Disclosure: this guide contains referral links, marked where they appear. Market data is independently measured from public sources on the dates shown.
A correction first, because this page changes an entry in my own fifty-state table. North Dakota has been listed here as unclear, with a note that some owners report registration limited to roads posted at 55 mph or less. The 55 mph figure is real and it is in the statute. It is in the chapter about off-highway vehicles, and it applies to vehicles “not designed for use on a highway.”
A kei truck was designed for use on a highway. So the off-highway chapter does not reach it, and neither does the 55 mph limit inside it. What is left is the ordinary registration chapter, which contains ten grounds for refusing a registration and not one of them is about federal safety standards. I research Japan’s used vehicle market from Sapporo; here is the text.
The Short Answer
- No kei-specific rule exists, in either direction.
- No federal safety standards clause among the ten grounds for refusing registration.
- The 55 mph limit is the off-highway vehicle rule and does not apply to a road-designed truck.
- A foreign vehicle may be registered on “other evidence” satisfying the department of ownership.
- A kei truck meets North Dakota’s statutory definition of a pickup truck, and the fee runs on its weight rating.
- $49 a year in the thirteenth and subsequent years of registration, at a weight rating under 3,200 lb.
- No safety inspection, no emissions test.
- Insurance is 25/50/25 plus $30,000 of basic no-fault benefits.
Where the 55 MPH Comes From
N.D.C.C. § 39-29-09(1) is the source, and it is a genuinely detailed provision:
“An individual may operate a registered off-highway vehicle on a gravel, dirt, or loose surface roadway. An individual may operate a registered off-highway vehicle on a paved highway designated and posted at a speed not exceeding fifty-five miles per hour. A licensed driver over sixteen years of age may operate a registered class III off-highway vehicle on a paved highway designated and posted at a speed not exceeding sixty-five miles per hour. An individual may not operate an off-highway vehicle on a paved highway if the vehicle is unable to attain a speed…of at least thirty miles per hour.”
Now read the definition the whole chapter runs on, at § 39-29-01(2): “‘Off-highway vehicle’ means any motorized vehicle not designed for use on a highway and capable of cross-country travel on land, snow, ice, marsh, swampland, or other natural terrain.”
That is a design test, and a kei truck fails it in the buyer’s favor. It was built to carry goods on public roads in Japan, sold with number plates, and used on highways for its entire first life. It is not a vehicle “not designed for use on a highway.”
Two of the three sub-classes confirm it from the other direction. A Class II off-highway vehicle must travel “on three or more nonhighway tires” or “on four or more nonhighway tires” — a kei truck wears highway tires. A Class III off-highway vehicle expressly “does not include a vehicle registered by the department under chapter 39-04 or 39-24” — so registering the truck as an ordinary motor vehicle settles the question by definition.
This is the second neighboring state where the same misattribution has taken hold. South Dakota’s “65 mph” turns out to be its general speed limit, and its off-road class uses the same design-purpose test. Whenever a state is reported as allowing kei trucks “up to X mph,” it is worth asking which chapter X lives in.
What the Registration Chapter Says
N.D.C.C. § 39-04-05 lists ten grounds on which the department “shall refuse registration or any transfer of registration”: a false or fraudulent application; failure to furnish information; the vehicle being mechanically unfit or unsafe; reasonable grounds to believe the vehicle is stolen; a suspended or revoked registration; unpaid fees; unpaid sales or excise tax; failure to maintain no-fault and liability security; failure to prove payment of the federal heavy vehicle use tax; violation of the international registration plan or fuel tax agreement; and a motor carrier ordered out of service by the federal motor carrier safety administration.
Nothing about design, origin, certification labels or federal safety standards. The section closes by directing the director to make rules for refusing registration of vehicles “not equipped as required by chapter 39-21,” which is North Dakota’s own equipment code — lamps, brakes, mirrors, glass. A kei truck arrives with all of it.
