Winter Tires (Snow Tires), 4WD and Chains — Whether You Need Them Depends on Where You’re Going

Before you go

When you book a rental car for winter in Japan, the screen shows options for “スタッドレスタイヤ” (studless tires = winter tires) and “4WD.”

Which should you add? Do you need chains too? If you’ve never driven on snow, this is where it gets confusing.

The answer depends not on the car, but on where you’re going.

Will you go into an area where it snows? Will you drive mountain roads or over mountain passes? Once you know that, you know what to choose.

There are three answers, depending on where you’re going.

Rent in snow country and drive there → winter tires are often already fitted (depending on the company and season)

Rent outside snow country and drive into snowy areas → add winter tires when you book

Lots of steep climbs or mountain roads → add 4WD

The time you really need chains is when heavy snow brings a “チェーン規制” (chain restriction: chains required even with winter tires). We’ll sum that up at the end.

1 Winter tires If you’re heading onto snowy roads, these come first

If you’re going onto snowy or icy roads, book a car with winter tires.

What matters isn’t where you rent the car, but where you drive it.

Nippon Rent-A-Car says that even if you rent where there’s no snow, you need winter tires if you’ll drive in snowy areas. Even if it isn’t snowing where you pick up the car, it may snow where you’re going.

So where are the “snowy areas”? Nippon Rent-A-Car lists these as popular snowy destinations.

Tohoku, Hokuriku, Zao, Yuzawa, Kinugawa, Nikko, Kusatsu, Karuizawa, Manza, Alpine Route, Shirakawa-go, Lake Kawaguchi, Hakuba, Shiga Kogen, Nozawa Onsen, Tottori, Aso, and more.

Karuizawa and Lake Kawaguchi, close to Tokyo, are on it, and so is Aso in Kyushu. Take a look and see if where you’re going is on this list.

The season is longer than you might think. There are areas in Japan where snow falls from the end of September to May.

Why winter tires?

With a winter-tire car, you can head on your own into the snowy hot spring towns on the list above, or onto roads through snowy scenery, wherever you choose.

On snow, regular tires have a harder time stopping and a harder time climbing hills. In a JAF test on a snowy road, regular tires took about 1.7 times the stopping distance of winter tires. In another test, they couldn’t climb a snowy slope with a 12% grade.

There are rules, too. The Kyushu Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism says that driving on snowy or icy roads without any anti-slip measure such as winter tires or chains is a violation of the law (the details are set by each prefecture’s rules).

Without winter tires, there are also times the rules won’t let you drive.

On NEXCO CENTRAL expressways, when a “冬用タイヤ規制” (winter tire restriction: cars must have winter tires or chains) is in place, cars with neither winter tires nor chains aren’t allowed to continue, and have to exit at the nearest interchange. Nippon Rent-A-Car says it may refuse to rent you a car if you’re heading to snowy areas without winter tires.

With winter tires on, worries like these on ordinary winter roads get much smaller.

2 Rent in snow country, and winter tires are often already fitted

The easiest way to get winter tires is to rent in snow country.

In snowy areas, some companies fit winter tires on every car throughout the winter. You don’t need to request them.

During the periods when winter tires come fitted, a winter seasonal rate is added (according to both companies).

The periods differ by company.

For example, even in Hokkaido, the winter-tire period ends on April 20 at Nippon Rent-A-Car and on May 5 at Toyota Rent a Car. Toyota Rent a Car also notes that the periods may change.

If you’re renting in early spring or early winter, check on the booking screen or in the company’s information whether winter tires come fitted.

Take the train as far as the edge of snow country, and rent the car there. Plan it that way, and you have one less thing to think about with winter tires.

3 When you rent outside snow country and drive into snowy areas

If you rent in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka or similar and head for the snowy mountains, choose winter tires on the booking screen.

