Driving a car in Japan

Public transit in Japan is fantastic, and we have taken at least 10 trips to Japan without needing to drive. But on our trip to Kyushu, several of the places we wanted to visit were rural and did not have much public transit (bus or train) infrastructure.

Reserving a car

I tried to rent a car online directly from several of the major car rental companies. Toyota, Nissan and Times (formerly Mazda rent-a-car) all wanted Japanese addresses and/or ID numbers. So I ended up renting through Rakuten and choosing Toyota Rent-a-Car. For Yakushima Island, I rented a car from Destino Rent-a-car (use google translate).

The reservation process was very easy. I got all the insurances (which I think are required for foreigners)-both the general vehicle and property damage, and the reduced deductible insurance. I forgot to get an ETC card when I reserved the car and was able to email Rakuten customer service to contact Toyota and add it to my reservation. The ETC card is needed for all tollways in Japan; most rental cars have a slot where they fit (a little like a credit card reader) and wirelessly communicate with tollways. You can use cash but a) the ETC card is much faster and b) some exits off the expressway don’t take cash. The ETC card only cost 330 yen to rent (on top of the tolls). I reserved a Toyota Prius rather than the smallest car they offered. In retrospect, the smaller car would have been just fine and probably easier to drive on narrow roads.

Most cars come with a GPS system. Make sure the rental agency switches it to English translation when you pick up the car. I didn’t have to ask at my first rental car pickup; they had already done it and showed me that and other various features (including how the ETC card works) during the walk-through of the car. The GPS we had on the rental from Toyota Rent-a-Car was actually better than Google Maps. The system gives a lot of useful and easy to read information about what’s coming up soon and in the next 10-30 minutes (in terms of exits, amenities like bathrooms or gas, etc) and tracks very accurately to where you are so you know when to turn, etc. The GPS system on our car on Yakushima wasn’t as useful so we ended up using Google Maps.

Driving

Foreigners in Japan must have an International Drivers License (sometimes called a permit) to rent and/or drive a car. In the US, AAA is the organization that provides this license. You can do the license entirely online and then get it mailed to you within about 5-7 days.

Driving in Japan is reasonably intuitive, except they drive on the left side of the road and the driver seat is in the right side of the vehicle. It took me about two days before I was more relaxed about being on the left side of the road. Fortunately, most signs are in English, there are lots of arrows painted on the road and Japanese drivers are very polite and not aggressive drivers. A couple of differences - there’s no left turn on red allowed and stop signs are either red hexagons or red upside down triangles.

What happens if you have an accident?

Well, in the spirit of answering that question, gentle reader, I had an accident just for you. While driving on a narrow road in Takachiho and in avoiding a collision, I sideswiped the guardrail at the side of the road, scraping all the panels on the passenger side of the car. We then parked in a spot nearby and took several pictures of the location and the guardrails and a screen shot of Google Maps showing our geographical location.

Fortunately, the rental car companies provide instructions in English on what to do in an accident. We drove back to our hotel and asked them to call the local police (or you can dial 110 on your phone). We asked the hotel to help because we didn’t know if the police spoke English (it turned out they did not). Two policemen arrived within 10 minutes and starting filling out the forms. They took pictures from my phone, noted my licenses, rental car info, accident location and then took several pictures of me standing next to the damage and pointing at it. They filled out the Certificate of Traffic Accident in about 20 minutes. In the US, you’d ask for a copy of the Certificate as proof for the rental car company. In Japan, there was no copy for me. I asked for a Certificate number and they looked befuddled. Finally they wrote their names and phone number on a notepad and gave it to me. Apparently all the rental car company needed to do was call the police department. Then I called the Toyota rental car via the English translator phone number provided by Toyota. This was a similarly nonchalant interaction. I was in a three-way call with the translator and Toyota employee. The call lasted maybe 2 minutes and included all the translations - was anyone hurt? (No). Could the car still be driven? (Yes). Oh yeah, what’s your license plate number? Have fun and return car as planned. So, at the end of this process, I had no receipt from the police and the Toyota people had almost no information. Lots of bureaucracy but I guess a lot of trust in the system.

When I returned the car, they took my keys and said ‘all done’. I had to practically beg them to look at the damage. I gave the Toyota employee the police information (names and phone number). He called the office where we rented the car (We picked up the car in Beppu and returned it in Kagoshima), had a 30 second conversation and then told me ‘all done’. Side note: I returned the car 5 hours early and they charged me a 1600 yen ‘early return fee’.

My insurance stated that I would be responsible for a 50,000 yen deductible plus a 20,000 yen non-operating charge as a business compensation while the car was being fixed. None of those charges have appeared yet on my credit card.