The foreign vehicle provision
Section 39-04-02(2) is the paperwork answer:
“If the vehicle for which registration is sought is a specially constructed, reconstructed, or foreign vehicle, the facts must be stated in the application. The owner of every vehicle which has been registered outside this state shall exhibit to the department the certificate of the title and registration card or other evidence as will satisfy the department that the applicant is the lawful owner or possessor of the vehicle.”
And § 39-01-01 defines “foreign vehicle” as “every motor vehicle which is brought into this state other than in the ordinary course of business by or through a manufacturer or dealer and which has not been registered in this state.” Nothing narrows that to other American states, so a truck arriving from Japan is squarely inside it.
Subsection (3) is worth reading too, because it looks like a barrier and is not. It requires a certificate of origin “if the vehicle for which registration is sought is a new vehicle,” and adds that where a new vehicle is of foreign manufacture the certificate must come from the importer. A 25-year-old truck bought at auction is not a new vehicle, and the requirement does not attach.
That “other evidence” formulation is the same device that makes Idaho, Nevada, Delaware and Wyoming workable on paper. A Japanese export certificate of deregistration is exactly what it describes.
North Dakota Calls It a Pickup Truck
The fee schedule at § 39-04-19(2)(a) contains a definition that fits a kei truck better than most American classifications do:
“For purposes of this subdivision, a pickup truck is a motor vehicle with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating of less than eleven thousand five hundred pounds, with an unladen weight of less than eight thousand pounds, and which is equipped with an open box-type bed not exceeding nine feet in length.”
A kei truck has a gross vehicle weight rating around 2,200 lb, an unladen weight around 1,700 lb, and an open box bed of roughly six and a half feet. It satisfies all three elements comfortably.
The same subdivision then says: “A pickup truck is subject to registration at the rates prescribed for other vehicles under this subdivision by applying the gross vehicle weight rating of the vehicle to the fee schedule.” So the fee is set by the rating, not by a declared load, which puts a kei truck in the lowest row of the passenger schedule — gross weight less than 3,200 lb.
One instruction in that paragraph needs attention: the owner “shall request the registered gross weight of the pickup truck be increased to ensure the registered gross weight is sufficient to include the total weight of the vehicle and any load transported on or by the vehicle.” A kei truck with its full 350 kg payload comes to roughly 2,470 lb, still inside the same bracket, so the instruction costs nothing here — but do the arithmetic rather than assume it.
What It Costs
| Item | Amount | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Annual registration, gross weight under 3,200 lb, 13th and subsequent years | $49.00 | § 39-04-19(2)(a) |
| Same, 10th to 12th years | $57.00 | § 39-04-19(2)(a) |
| Minimum registration fee | $5.00 | § 39-04-19(2) |
| Safety inspection | None | — |
| Emissions test | None | — |
| Liability insurance | 25/50/25 | § 39-16.1-05 |
| Basic no-fault benefits | $30,000 per person per accident, with $150 per week work loss and $3,500 funeral sub-limits | § 26.1-41-01(2) |
Forty-nine dollars a year, no inspection and no emissions test makes North Dakota one of the cheapest places in this series to keep one of these trucks legal. The real expense is getting it here. The landed cost calculator covers the federal duty, entry and freight.
Insurance
North Dakota is a no-fault state, and that shapes the quote you will be given. Section 26.1-41-02 requires an owner to “continuously provide…security for payment of basic no-fault benefits and the liabilities covered under the motor vehicle liability insurance.” Basic no-fault benefits are capped at $30,000 per person per accident, with work loss limited to $150 a week and funeral expenses to $3,500.
The liability limits themselves are 25/50/25, measured through § 39-16.1-05: $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage.
Note that failing to maintain that security is itself a ground for refusing registration under § 39-04-05(7), so insurance is not an afterthought here — it is part of the registration file. Arrange it before you go, and by telephone, since online forms validate VIN length and will refuse a Japanese chassis number. Ask for agreed-value or stated-value cover rather than actual cash value; there is no book value for a 1999 Japanese-market truck.
