This
page offers an explanation of
Menseki Hosho, which seems to be enhanced CDW protection:
Oooooooooh! Thank you. Finally, after a dozen years of renting in Japan, I got a proper explanation. Cheers.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
This is a good explanation, thank you.
I've rented cars frequently from Toyota and what we know as LDW was always built into the rate, but there was a deductible. Oddly enough, I was never offered any other insurance to offset the deductible, but Y20-30k is not too much to worry about and I never bothered to think more about it.
The more important question is any foreign renter's experience and ability to drive and navigate on the "other side of the road" in a different language (even the english GPS spits out names in super-fast Japanese) safely and comfortably, which is the primary issue before renting a car in Japan.
The GPS is a bit of a nightmare, but Google Maps works very well in Japan, so as long as one picks up a data SIM, one will be just fine.
Driving on the other side of the road takes a day or two to get used to, but really, it's not that complicated at all. In fact, more so than the wrong side of the road, the car geometry is odd when sitting on the right side - that's the only confusing part, particularly wipers vs flashers.
Also dark wide roads at night - turning into the entirely wrong lane is entirely possible... which I thought was foreigner territory until I saw a taxi turn into entirely the wrong side of the road just a few days ago.
