Driving In Japan: Japan - What To Expect

By Wisterian Watertree

Driving on the other side of the road from what you are used to is the smallest of the problems you will be facing when you are driving in Japan. The roads feature a plethora of homegrown road signs, markings on rhe road bed, and traffic lights with associated arrows which feel like a programming excercise is worse. Add to that the Japan-specific driving rules and the idiosynchracies of Japanese drivers. On top of that you have to contend with the Japanese weather and the risk of earthquakes, typhoons, and landslides. 
But armed with this book, you will be able to face these and any other driving issues when you rent a car or learn to drive in Japan. The author has distilled his experiences from driving every day for the past ten years, and ability to compare and relate them to his experiences from driving  in the US and Europe, all in an informative and entertaining way. This book is essential preparation for anyone planning to drive while visiting Japan. It covers all seasons and all parts of Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, in an instructive and informative manner. 
Chapters in the book include how to read the Japanese traffic signs, how to drive in cities, how to handle the Japanese expressways, and how to manage motorbikes, cyclists, and pedestrians. The author has also included chapters on driving with children and people in wheelchairs. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wisterian Watertree
• Release date: Feb 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215608760

Wisterian Watertree

Wisterian Watertree has lived in Japan for more than 15 years, and traveled the country from the southern tip of Okinawa to the northern edge of Hokkaido with his three children. Enjoying every minute of it, even the tantrums and hours spent looking for lost mittens in the snow. 

Book preview

Chapter 1  Renting A Car In Japan

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Despite being the train travelers premier paradise in the world, you need a car in many parts of Japan. At least if you want to go to another supermarket than the nearest one, or the shopping mall with a Starbucks.

Outside of the big cities, Japan can be as hard to navigate without a car as any city in the US. The Shinkansen trains stop in the big cities, and the local trains will take you to many smaller places, but you have to be willing to either go somewhere fairly close to the train station, or ready to walk for quite some distance. Many sights are located in places which can be reached with public transport only a few times a day. If you want flexibility in traveling outside a city, you need to have a car in todays Japan.

Getting around the main places of Japan is easy. The Shinkansen express trains go to most parts of Japan, even Hokkaido. The only place there are no trains is in Okinawa. Japan has airports in almost all major cities (and sometimes in places which are not so major). There are flights not just between the major cities of Osaka and Tokyo to smaller towns and remote locations like Okinawa and Hokkaido, but there are also flights between places which would be hard to connect in a day if you took the Shinkansen, like Sendai and Fukuoka. And while the Japanese travel industry has been as hard hit by the pandemic, there are still low-cost carriers (LCC) that fly between the major cities and the outlying destinations.

Since both the regular airlines and low-cost carriers are flying to and from so many airports in Japan, it is worth looking a little more at how you pick up your car. Because while it is very similar to car rental at other airports around the world, there are also important differences.

The regular airlines typically arrive in the regular terminal, and low-cost airlines often have a corner in that terminal; but increasingly, there are special low-cost terminals where the low-cost airlines take off and land. They usually have a baggage section but there may not be the same level of services as in the bigger terminals. Japanese people often send their luggage ahead with a courier service, and in that case you do not need to check your bag. If you are transporting big packages like surfboards or skis, you are better off taking a regular airline. And if you rent your gear at your destination you do not need to bring any bulky things, which can be very expensive if you have a long flight from Japan.

Regardless of whether you are arriving (or leaving) from a low-cost terminal, the rental car office is not located all that close to the airport terminal. The car rental companies will have buses to pick you up, and those buses will have limited space to handle your luggage, so you may be better off picking up the car and driving it to the pickup zone yourself. If you have a lot of luggage. Count this delay into the time it takes before you leave the airport.

On Japanese domestic flights you are not required to show ID but naturally there will be security control, so you need to take this into account when you plan your day as well. The same thing applies when you are leaving - it takes some time to drop off your luggage, and you had better leave someone with it while you return the car. A better alternative may be to drop off the car at an office close to public transport, in particular airport lines. This might mean the central station, which is accessible with a car in some of the outlying cities; but in bigger cities, it is probably easier to go outside the city center, where the parking is closer to the station.

