might be hear say, i dunno. hence why i asked if sugarytea knew if they were legal or not.....
if not, no harm done in bringing the issue up. if so, then maybe something for people to bear in mind. :)
EDIT: actually, thinking about this and having a brief look on DVLA site, i think the square plates are fully legal as long as the character type, size and spacing is UK compliant as well as the spacing between the top and bottom lines meets there standards. I think the issue is perhaps with people who have the Jap sized plates but with smaller font (and their car is NOT an import) - i believe some imports are permitted to have smaller font on the plates than standard UK law dictates.....