Thanks for the quick reply! Google was also my friend...

Here's the statement from our embassy there

https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen...ving-in-japan/


"Americans cannot drive in Japan with only a U.S. drivers license. Persons found driving in Japan without a legal license are subject to fines, arrest and possible deportation.

Obtaining an International Driving Permit

An international driving permit issued in the United States by the American Automobile Association (AAA) or the American Automoile Touring Alliance is required of short-term visitors who drive in Japan.

IDP’s must be obtained prior to arriving in Japan. They cannot be obtained in Japan."




Safe travels!

This has been a very helpful thread. We are going to Hokkaido in October and in my research, some of the best places to see in Hokkaido are only accessible by car. I’m not afraid of driving in a foreign country but what I am worried about is driving on the other side of the road, in a right-hand drive car. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know how comfortable one would be until you’re actually there doing it. Which leads me to wonder if there are any places in the states (I’m in San Francisco area) where you can get some training on this, kind of like a drivers training for driving in right hand drive countries.

My other plan is to just take 1-day or 2-3 day tours and let the tour bus driver deal with the driving

I will tell you my experiences. Two years ago I rented a car from an urban location in Hokkaido. I'm in the car with the rental car lady who's showing me how to use the GPS and tells me which gas station to go to. Then she says "see ya" and suddenly I'm left to my own devices to drive this car out of the parking lot which directly leads out to a busy intersection. It's like being thrown into fire. I'm sitting on the 'wrong' side, everything's backwards, and it took some courage to get going. I needed to think ahead of time how I'm supposed to turn left at this initial traffic light. Once you negotiate that and start driving amongst other cars, you quickly build up confidence. However, the thing that will continue to get you is the wiper blade vs turn signal thing. You will get that mixed up all the time. When you have to turn at an intersection, just follow the car in front of you. When there's no car in front of you and you're the first or the only one turning, you have to think hard and remind yourself in advance how you're going to turn and where you're going. But after a few hours, all of that gets more comfortable. However, just when I thought it was becoming piece of cake, I ended up driving on the wrong side one day and looking really stupid (not to mention dangerous). So you constantly have to keep reminding yourself "left side! left side!"

Last summer I rented from a place that was in more of a quiet location where getting out of the agency parking lot was a lot less intimidating. That certainly helped me ease into things.

I really don't think taking one or two lessons on driving on opposite side is going to help. Driving is driving. The only thing inherently different about the car is that wiper blade and turn signals are flip-flopped. Pedals are the same. The thing that's key is constantly reminding yourself to drive on the left side.

It's not. You'll have the occasional colleague or friend who goes on about how difficult it is to drive on the "wrong side" of the road, but it isn't.

The wipers/ turn signal issue is not universal. Ford uses the same LHD steering wheel/ cluster install on some RHD cars to save money. I rented a Ford in NZ while living in Japan, so was engaging the wipers a lot. When I came back to the US on trips it took me a day or two to not make the mistake.

The thing to think about is that the turn signal is adjacent to the window (unless you are in a RHD Ford!)

Another tip is that the driver should always be adjacent to the center line. If you find yourself next to the curb....... This tip came from an Irish friend who traveled back and forth a lot to the US.

I was contemplating buying a German car model in Japan that only was imported as LHD but I decided that was going to be too tough in the beginning.

It's pretty high status in Japan to buy high end tuner Mercedes, Porsche models and whatnot that is exclusively available in LHD. Even the in-house models like AMG seem to be LHD in Japan. I saw lots of rare tuner cars like Brabus, Lorinser (Mercedes), RUF (Porsche) in Japan, whereas never spotted one anywhere else in the world. Of course, the most notorious Porsche tuner is actually in Chiba: Rauh-Welt Begriff (sic). I took a young visitor from Germany to this bodyshop (what it actually is) in 2013. RWB is hated among Porsche purists for its cartoon-like body kits.

There was a lady in my old neighborhood who tooled around in an older Rolls Royce. I often spotted her car down the road illegally parked outside Tokyu Honten in Shibuya while she did her shopping. Remarkably, it was a LHD model!

This is very interesting...just this past weekend I was sitting on the 96 bus and low and behold, right beside us was a LHD Mercedes and beside her, a LHD Ferrari. I know driving RHD in Japan is challenging enough for a westerner, but driving LHD on the left side in Japan must be equally challenging for a local, especially with a car you really don't want to wreck.

I was invited to Tokyo to road test the Rolls Royce Dawn (I'm a journalist) and the car was LHD.

This led to a very interesting conversation with the folks at Rolls Royce Japan. Imported cars are considered status symbols in Japan, and those in LHD are considered more "authentic". One can argue that this is true for the German and Italian marques like Mercedes, BMW and Ferrari, but for some reason -- lost in translation, perhaps -- the Japanese prefer their Bentleys and Rolls Royces in LHD too, despite them being produced in the UK, which is RHD.

I was also told that car parks in high-end apartment buildings have card readers on both sides of the driveway to accommodate both LHD and RHD cars.

These days, the large manufactures produce their cars in LHD and RHD anyway. Cars build in small series are obviously often in one version only. I've had no trouble driving LHD cars in the UK. The Brits looked much more agonized when they looked into the car and saw someone sitting in the right, front seat reading a newspaper. :D

Unless those "westerners" are from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand....:D

Sweden had LHT until 1967 but the cars were all LHD. It's a bit odd considering that SAAB and Volvo probably had exports to the UK.

In the 1970s you would on country roads that drivers drifted to the center due to old habits.

Once you are used to LHT then driving LHD is not a big deal. I just did not want to go through the learning curve. It took 1-2 months to be completely comfortable with LHT (with a RHD car) and then it became second nature.

My family has four cars (all RHD); two of them have signals on the right stalk, the other two have them on the left stalk. It drives all of us nuts cos we're constantly always hitting the wipers instead of the indicators when switching from one car to another.

>> but driving LHD on the left side in Japan must be equally challenging for a local, especially with a car you really don't want to wreck.

Here in Ontario Canada , Toronto specifically, we often see old Japanese RHD tuner cars, and even kai cars on the road. I have also seen a RHD Cadillac (a HK/Singapore immigrant? but why??) and a Mercedes with diplomatic plate.

How do I get the Hertz discount (I have President's Circle status) with Toyota rental ? Am I supposed to claim the discount it when I make the online car reservation or do I just show my Hertz membership card when I am picking up the car ?


Thanks!

As someone from the UK who had to learn to drive on the right hand side of the road when I came to the US, I offer the following advice:

1) Even if you can drive a manual, if it's your first time in a RHD vehicle book an automatic. One less thing to think about.

2) When driving, find a spot on the (in this case right) front fender that lines up with the road's center stripe/divider so that you're comfortably on your side of the road and try to keep that line. That way you'll avoid drifting to the left and potentially catching the kerb with your left wheels and/or bashing in the sides of parked vehicles. It will also be a constant reminder of which side of the road you're supposed to be on.

When I call Toyota rent a car, I just tell them on the line and they include it with my booking.