If you are arriving by Shinkansen, there are easily accessible car rental offices, often close to or even inside the station building. Most of the national car rental companies make it a point that you should not have to go too far from the station to pick up your car.

The rental offices at the airport - the only alternatives if you go to popular locations like Naha in Okinawa or the Hokkaido airports - are located a short bus ride away, but when you go there with the car to drop it off or when you are leaving the airport it may not be so easy to get onto the highway, or even outside the airport area. The rental offices are often snuck away in a corner of the airport area, where there is cheap land but access may be more difficult.

There is usually a filling station nearby, since you are expected to fill up the car before you drop it off. Otherwise, the rental company will charge you for the gasoline, and not at the cheapest rates on the market. Gasoline is expensive in Japan, and it does not become cheaper when the rental companies have to fill it up. You can also count on the price of gasoline being a couple or ten yen higher per liter at the airport, just like it will be more expensive at the freeway filling stations. It is cheaper to fill up in a location a few miles from the airport - it does not matter if the tank is 95 % full, as opposed to 100 %. Remember to check what kind of gasoline you should use, and how to open the gasoline tank lid.

When you want to rent a car near a train station, make sure you know where the car rental office is located. While they will keep the car for you, it is no fun running around half the town looking for the office. And the booking call centers have no idea where the offices are, either. Print out a map of the rental location where you booked, together with your booking details. It is easier to access than your phone.

The rental car offices are often located quite a few blocks away from the station, as they need big parking lots and real estate in city centers is at a premium. And in most old city centers, the roads are narrow and winding, and hard to navigate. Getting the car out of the center may take longer than it took to get to the city.

It may be better to look for a rental office which is at the edge of the city, with public transport access. Many cities have subways, even if they are not as extensive as the Tokyo network, and there are typically local trains running to stations in the suburbs. Find a rental office near one of those stations, and it will be more accessible both when you are looking for it and when you are approaching or leaving it with the car.

You do not have to wash the car, even if it is dirty. And you do not have to clean it extensively on the inside. The car will be professionally cleaned, and nowadays sanitized, before it is released to the next customer. Of course you have to clean up the messes which may have happened inside the car, and you have to take out the rubbish. But looking inside a Japanese family car belies the popular meme that Japanese are extremely clean and neat. Japanese children are every way as messy as their counterparts in other countries, even worse in some ways. But Japanese always take care of their own garbage. And the child seats you get with your rental car are squeaky clean.

What you should not do is rent your car in one location, and return it in another. Even if the two offices are only a few minutes apart, you will be charged for the additional work you are creating for the car rental company staff. Returning and renting the car from the same outlet will decrease your cost drastically (surcharges can be several ten percent, depending on the location and time of year). It is usually more economical to return the car, take the Shinkansen to the next destination, and stay overnight before looping back along another route and renting a new car car.

In most cities, even fairly small ones, the car rental offices are near the main train stations. Make sure you know the location before you get off the train. Even in small cities, the stations will have multiple exits, and you have to get out through the right one if you are to have a chance of finding the car rental office. Since the offices are a few blocks away from the station, the otherwise helpful (but English-challenged) station staff will not be much use - they will not have any idea where it is. The always helpful police will know where it is, but the police station can be as far away from the station as the car rental office. And they are likely to be even more English-challenged than the station staff.

Make sure to know the location in advance, and print it out or at least write down the address and phone number.

The biggest car you can rent in Japan seats 10 people, and while you can rent trucks that are bigger, you can not ride in the back of a truck. In practice this means the biggest cars come with eight sears plus an extra seat in the middle, and a drivers seat. But the seven-seater cars are much more common, and also has space for some luggage (which the minivans typically do not).

Seven-seater cars are very popular as family cars, and they can take more child seats than other cars. The luggage space contributes to their popularity, since they can take skis, surfboards, bicycles (up to four) and some luggage. If you are bringing skis or surfboards, request a luggage rack. It will cost you a little bit extra, but it will free up the space inside the car. Despite the size the seven-seaters are surprisingly maneuverable even on the narrow Japanese streets - although do not expect to be able to squeeze one into the deepest nooks of a residential area. Even if the residents are able to do it, they have years of training.

