Driving in Japan as a tourist: the rules of the road, speed limits, alcohol, child seats, tolls, parking, winter and what happens if you are stopped

How is driving in Japan?

Easier than the stories suggest, provided you accept its rhythm. Japanese drivers are patient, speeds on ordinary roads are low, and the road network is in good repair, with expressways that run the length of the country. The adjustments for a visitor are concrete rather than cultural: traffic keeps left, the indicator and wiper stalks are swapped if you come from a left-hand-drive country, many urban roads are narrow with no pavement, and expressway tolls are high. Navigation is the easy part, since rental satnavs work in English and take a phone number or Mapcode as the destination. What catches visitors is the rulebook, which is enforced quietly and with little room for the "I didn't know" defence, so the sections below take it rule by rule. Choosing and booking the car itself, including the International Driving Permit you must carry, is covered in the companion guide to renting a car in Japan.

The rules that differ from home

Keep left, and think about turns. Traffic drives on the left and the steering wheel is on the right. Left turns are the short ones that hug the kerb; right turns cross oncoming traffic. There is no turning on a red light: red means stop in every direction unless a green arrow for your lane is lit.

Pedestrians and cyclists come first. JAF puts it plainly: drivers must yield to pedestrians, and at a crossing you stop if someone is waiting to cross, not only once they have stepped out. Bicycles ride on the left edge of the road, sometimes two abreast on country lanes and sometimes against the traffic, so give them room.

Stop at railway crossings. Every vehicle must come to a complete stop before a level crossing, check both ways and then cross, even when the barriers are up and no train is in sight. Visitors are caught by this because at home the rule is usually the opposite.

Keep out of the overtaking lane. On expressways the right-hand lane is for passing only; cruising in it is an offence as well as a discourtesy. JAF also notes that the shoulder is not for driving.

Do not stop where you should not. Street parking is prohibited almost everywhere in towns, and a car left at the roadside with its hazard lights on is still illegally parked. Use coin parking or a car park, covered below.

Speed limits in Japan, including the new 30 km/h rule

JAF states the defaults: 60 km/h on ordinary roads and 100 km/h on expressways where no sign shows a different limit, and signs frequently do show a lower one, through towns and on older or winding expressway sections. The big change of 2026 is for the small roads. From 1 September 2026 the National Police Agency's revised rule sets the statutory limit on roads without a centre line at 30 km/h instead of 60. These are the residential lanes and village streets that make up a large share of the roads a tourist drives on the way to a ryokan or a trailhead, so treat any road narrow enough to lack a centre line as a 30 km/h road, whether or not you see a sign.

Speed enforcement uses fixed cameras, unmarked cars and patrol stops. Exceeding the limit by up to 30 km/h on an ordinary road, or up to 40 km/h on an expressway, is handled by the blue-ticket procedure described further down; more than that is a court matter.

Alcohol: Japan's drink-driving law reaches passengers too

There is no safe glass. The National Police Agency's drink-driving page sets the lower threshold at 0.15 mg of alcohol per litre of breath; driving at or above it is "driving under the influence" (shukiobi unten), punishable by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen. A driver judged unable to drive normally because of alcohol, whatever the reading, is "drunk driving" (sakeyoi unten), with up to five years or 1,000,000 yen. Both also carry licence penalties. The only reliable reading for a driver is zero.

The law also reaches the people around the driver. The NPA page states that whoever lent the car, served or offered the alcohol, or asked for a lift knowing the driver had been drinking can be punished: a passenger faces up to three years or 500,000 yen when the driver was drunk, and up to two years or 300,000 yen in a driving-under-the-influence case. The practical rule for a group is simple: the driver drinks nothing at dinner, and nobody pours for them. Alcohol can also still be in the breath the morning after a late izakaya session, so leave early starts after a big night to the train. Alcohol-free beer is on every menu and nobody will think it strange to order it.

Seatbelts, child seats and phones

Seatbelts are compulsory for everyone in the car, front and back, in JAF's summary of the rules. Children under six must ride in a child seat, a duty set out in Article 71-3 of the Road Traffic Act and explained on the National Police Agency's child-seat page; rental companies supply seats for a daily charge if you reserve them. The exemption for a taxi or bus carrying a child as a passenger, set out in Article 26-3-2 of the Road Traffic Act Enforcement Order, does not extend to rental cars; for the rest of a family trip, see Japan with kids.

Hand-held phone use while driving is prohibited, and JAF extends the warning to operating or staring at the navigation screen while the car is moving. JNTO's checklist for Australian drivers says fines apply; this site does not quote the amounts, which depend on whether an accident resulted. Mount the phone, set the route before moving off and let a passenger handle it on the road.

