Originally Posted by Steve M

That's the issue. In particular, US drivers licenses have no reciprocity rights when applying for a DL in Japan, so you have to apply as if you've never had a license. As stated above, it is time consuming and expensive. The driving test is ridiculous, and there's no way you can pass no matter how good of a driver you are, unless you study specifically for the way they score the test, even though nobody actually drives that way in Japan.



I think you're missing a subtlety. I was referring to someone that was living in Japan with a residence permit of some kind, perhaps even as a Permanent Resident. There's an implication earlier in this thread that no matter how long you've been living in Japan, if you have a foreign license, an International License to go along with it, and have an entry stamp in your passport that's less than a year old, many car rental agencies will allow you rent on that basis. If you left Japan and re-entered at least once a year (using the same residency visa with a re-entry permit or whatever the procedure is these days), you'd meet those requirements no matter how long you've actually lived there. This has nothing to do with being a Temporary Visitor. And Yes, I realize that once you've lived in Japan for a year, a foreign license with an IDP is no longer valid as a legal entitlement to drive, but that's a separate issue from getting a rental agency to rent you a car.