These areas aren’t on the two companies’ lists above. Nippon Rent-A-Car says that outside the areas where winter tires come fitted, it prepares a car with regular tires unless you book winter tires. It also says the number of cars with winter tires is limited.

At Toyota Rent a Car and ORIX Rent a Car, you can choose winter tires as an option on the booking screen. Some companies handle this differently by season, area and branch (Times Car Rental). If it doesn’t come up on the screen, ask the company you’re booking with.

Aso and Kuju in Kyushu are also snowy destinations in winter. Nippon Rent-A-Car lists them among the areas where it asks you to request winter tires. The Kyushu Regional Development Bureau also warns that even areas that don’t usually get snow can suddenly get heavy snow.

Add winter tires when you book, and a car rented in Tokyo can take you into the snowy scenery of Karuizawa or Lake Kawaguchi.

4 4WD Something to add if there are lots of steep hills or mountain roads

4WD doesn’t replace winter tires.

NEXCO CENTRAL says that during a winter tire restriction, even 4WD cars aren’t allowed to continue without winter tires or chains.

So what does 4WD help with?

In a JAF test (four cars, all with new winter tires), the two 4WD cars made it up a very steep snowy slope, while the two cars without 4WD slipped partway and couldn’t climb it.

Stopping was a different story. On flat roads, there was no big difference in stopping distance, and on a downhill slope, the 4WD cars needed a longer distance to stop.

JAF says that 4WD doesn’t make your stopping distance any shorter.

In other words, 4WD helps you climb, but it doesn’t help you stop.

In the same test, all four cars made it up a gentle slope.

Winter tires come first. Then, if your trip has lots of steep hills or mountain roads, adding 4WD helps on the climbs.

You specify 4WD when you book (Toyota Rent a Car; at Nippon Rent-A-Car, you can choose it on the same screen as winter tires).

5 Chains The tool for the “chain restriction” on heavy-snow days

There are two situations where chains come in.

Ordinary winter

The “冬用タイヤ規制” (winter tire restriction) on NEXCO CENTRAL expressways lets you drive on as long as you have either winter tires or chains.

With a winter-tire car, you can keep driving even on days when this restriction is in place.

The “chain restriction” on heavy-snow days

The other one is the “チェーン規制” (chain restriction).

It may be put in place on set sections of road during exceptionally heavy snow, the kind that brings a 大雪特別警報 (Special Heavy Snow Warning) or an emergency announcement about heavy snow (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).

At those times, you can’t get through without chains, even with winter tires on. The same goes for 4WD. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism explains that this is because 4WD cars are heavy, and when you brake hard on a downhill slope, they need a longer distance to stop.

Chains can be unavailable to rent. Nippon Rent-A-Car and Times Car Rental don’t rent out chains. At Toyota Rent a Car, it depends on the branch, so you contact the reservation center after you book.

Those are days when the road would have closed anyway

The chain restriction is a system for letting only cars with chains through during heavy snow that, until now, would have closed the road.

In other words, the chain restriction is put in place on days of snow heavy enough that the road would have closed anyway.

On days like that, one option is not to push over the pass, and to make it a day of hot springs at your accommodation and watching the snow instead.

We’ll cover which roads tend to close, and what to do if they do, in “Japan Winter Road Conditions: Where to Check Road Closures in English,” and the Japanese on electronic signs in “A Mini Japanese Dictionary for Snowy Roads.”

If you’re not used to snowy roads

If you’ve never driven on snowy roads, you don’t have to try to get everywhere by car.

Leave the travel within snow country to trains, buses and tours, and use the car only on stretches with less snow. You can choose a mix like that, too.

We’ll cover how to drive on snowy roads in “How to Drive on Snowy Roads.”

For now, just this

If you’re going into snowy areas, book a car with winter tires.

4WD is something to add when there are lots of steep climbs.

On days of snow heavy enough for a chain restriction, make it a day you don’t drive.

Once you know where you’re going, this is all you need to choose your winter gear.