With a regular drivers license, you can also drive minicars, which typically seat only one person and are used by service staff who need to bring parts for their work. They are almost like a motorcycle, but not open to the wind and rain. They can only carry a few hundred kilos at most; the maximum load you are allowed to drive with an ordinary license is 3 tons, or 3000 kg. This is quite a lot (a Kei-truck with the back full of concrete blocks) and for family tourism it will be more than enough. If you want to rent a trailer, you may also need a special license, so you had better check the conditions before going.

The rental agency will give you the registration papers and the insurance documentation for the car. Probably they will be locked in the glove compartment, so keep them there. By law, all vehicles must have registration papers and insurance documents, and they must be kept in the car.

All tourists in Japan are required to carry their passports with them at all times (foreign residents are required to carry a residence card). There are immigration police who check the passports of people in popular locations from time to time, mostly to catch illegal immigrants or people overstaying their visas to work (illegally). So make sure you have your passports easily accessible. But as a driver, you need some more documentation.

For drivers from some countries (Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, Monaco, and Taiwan), the International Driving Permit (which you normally get from your local police or automobile organization) is not enough. You have to have a translation of your drivers license as well. And it has to be an official translation. These can be arranged by licensed organizations, most typically the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF).

You have to make sure yourself that your drivers license, translation if you need one, passport, and international driving permit are easily accessible. You may need to be able to show them every time you drive, forgetting them at home can mean you have to leave the car on the spot, as nobody is allowed to drive without a valid drivers license and insurance. Even if the police is usually forgiving, they do not have to be, so play it safe and make sure to have your documents at all times.

While everything in Japan seems arranged with precision, moving like a well-oiled machine, there is a surprising amount of dirt behind the cogwheels. In Japan, the front matters more than in most Western countries. What you see is what you see, not what you get. So it pays to check what you are getting when you rent a car too. Not that you should expect any hiccups, but just in case. Do a pre-driving check.

The pre-driving check begins when you go to the website of the car rental company. You need to choose a car that is right for you, not just big enough for your family and luggage, but one that you can drive comfortably.

If you are old enough to remember the 60’s, you will not only have fond recollections about the first Tokyo Olympics, but also the jokes about Japanese cars. They used to be so small that they were a tight fit for a Western driver, not to speak of the rest of their family.

Today, things are different. Not only are Japanese car manufacturers the biggest in the world, they also make cars designed to fit their audiences. The SUV of Japanese car companies are no smaller than their American counterparts. And the Japanese themselves have grown bigger and taller as a result of an increasingly Western diet.

The websites of the car rental companies are usually organized by class of vehicle. Four things determine what kind of vehicle you should get: how many people you are; how much luggage you have; if you need child seats; and how tall the driver is.

If you are above average height (170 cm or so), then the smallest type of car may still be a tight fit. The car simply is not long enough to give you the legroom you need. Sitting in a slight reclining position with knees slightly bent when touching the pedals; hands resting on the steering wheel with arms slightly bent is what you want to aim for, but in a too small car you will have to bend your knees too much, and you will be too close to the steering wheel to hold it comfortably. 

It is rare that you will be able to floor the accelerator in Japanese traffic, but where a child suddenly can pop out from a narrow side street, and a senior stagger out into the street just about anywhere, you need to push the brake hard without warning. Sitting in a cramped position becomes a traffic hazard, because you can not reach the pedals properly. You need something bigger.

It is impossible to feel the car when you are looking at the website, so you need to be in the actual car to tell that everything is alright. Even when you are sitting in the car, there is still an opportunity for you to change, even if it screws up the booking schedule of the rental company. If the car in any way does not feel right, change it. You do not need to contend with sitting in the wrong driving position as you are fighting Japanese traffic.

