Japanese plates are currently being replicated for use mainly at car shows. Many believe they are getting the real deal, but this is not the case. Pay particular attention to those which are black on white as shown. Japanese plates (for passenger cars) are green / white and do not have a painted border. Furthermore, the dies may be incorrect, however the replicas are getting more realistic, with correct dies for the serial number in the second example. All these fakes seem to have the same Kanji across the top, and vehicle codes that usually don't make any sense (78 & 02 probably represent years). If you look carefully, you'll also note that the dies for the vehicle code aren't quite right.

Another give-away are vanity plates, those which read "SUSHI", "HONDA" or any other message in English. Japan has never had vanity plates, and certainly they wouldn't be in English, if they plan on it.

Japan-US souvenir Intended more as a novel joke, rather than to deceive, this fiberboard plate is a mockery of the takeover of Japan by Americans after the War. While it is true that the US occupied Japan after the war, it never became a territory. I'm not sure what the characters are supposed to represent - the first one looks like the Devil! This license plate is obviously a post WW2 souvenir.