Anshin Japan

Category: Troubleshooting

  • Forgot Your License, or Turned Away at the Counter — What You Can Do Once You’re in Japan

    This site offers information based on guidance from public agencies, rental car companies and others, as a starting point when something goes wrong on your trip (as of September 2026; it isn’t legal advice), but how things are handled differs between companies and organizations and can change. Always check the latest details with the company you booked with and in the official guidance listed at the end of this article.

    You left your International Driving Permit at home.

    You were told the address on your translation doesn’t match.

    If paperwork stops you after you’ve arrived in Japan, there are just two things to do.

    First, talk to the rental car company.

    If it can’t be sorted out that day, push your driving days back.

    First, talk to the rental car company

    The first thing to do is contact the rental car company you booked with. This is where you work out what to do about your booking.

    If you’re at the counter, some companies can get you an interpreter.

    Toyota Rent a Car has video interpreting at the rental office, available during office hours. At Nippon Rent-A-Car, you can use phone interpreting in English, Chinese, Korean and Thai when you pick up the car.

    Once you’ve left the counter, you contact them through each company’s official website: Nippon Rent-A-Car has an English booking desk (English Service Desk). Times Car Rental offers customer service 24 hours a day, in 10 or more languages.

    If you’re stuck for words, show this sentence at the counter.

    【Japanese to show at the counter】通訳をお願いします。 (“An interpreter, please.”)

    Once an interpreter is on the line, you can work out what to do about your booking right there.

    If it can’t be sorted out that day, push your driving days back

    There’s almost no way to be driving that same day.

    So move your car plans to after the day your documents are sorted out, and make the days until then train days.

    Wander a town you can walk around from the station. It’s a chance to stop at places you’d drive straight past in a car.

    How you get your documents in order depends on which kind of document you use.

    If you use an International Driving Permit

    An International Driving Permit issued in Japan can’t be used, so you get one sent from your own country. AAA in the US accepts online applications from abroad (5 business days to process, plus the time to ship it back; check the delivery address when you apply), and in Korea someone else can apply for you (check how you’ll receive it when they apply).

    Whether you can rent with a permit sent from home depends on the company, so ask the company you booked with first, and tell them when you expect it to arrive.

    If you use a translation

    You can get a new one inside Japan: with JAF, you apply online and pick it up at a convenience store (plan on 1–2 weeks). How to pick it up is in “Picking Up Your JAF Translation at a Convenience Store“.

    If you’re from Taiwan, you can also get one at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan (台北駐日経済文化代表処) in Tokyo, Osaka or Yokohama, for 400 yen per copy; you pick it up a few days after applying (in Osaka, 5 business days later). For Yokohama, check before you go whether you need an appointment. Whichever office you use, check first with the company you booked with that you can rent with a translation from the representative office.

    If you’re in Tokyo, there’s also ALADDIN (訪日運転者支援協会, an association that supports visiting drivers). Its counter is in Shiba, Minato-ku, open weekdays 10:00 to 15:00, and as a rule you can pick up your translation by the next business day.

    But Nippon Rent-A-Car and Times Car Rental ask for the original license at the counter, so if what you forgot is the original license itself, getting a new translation won’t let you drive.

    If you were turned away over the address, get a new translation with the address exactly as it is on your license, and you can go back to the counter with that.

    Once your documents arrive, start your road trip

    Nippon Rent-A-Car, Times Car Rental, ORIX Rent a Car and Toyota Rent a Car all say the same: without your documents in order, you can’t rent a car. At Nippon Rent-A-Car, if you drive without a valid license, the insurance and coverage don’t apply either.

    Drive once your documents have arrived, and your trip is back to normal.

    For next time, what to check before you leave is in “Driving in Japan as a Tourist — Your Own License, Plus an International Driving Permit (IDP) or a Japanese Translation, Depending on Your Country”.

    ※ How it’s handled when your license documents aren’t in order, canceling a booking, how long a translation takes to issue, and which languages interpreting and help desks offer differ between companies and organizations, and can change. If you actually run into trouble, follow the guidance from the company you booked with and the issuing organization.

    Official sources we checked (6)