Kaptin -
I know what you are talking about......
My friends were in a similar situatiuon re a car accident. They are gaijin and were t-boned by nihonjin at an intersection in Yokosuka, same deal, the nihonjin ran a red light. My friends couldn't claim nothing, and the police said to them that it's was my friends fault, because they have an international drivers liscence, supposedly making them a more expeirienced / qualified driver and therefore should have been able to avoid this collision!!!
So the Japanese didn't have to pay them anything!
Makes you wonder!
Any way back to the topic, yes the laws are vastly different and unfortunatley if you are a foreigner in some cases can be much tougher / unfair.
However I'm not sure re aviation - as the above case was obvisouly not aviation related!