When you need it
This site offers information based on guidance from the police, rental car companies and others, as a starting point when something goes wrong on your trip (as of September 2026; it isn’t an explanation of the law). How things are handled differs by company, and it can change. When you actually run into trouble, follow the instructions of the police and the guidance of the company you rented from.
You got back to the car, and there was a yellow sticker on the window.
It’s a parking violation sticker (放置車両確認標章, notice of an unattended vehicle).
There are three steps, and you finish all of them while you still have the car.
1. Go to the police station written on the sticker
The police station to go to is written on the sticker.
That means you don’t have to figure out which station to go to.
2. Get the papers at the police station, and pay the penalty
When you go through the procedure at the police station, you get papers.
Take those papers to a bank, post office or other financial institution and pay the penalty.
When you pay, you get a receipt.
3. Show the papers and the receipt when you return the car
When you return the car, show the staff the papers you got from the police and the receipt.
All five — Toyota Rent a Car, Times Car Rental, Nippon Rent-A-Car, ORIX Rent a Car and Budget Rent a Car — have you take care of it before you return the car, then show the papers when you do.
At Budget Rent a Car, the police contact the company, and the company asks you to move the car and go to the police station.
The names of the papers (Japanese to show)
Here are the Japanese names of the papers you get, next to their English names (from Times Car Rental’s guidance).
交通反則告知書 (Notice of Traffic Violation)
反則金の納付書 (Payment of Traffic Violation Fine)
納付書・領収証書等 (Payment Slip & Receipt)
When you return the car, the two to show the staff are the 交通反則告知書 and the 納付書・領収証書等.
If something goes wrong at a parking lot
What to do when something goes wrong at a parking lot is summed up in “When Something Goes Wrong in a Japanese Parking Lot — Press the Intercom First.”
For now, just this
The police station on the sticker → pay at a bank or post office → show the papers when you return the car.
※ How things are handled differs by region and company, and it can change.
