Tools
Driving in Japan
The rules of the road as our desk recorded them, native unit first.
Left
40 / 60 / 100 km/h · 25 / 37 / 62 mph
urban / rural / motorway
Required · Geneva 1949
Japan recognises only the 1949 Geneva convention permit. Holders of licences from countries that issue only the 1968 Vienna permit (including several EU states) cannot legally drive in Japan on it - check which convention your country issues before booking a car.
0.03% - enforced ferociously, with criminal penalties for passengers who let a drunk driver drive
Expressways are tolled and expensive - Tokyo to Kyoto is roughly €80. Rental companies rent ETC cards; regional tourist expressway passes cut the cost sharply.
Not mandatory by day; switching on at dusk is enforced by custom and by police.
Mandatory under age six. Reserve seats with the rental - stock is limited.
City driving is not worth it; the trains beat the car everywhere between Tokyo and Fukuoka. Rent for Hokkaidō, Tōhoku, Shikoku and the Noto peninsula, where buses run twice a day.