Expressways, tolls and ETC lanes

Expressways (kosoku-doro) are fast, signed in Roman letters as well as Japanese, and expensive: JNTO's guide figure for Tokyo to Kyoto is about 10,070 yen one way. At the toll plaza the lanes marked ETC in purple are for cars with an electronic toll card; everything else goes through a general lane, where you take a ticket on entry and pay at the booth on exit. A rented ETC card is the easy option, and it is required for the regional expressway passes for foreign visitors, which are set out with prices in the car rental guide. The default limit is 100 km/h, with lower posted limits on many sections, and the right-hand lane is for overtaking only. Service areas (SA) and the smaller parking areas (PA) appear at regular intervals with fuel, food and toilets; there is no fuel between them without leaving the expressway, so watch the gauge on long rural stretches.

Parking in Japan

Japan has almost no free on-street parking in towns, and illegal parking is enforced. JNTO's driving page describes city parking as expensive, and the way to think about it is as a daily cost alongside the rental itself. The options are coin parking (small lots charged by the hour and paid at a machine when you leave; many lock a plate under the car until you pay), hotel car parks, which charge per night, shopping centres and stations, and in the countryside the free car parks at temples, viewpoints and michi-no-eki roadside stations. In most coin lots you simply park, do nothing at the start, and pay by entering your space number at the machine when you return; the plate drops and you drive out.

Fuel

Fuel is bought by the litre, usually as a full tank ("mantan"), and the nozzles are colour-coded: red for regular petrol, yellow for high-octane and green for diesel, as both JNTO and JAF record. Rental cars take regular unless the fuel flap says otherwise. The details, including JNTO's guide price per litre and the rules for returning the car full, are in the car rental guide.

Driving etiquette: the unwritten rules

JNTO's checklist for Australian drivers lists the signals you will see every day. A flash of the headlights from an oncoming car usually means "after you", not "get out of the way". Hazard lights blinked two or three times after someone lets you in mean "thank you", and you are expected to do the same. The horn is for emergencies only; using it to hurry someone along is close to an insult. Beyond that, drivers queue in one lane at a merge and take turns, wait behind a slow truck on a mountain road rather than squeezing past, pull over to let a faster car by, and crawl past pedestrians in villages where the road is the pavement.

Winter driving

From December to March the roads of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Nagano and the mountains of Gifu and Niigata are snow-covered for weeks at a time, and JAF's driving tips treat winter as a separate skill. The essentials: a car with winter tyres (fitted as standard on rentals in snow regions, a request elsewhere), chains in the boot where the road signs require them, much lower speeds on ice, and far longer following distances. JAF adds a warning that is easy to overlook: if you are stuck in snow with the engine running, exhaust gas can enter the car and cause carbon-monoxide poisoning, so clear the snow around the exhaust pipe or switch the engine off. Expressway sections can close in heavy snow, so check the operator's road information before a long drive and carry food, water and a blanket. Drivers from countries without snow should think hard before renting in Hokkaido in winter at all; the trains run.

If you are stopped: how the blue ticket works

The National Police Agency's English notice on traffic violations explains the system visitors meet most often. Minor offences, including speeding by up to 30 km/h on ordinary roads or 40 km/h on expressways, are handled with a blue ticket (a traffic violation notice) rather than a court case. You receive the ticket and a payment slip; pay the provisional penalty within eight days at a bank or post office, in cash and in yen on a weekday, and the case is closed without a criminal record. Credit cards are not accepted for the payment, and if you miss the eight days a formal notice follows with a second, short deadline. If you do not pay, or if the offence is one the ticket does not cover, among them driving without a licence, drink driving and violations that caused an accident, the case goes to the prosecutor and a court, and the notice warns that arrest is possible. Carry your passport, IDP and licence while driving; you will be asked for all three. Rental companies pass on to the customer any parking fines that arrive after the car is returned.

Accidents and breakdowns

In an accident, however small, stop, help anyone hurt, move the cars out of the traffic if it is safe and call the police on 110; call 119 for an ambulance if anyone is injured. A police report is required for the rental company's insurance, and leaving the scene is an offence in itself. Then call the rental company's accident number, which is on the key tag or the contract, before the car is moved by anyone else. For a breakdown, a flat tyre or keys locked inside, the rental company will usually direct you to JAF's road service, which operates nationwide; its English page explains how to call it. If you drive, make sure your travel insurance covers driving and personal liability, and take the rental company's collision-damage and non-operation-charge waivers, which remove most of what you would otherwise pay after a scrape.

To cite or link to this page: Driving in Japan as a tourist: the rules of the road, speed limits, alcohol, child seats, tolls, parking, winter and what happens if you are stopped — Japan Pocket Guide, https://japanpocketguide.com/plan/driving/ Copy