Check the seat belts as well as the seating position. Japanese seat belts may be shorter than European or American versions, adapted as they are to a different body profile. Since everyone in the car - including the back seats - is required to wear a seatbelt, the seat belts have to work for everyone. If you are very plus-sized, this may be a problem. Japanese law does not allow seatbelt extenders. Make sure the seatbelts work for the child seats as well. If you have ordered a car with child seats, the rental company is responsible for making sure they fit the car. Check that they do before you sign the contract.

Another thing to check before you go is emergency equipment. It is nice if the car has a spare tire, but since you need access to a flat space, and have to have the appropriate tools to change the tire, it is not as useful as it sounds. Since there are very few places in Japan which are more than 30 minutes away from a garage with a tow truck (and those are mostly in Hokkaido), you normally do not have to change the tire yourself (the rental car company may be quite surprised if you do, as they want a professional to do it).

But you need a warning triangle and perhaps also warning flares. Both are mandatory for vehicles in Japan. Otherwise you will not be able to warn others that you have stopped the car. And a flashlight, which is useful if you want to check something if you have to stop and it is pitch dark. Turn it on once to make sure that the batteries are OK.

There is one more thing you should check before you leave the car rental office, and that is the ETC card. This is a card that you use on the highway to pay the toll automatically, and the rental car company can provide it (and connect it to your credit card). It is much more convenient than paying toll in cash (which is still an option). Paying cash is not even an option on some toll roads, in particular the ring roads around Tokyo. All entrances require an ETC card.

A fire extinguisher and a first-aid kit are also useful. If you have toddlers or pre-schoolers, you know how useful it is to have band-aids available. Rental car companies will not provide those, even if they may provide a fire extinguisher, so get a box of band-aids in the first drugstore or 100-yen-store you can find. And some tissues (both wet and pocket tissues). The plastic bags you get them in will come in handy if somebody suddenly feels ill.

If you run out of gasoline you may also need a plastic gasoline can so you can get to the next gasoline station, although it is unlikely that you will need it, since gasoline meters in modern cars (even kei cars) are calibrated to warn when you need to fill them up, usually very long time in advance (50 km, which is more than enough to find any number of gasoline stands in Japan). 

Once you have the car, you do not have to check anything more until you plan to go on the freeway. Make sure your lights are all working, especially the brake lights. You can ask someone to check, if you can not find a mirror big enough. Or use your mobile phone to record a video while you check the lights. Checking the brake lights is also a way of checking that the brakes are working properly.

You should make sure that the window washing fluid is topped up, that the tires have not lost pressure, that the level of oil is OK, and that you have enough gasoline not to have to fill up in the expressway service area gasoline stations, where there is a surcharge of at least 10 yen per liter compared to other locations.

The cheapest gasoline you can get in Japan, by the way, is at Costco - even though you have to be a member, but they accept membership cards from outside Japan as well. Gasoline there is typically 10 to 20 % cheaper than in roadside gasoline stations. With a hybrid car, you will save about 2000 yen per time you fill up, and that quickly becomes real savings if you plan to make a long road trip.

Pre-driving check list:

* How many people are you?

* How many are in child seats?

* How much luggage do you have?

* Do you want to spend half your budget on gasoline? If not, choose a hybrid.

* Will you be able to drive and ride comfortably?

Double-check:

- Child seats

- Driver seat position

- Sun shades

- Mirrors

- Seat belts

* Does the car have emergency equipment?

* Does the car have a fire extinguisher?

Chapter 2  Why Make It A Hybrid?

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Make it a hybrid. I said as much in a previous chapter, but that is not much to go by. So let me motivate a bit more why you should get a hybrid car.

All-electric cars are still a rarity in Japan, even though charging posts are everywhere - literally. Many convenience stores have charging facilities, as well as many gasoline stands. And there are charging posts in many other places, like the service areas at the highway. Range anxiety should not be a factor in Japan.

But even so, a hybrid is a better choice. In many cases, hybrid or gasoline are the only realistic choices.

There are four reasons you want a hybrid car: It is much more energy-efficient than a traditional gasoline car, and it is much smoother to drive than a gasoline car. And hybrid cars come in a variety of sizes whereas