rather than an instrument tier.
+
+    - id: jp-figure-national-2022
+      class: specialty
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 2022, end: 2027 }
+      period_evidence: agency-stated-date
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "999 99-99"
+        regex: '\A(?:\d{1,3}|\d[0-9A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        artwork: { monotone: "included in the issue fee", full_colour: "available on a donation of 1,000 yen or more (MLIT)", motif: "the flowers of the 47 prefectures" }
+        emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "The whole point of the plate is its artwork, and PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder rule therefore governs the render: no design is reproduced, and none was licence-researched." }
+        rear_differs: false
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3) closing clause 「…とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 — the delegation this programme hangs on; the ministerial notice itself was NOT pinned"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十一条 + 第一号様式: the base plate the artwork is laid over is unchanged, which is why the number itself is the ordinary one"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/zugaranumber_top/  # 図柄ナンバープレート（全国版）: 「2022年4月18日～2027年4月30日」, motif 「47都道府県のお花をモチーフとした図柄」, eligible 自家用登録車/事業用登録車/自家用軽自動車"
+      notes: >-
+        THE CURRENT NATIONAL FIGURE PLATE, whose issuance window MLIT states with
+        BOTH ends: 18 April 2022 to 30 April 2027. It is the rare series in this
+        dataset with a published closing date rather than an inferred one, which
+        is why period.end is set rather than left open — and a verifier should
+        expect it to be superseded rather than simply to stop. MLIT lists three
+        earlier national programmes as 「今までに交付された」 (already issued and now
+        closed): the Rugby World Cup plate, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic
+        plate, and the Osaka-Kansai Expo plate. Their dates were not pinned to
+        MLIT pages in this pass and they are NOT modelled as series here —
+        recorded gap, and an obvious L4 target.
+
+    - id: jp-figure-expo2027
+      class: specialty
+      categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+      period: { start: 2025, end: 2027 }
+      period_evidence: agency-stated-date
+      matching: recall-only
+      format:
+        pattern: "999 99-99"
+        regex: '\A(?:\d{1,3}|\d[0-9A-Z]{2}) \d{2}-\d{2}\z'
+        fields:
+          - { n: 1, name: "運輸支局等を表示する文字", en: "office place-name mark", script: "Han/Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 2, name: "分類番号", en: "class code", script: "Latin/digits", in_projection: true }
+          - { n: 3, name: "平仮名又はローマ字", en: "use-category mark", script: "Hiragana", in_projection: false, decode: "plates/_decode/jp-use-marks.yml" }
+          - { n: 4, name: "四けた以下のアラビア数字", en: "serial", script: "digits", in_projection: true }
+      design:
+        plate: { w: 330, h: 165, unit: mm }
+        background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+        foreground: "#00693E"
+        artwork: { monotone: "included in the issue fee", full_colour: "available on a donation of 1,000 yen or more (MLIT)", motif: "GREEN×EXPO 2027 (2027 International Horticultural Expo)" }
+        emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "The whole point of the plate is its artwork, and PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder rule therefore governs the render: no design is reproduced, and none was licence-researched." }
+        rear_differs: false
+      region_encoding: "plates/_decode/jp-office-marks.yml"
+      sources:
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第一号様式（自動車登録番号標）（第十一条関係） remark (3) closing clause 「…とするほか、国土交通大臣の定めるところによる。」 — the delegation this programme hangs on; the ministerial notice itself was NOT pinned"
+        - "https://laws.e-gov.go.jp/law/326M50000800074  # 第十一条 + 第一号様式: the base plate the artwork is laid over is unchanged, which is why the number itself is the ordinary one"
+        - "https://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/zugaranumber_top/  # GREEN×EXPO 2027 特別仕様ナンバープレート: 「交付期間 2025年7月14日～2027年11月30日」, 「申込受付 2025年6月9日～」, eligible 自家用登録車/事業用登録車/自家用軽自動車"
+      notes: >-
+        THE GREEN×EXPO 2027 SPECIAL-SPECIFICATION PLATE (特別仕様ナンバープレート), issued 14
+        July 2025 to 30 November 2027 with applications from 9 June 2025 — MLIT
+        publishes all three dates. It is modelled separately from the national and
+        regional programmes because 特別仕様 is MLIT's own third category, it runs to
+        its own calendar, and its donation stream is earmarked for expo-related
+        transport rather than for road safety or regional tourism. Like its
+        siblings it is a design laid over an existing number, so matching is
+        recall-only.
+