Before you go
This site offers information based on guidance from public agencies, rental car companies and others, to help you get ready for your trip (as of September 2026; it isn’t legal advice), but rules and conditions can change. Before you leave, always check the official guidance listed at the end of this article, and the company you’re booking with, for the latest details.
If you’ll be driving in Japan on a Taiwanese license, what you need is a “Japanese translation” (日文譯本).
The 國際駕照 (international driving permit) issued in Taiwan can’t be used in Japan.
Instead, with a translation attached to your original Taiwanese license, you can drive in Japan.
What got stricter in Japan in October 2025 is the procedure for converting a foreign license into a Japanese license (外免切替, gaimen kirikae). As a traveler, driving on your Taiwanese license with a translation hasn’t changed (as of October 2026).
Licenses from some European countries, such as Germany and France, are the same translation type.
Get the translation in Taiwan before you go
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan (台北駐日経済文化代表処) also says it’s quicker to apply at a motor vehicle office in Taiwan before you leave.
Get it in Taiwan, and you can plan to drive from the day you land in Japan.
At a motor vehicle office, the same day
You can apply for the translation at the counter of any highway motor vehicle office around Taiwan.
At the counter, you get it the same day.
The fee is NT$100 per copy.
Bring your original driver’s license and your ID. Some guidance says a copy of your ID is fine, while some offices ask for the original.
You can apply only while your license is still valid. If it has expired, renew your license before you leave, then apply.
If you don’t have time to go to a counter, you can also apply online by logging in to 監理服務網 (the motor vehicle services website) as a member, and the translation comes by mail. It takes 7–12 business days to arrive, and registered postage costs NT$28.
Stop by a counter before your trip, and you’ll have your copy that same day. It’ll already be in your hand on the way home.
If you get it after you arrive in Japan
You can still get a translation after you arrive in Japan.
- JAF (the Japan Automobile Federation): apply online from inside Japan, then print it at a convenience store to pick it up
- The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama
- ALADDIN (訪日運転者支援協会, an association that supports visiting drivers): a counter in Tokyo
All of these take days, and JAF can take as long as 1–2 weeks. For a translation from the representative office, check first with the company you booked with that you can rent with it.
How to pick one up from JAF is in “Picking Up Your JAF Translation at a Convenience Store“, and how to get one from the representative office or ALADDIN is in “Forgot Your License, or Turned Away at the Counter“. If you’ll be driving soon after you land, get a copy in Taiwan before you board the plane.
Does the address on your license match the translation?
The address on the translation has to match the address on your license.
At Times Car Rental, if the address on the translation isn’t exactly the same as on the license, they won’t accept the translation. Even if it’s the same place, a different way of writing it won’t pass.
If the address on your license has changed, for example because you moved, get a new translation, as JAF advises.
Before you leave, lay your license and translation side by side and compare the address line by line. You can fix it at home before the counter points it out.
How long is the translation valid? Can you reuse an old one?
According to JAF, the translation is valid for as long as the original license is.
But if you renew your license, or details such as your address change, you need a new translation.
You can drive in Japan for 1 year from the day you arrive. If your license expires before then, that’s where it ends.
If you already have a translation you got before, set it beside your current license. Whether the details match tells you if you can still use it.
An older license with no expiration date?
Some Taiwanese licenses have no expiration date on them.
When you apply, check at the counter whether a translation can be made from your license as it is.
Renting a bigger vehicle?
Nippon Rent-A-Car advises checking, before you book, which vehicle classes your translation lets you drive. They say more and more people are booking a 10-seater on a license that covers vehicles seating up to 9.
If you’ll be traveling in a bigger vehicle, take one look at the vehicle-class field on your translation before you book, and you can relax.
What do you show at the counter?
At the rental car counter, you show these three.
Your Taiwanese driver’s license (the original)
The Japanese translation (the printed paper, plus the 別紙 (“separate sheet”) if there is one)
Your passport
If someone else will take turns driving, they need theirs too. Nippon Rent-A-Car and Toyota Rent a Car ask for documents from everyone who’ll drive, but this differs between companies, so check the guidance from the company you’re booking with.
At the airport, check for your entry stamp
Along with the translation, the counter checks the entry stamp in your passport for the date you arrived in Japan. It’s the landing permission mark you get at immigration; the companies’ English guidance calls it a stamp, and sometimes a seal.
At Toyota Rent a Car, you can’t rent a car if they can’t confirm your entry date. You don’t get this stamp at the automated gates, so at the airport, as JNTO (the Japan National Tourism Organization) advises, line up for a staffed immigration counter.
Once you’re through immigration, open your passport before you go on to customs. If there’s no stamp, show the officer this sentence right there.
【Japanese to show the officer】上陸許可のスタンプをお願いします。 (“A landing permission stamp, please.”)
Check it here, and at the rental car counter you can show the stamped page just as it is.
Once you have all three
Your Taiwanese license, the translation, your passport.
With those three in hand, you can drive Japan’s roads at your own pace.
The scenery you’ve only ever watched from a train window — now you can turn the wheel and drive right into it.
※ Where to apply for a translation, the fees and time it takes, and what the rental car counter checks can change, and differ by company. Before you leave, check the guidance from the issuing organization and from the company you’re booking with.
