Driving in Japan

Left

Article 17, paragraph (4) of the Road Traffic Act: a vehicle must proceed along the part of the road to the left of the centre.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Right

Article 28, paragraph (1): when passing another vehicle you must keep to its right side. You pass a streetcar on its left instead, unless the track runs along the left edge of the road. Where the centre line is painted yellow you may not cross it to overtake at all.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

100 km/h

This is the statutory figure for an ordinary car on the main carriageway of a national expressway. Lorries are held to 90 or 80 km/h. There is also a minimum speed of 50 km/h. A few sections are signed higher: NEXCO Central states that the Shin-Tomei Expressway between Gotemba junction and Hamamatsu Inasa junction has been 120 km/h since 22 December 2020. Drive to the sign, not to the figure here.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

60 km/h

Article 11 of the Cabinet Order gives 60 km/h both for a motor-vehicle-only road, which is Japan's second class of fast road and includes the urban expressway networks, and for a general road where the two directions are separated by a median or a barrier. Signs on these roads often show more.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

60 km/h

Japan sets one statutory limit for all general roads that have a centre line or marked traffic lanes, whether they are in a town or in open country. Narrower roads without a centre line are 30 km/h instead.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

60 km/h

There is no separate limit for towns and cities. The statutory figure for a general road with a centre line or marked lanes is the same everywhere. Streets in built-up areas are usually signed 30, 40 or 50, and the sign always wins. A road with no centre line is 30 km/h even without a sign.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

30 km/h

New since 1 September 2026. On a general road with no centre line, no marked traffic lanes and no median, the limit is 30 km/h even where no sign says so. The National Police Agency says this covers most general roads in the country. If you turn off a main road into a narrow street, assume 30.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Motorway — 80 km/h

A car towing a trailer is held to 80 km/h on an expressway instead of 100. On general roads the ordinary limits apply unchanged. Towing a vehicle that is not built to be towed — a broken-down car on a rope — is much slower: 40 km/h if the towing car weighs at least three times as much and the towed vehicle is 2,000 kg or less, otherwise 30 km/h.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

0.3 g/l

Article 44-3 of the Cabinet Order sets the threshold at 0.3 milligrams per millilitre of blood or 0.15 milligrams per litre of breath. That is 0.03%. Treat it as zero: one drink can reach it. Japan also punishes the people around the driver. It is an offence to lend a vehicle to someone who is likely to drive after drinking, to give that person alcohol or urge them to drink, and to ride as a passenger with a driver you know has been drinking. All three carry prison sentences. Drink driving is not settled by a fixed penalty; it goes to court, and the licence is normally suspended or revoked.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

18 years

18 for a standard motor vehicle licence, which is the ordinary car licence. A motorcycle or moped licence starts at 16.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Depends on where your licence is from

Check this before you book a car. Japan accepts only an International Driving Permit issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. A permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention is NOT valid in Japan, and neither is a permit from a country that is not a party to the 1949 Convention or that does not issue permits in the 1949 form. If your country issues 1968 permits only, your permit will not work here. There is a second route for six places. A driving licence issued in Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco or Taiwan is accepted on its own, with an official Japanese translation attached instead of a permit. The translation must be made by the issuing country's consulate in Japan or by a body designated by Japan's National Public Safety Commission — JAF prepares them, and so do the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association for Taiwanese licences and ADAC for German ones. A translation by any other translator, however official at home, is not accepted. Allow time: JAF quotes a fee and a wait of days to weeks. If your licence fits neither route, you cannot drive in Japan at all until you convert it to a Japanese licence, which needs a residence address in Japan. The six-country list is the National Police Agency's as of 1 April 2026.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

12 months

One year from the day you land in Japan, or until your permit or licence expires, whichever comes first. An International Driving Permit is itself valid for one year from the date it was issued, so a permit obtained months before the trip gives you less than a year here. Leaving and coming back does not restart the clock unless you were out of Japan for three months or more.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Warning triangle

Japan does not make you carry a first aid kit, a vest or a fire extinguisher in a car. What the law does require is that if your car stops on an expressway because of a breakdown, you must set out a warning device where drivers coming up behind can see it. There is a daytime version and a reflective night version, and the night version must be used in a tunnel or wherever you can see less than 200 metres. So the car needs one on board before you join an expressway. Check the boot of a hire car before you set off.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not required

Cars do not have to run headlights in daylight. Lights are required from sunset to sunrise, and also by day in a tunnel, in thick fog and anywhere else dark enough that you can see less than 200 metres on an expressway or less than 50 metres on any other road.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required

Article 19 of the Cabinet Order names the tunnel expressly: lights must be on inside a tunnel, in thick fog, and in any dark place where visibility is 200 metres or less on an expressway or 50 metres or less elsewhere. This applies while you are parked or standing there too.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

Article 71, item (v)-5: you must not make a call on a telephone that has to be held in the hand, and must not fix your attention on the screen of any device, while the vehicle is moving. The only exception is an emergency call to help an injured or sick person.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Allowed, with restrictions

The ban covers only a telephone you have to hold, so a genuine hands-free call is outside it. Looking at a screen is banned separately, so do not read or set the navigation system while moving. The National Police Agency's own leaflet for foreign drivers also tells drivers never to wear headphones.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

