Licenses that are valid in Japan
You can drive in Japan with one of the following:
Japanese driver's license
A license issued by a Japanese Public Safety Commission.
International Driving Permit
An International Driving Permit in the format of the 1949 Geneva Convention, issued by an authorised body of a country or region that signed that convention.
You must also show your passport.
Foreign license with a Japanese translation
A license issued in Switzerland, Germany, France, Taiwan, Belgium or Monaco, together with an official Japanese translation of it.
You must also show your passport.
A license from your home country on its own is not enough, and an International Driving Permit issued under any other convention (for example the 1968 Vienna Convention) is not valid in Japan.
Notes
- The Japanese translation must be issued by your country's embassy or consulate in Japan, or by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF).
- For a Taiwanese license, the Japanese translation must be issued by JAF, the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association or ZIPLUS Co., Ltd.
- An International Driving Permit is valid for one year from its date of issue.
- A foreign license (including one used with an International Driving Permit) lets you drive in Japan for one year from your date of landing in Japan, or until the license expires, whichever comes first. The date of landing is the date of the entry stamp in your passport.
- If you are registered as a resident of Japan and you return to Japan after less than three months abroad, that re-entry does not count as a new date of landing.
Get an entry stamp in your passportWe check your date of landing from the entry stamp in your passport. If you pass through an automated gate at immigration and do not receive a stamp, we cannot confirm the date and cannot rent you a car. Please ask for a stamp when you enter Japan.