The Process, in Order
- Import in your own name and keep the customs entry papers and the HS-7 declaring the 25-year exemption.
- Keep the Japanese export deregistration certificate. It is the “other evidence” § 39-04-02(2) contemplates.
- Arrange North Dakota insurance first, because the security requirement is a registration ground.
- State the facts on the application. Section 39-04-02(2) requires you to say that the vehicle is a foreign vehicle. Do it plainly rather than leaving it to be discovered.
- Bring the weight rating. The fee runs on the manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating, which is on the Japanese documentation.
- If anyone raises the 55 mph rule, ask which chapter it is in. It is chapter 39-29, and chapter 39-29 is about vehicles not designed for highway use.
What to Buy for North Dakota
Four-wheel drive, and a working heater. This is the coldest state in the series and the wind does the rest. Ask the exporter to confirm the truck starts cold and the heater blows hot on every speed — a tired battery and a weak starter that pass unnoticed in Kyushu are a different proposition at −30°F. The off-road guide has the measured 4WD share by model from my Japanese-market sample.
Keep the highway tires. They are part of why the off-highway chapter does not reach the truck. Fitting aggressive non-highway tires before registration invites an argument you do not need to have — the same caution applies in Mississippi, where the off-road title bar turns on the same element.
Corrosion. North Dakota salts and sands, and the trucks arrive with whatever their Japanese life gave them. Read the auction sheet for C codes, which mark corrosion through metal rather than surface blemishes, and prefer stock from warm, dry prefectures. With no inspection anywhere in the process, the discipline is yours alone.
Think about distance. North Dakota towns are far apart and the roads are fast. These are excellent farm and town vehicles and poor long-haul ones, which is a physics problem rather than a legal one. The Carry guide and the Hijet guide cover what holds up under load.
For reference, the Japanese side of this market as I measured it across 394 trucks: Subaru Sambar ¥370,000, Honda Acty ¥390,000, Mitsubishi Minicab ¥390,000, Suzuki Carry ¥400,000 and Daihatsu Hijet ¥450,000 at the median. The model comparison sets those against United States sale averages, the 25-year rule guide explains how the month of manufacture is counted, and the fifty-state comparison shows where North Dakota sits.
North Dakota never inspects the truck, so the purchase decides the quality question and the weight rating decides the fee — both visible on the auction sheet. CAR FROM JAPAN publishes the inspector’s sheet with each vehicle, so corrosion codes, equipment grades and build date are there before you bid. My referral code takes $100 off a first purchase: enter KEITRUCK at the order step (referral link).
FAQ
Are kei trucks street legal in North Dakota?
No statute addresses them specifically, and none of the ten statutory grounds for refusing registration touches design, origin or federal safety standards. A kei truck meets North Dakota’s own definition of a pickup truck and registers on that basis.
Is there a 55 mph restriction?
Not for a kei truck. Section 39-29-09 limits registered off-highway vehicles to paved highways posted at 55 mph or less, and § 39-29-01(2) defines an off-highway vehicle as one “not designed for use on a highway.” A kei truck was designed for highway use.
What ownership document does North Dakota accept?
Section 39-04-02(2) allows “other evidence as will satisfy the department that the applicant is the lawful owner or possessor of the vehicle,” which is what a Japanese export deregistration certificate is.
Do I need a certificate of origin?
Only for a new vehicle. Section 39-04-02(3) applies to new vehicles, and a 25-year-old truck is not one.
What does registration cost?
$49 a year in the thirteenth and subsequent years of registration for a vehicle with a gross weight rating under 3,200 lb.
Is there an inspection?
North Dakota has no periodic safety inspection and no emissions program.
What insurance is required?
25/50/25 liability plus $30,000 of basic no-fault benefits. Failing to maintain that security is a ground for refusing registration.