There is no turn on red in Japan. The National Police Agency states it plainly: you must stop at a red light, and you cannot go straight on or turn right or left. Wait for green. A separate green arrow lets you go in the direction the arrow points even while the main light is red or yellow.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Traffic already on the roundabout goes first

Article 37-2: a vehicle already in the roundabout has priority, and you must slow down before entering. Japanese roundabouts run clockwise, because traffic drives on the left.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

No

Japan is the mirror image of the continental European rule. At a crossroads with no lights and no signs, Article 36 gives priority to traffic coming from your LEFT, not your right. Two other rules override that: a road marked as a priority road has priority, and so does a road that is clearly wider than yours. Slow down before you enter either.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Everyone, in every seat

Article 71-3: the driver must wear a belt, and must not carry a passenger unbelted in any seat that has a belt fitted. Rear seats included.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

6 years

A child under six years old must be in a child seat. The law words it as a child "not yet of school age", and it exempts a child who is already tall enough for an adult belt to fit properly. Hire companies rent seats, but ask when you book.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Parking meters
• Pay and display machines

On-street parking is limited to marked time-restricted zones, and the police install either a parking meter or a machine that prints a ticket you then display in the car. If you are in such a zone with no ticket showing, you are parked illegally.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Not allowed

Article 47, paragraph (2): when parking you must bring the car to the left edge of the road and leave it where it does not obstruct traffic. Because traffic keeps left, that means facing the way the traffic goes.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A junction — 5 m
• A pedestrian crossing — 5 m
• A bus stop — 10 m
• A level crossing — 10 m
• A fire hydrant — 5 m

From Article 44, which bans stopping as well as parking, and Article 45, which bans parking. The junction and crossing figures are measured from the outside edge, and the crossing and level-crossing figures apply on both sides. The 5 metres at a junction also applies at a bend in the road. The bus stop figure only bites during the hours the buses run. You may not stop at all inside a junction, on a crossing, on a level crossing, on tram tracks, near the top of a slope, on a steep slope, or in a tunnel.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• A fine
• Towing

An officer may order you to move the car, and may move it himself if you are not there. Cars that are moved are stored, and there is a separate charge aimed at the registered keeper for a car left parked illegally. A hire company will pass that on to you.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required where signs say so

In exceptional snowfall the transport ministry can impose a chain rule on 14 named sections of expressway and main road, mostly mountain passes. In those sections chains are compulsory on the driven wheels and winter tyres alone are not enough — a car on studless winter tyres with no chains is turned back. The rest of the time chains are optional. Signs also exist that close a road to vehicles without chains.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

Required for rider and passenger

Article 71-4: a rider of a motorcycle must wear a helmet and must not carry a passenger who is not wearing one. A moped rider must wear one too. There is a separate rule for carrying a passenger on an expressway: the rider must be at least 20 and have held the licence for three years.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Engine up to 50 cc
• Power up to 0.6 kW

A standard motor vehicle licence — the ordinary car licence — also covers a "motorized bicycle" with nothing added to it. The source defines that class for a two-wheeler as an engine of 0.050 litres, or a rated output of 0.60 kW for an electric machine. A larger 125 cc machine whose maximum power output is capped also counts as a motorized bicycle; check the exact power cap with the police before riding one, because the figure printed in the source looks doubtful. Note that the class is treated as slow: a motorized bicycle is limited to 30 km/h on all roads and may not use an expressway. Anything bigger needs a motorcycle licence.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

16 years

16 for a motorized bicycle licence, and 16 for a standard motorcycle licence.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Toll booths

Expressways are tolled almost everywhere and you pay at a gate. There are three kinds of lane. A general lane takes cash or a credit card: take a ticket from the machine as you enter and hand it to the collector as you leave. Cash must be in yen. An ETC lane needs an onboard unit with an ETC card in it and opens the barrier as you roll through at low speed. Some gates are now ETC only and have no booth at all, so ask the hire company whether the car has a working ETC unit and card before you set off.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

110

110 reaches the police and 119 reaches the fire service and an ambulance. 112 does not work in Japan. You must report every traffic accident to the police on 110, even if nobody is hurt and even if the other driver says it is not needed; failing to report is itself an offence.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source

• Minor speeding — fine 9000–15000 JPY (Standard car, up to 25 km/h over the limit. 9,000 yen under 15 km/h over, 12,000 yen at 15 to 20, 15,000 yen at 20 to 25.)
• Serious speeding — fine 18000–35000 JPY (Standard car, 25 km/h or more over. 18,000 yen at 25 to 30 over. On an expressway only, 25,000 yen at 30 to 35 and 35,000 yen at 35 to 40. Beyond those bands there is no fixed penalty at all and the case goes to court.)
• Running a red light — fine 9000–9000 JPY (Standard car, for ignoring a red or yellow light.)
• Holding a phone — fine 18000–18000 JPY (Standard car, for holding a phone while driving.)
• Illegal parking — fine 10000–20000 JPY (Standard car. 10,000 to 14,000 yen if you are with the car, 15,000 to 20,000 yen if you left it there, and higher inside a no-stopping zone than inside a plain no-parking zone.)

These are the fixed-penalty amounts for a standard car, set nationally in Appended Table 6 of the Cabinet Order. Motorcycles and mopeds pay less, lorries more. Licence points are set in a different table and are not recorded here. Serious offences, drink driving among them, are outside the fixed-penalty system: they go to court and can bring a prison sentence.

Checked 9 Sep 2026 · official source