I’m going to Japan in July will be landing in Kumamoto, I would like to explore Japan on a road trip (self driven car) and would like to end off at Tokyo , is this possible or does all rent a car in Japan need to drop off the car back at the same rental space?
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You can drop the car at a different location, but it will cost more. You can check different location company, many do have option to search for a car and you can say what will be the pick-up and return location. You can check on Japan Guide page, they have links to different car rental company [https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2024.html](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2024.html)
You can, just know that it will likely be significantly more expensive than returning it to where you rented from.
Yes, it’s possible.
There is a fee, that obviously scales with the distance. Some rental companies also has an extra fee when traveling between the islands (like you traveling between Kyushu and Honshu).
In your case, with Times, the one way fee alone would be over 100000 yen.
IMO you’d be better off cost and convenience-wise to use trains as much as possible, and then in particular rural areas you want to see, renting a car for just a day or two.
The one-way fee are basically you are paying someone to drive the car back.
Are you coming alone? Train are going to be significantly cheaper if it’s 1-2 persons, because gas and toll in Japan are expensive.
Regardless of viability of this road trip this summer: a thing to note here is that it might be more economical to rent a series of cars depending on the route you take, especially if spending multiple days in urban areas (especially in Kansai).
We did this with Nissan rentals. It was pretty expensive, in fact, I think the one way charge was 3 or 4 times more expensive than the initial rental.
Definitely an amazing experience though.
We did a few road trip in Japan by car, 100% worth it, driving nice twisty mountain roads and seeing remote places where you are the only tourist is awesome.
It does cost more than train + additional fees for the one way location but if your goal is to actually drive, then go for it!
We used Toyota Rent a car for basic commuter cars and some less known company north of tokyo where we rented a supra to drive in the mountains initial d style 🙂
Is Japan open to enter this July?
Tolls are insanely high. A year ago I drove from Osaka to Saijo / Shigoku and back, and it was approx 190 EUR toll only :-/
A return flight to Matsuyama would have been approx 65 EUR…
BTW, make yourself aquainted with the laws concerning driving licenses. It takes approx half a day and approx 3000 Yen + transport to get a translation, if you are eligible.
[https://english.jaf.or.jp/driving-in-japan/drive-in-japan](https://english.jaf.or.jp/driving-in-japan/drive-in-japan)
japan has amazing train systems
I think the way to maximise car fun and minimise cost is to do a series of circles.
For example, fly in to Beppu, hire car, do a loop of Kyushu in a car, return car at Beppu. Then get the overnight ferry from Beppu to Kobe/Osaka, hire car in Kobe/Osaka, do a loop of Onomichi, Hiroshima, Hagi, Izumo, Tottori, Shiga… then do a few days carless in Kyoto and Osaka and Kobe before hiring another car to do a loop of Shikoku and Wakayama say… then return that car and get train to Nagoya. Hire a car in Nagoya, do a loop around Fukui, Kanazawa, Shirakawago, Takayama, Matsumoto, and back to Nagoya via Nakasendo etc and so on.
It’s not quite as cool as a one way drive but you’d definitely save on the one-way drop off fees, and you could also save on the days you don’t need the car (when exploring cities).
Just meet up with Chris from Abroad in Japan and tell him you need a ride Across Japan.
https://youtu.be/utCH1qfKRdQ
I actually thought foreigners couldn’t drive in Japan. Don’t know why I thought that!
Not sure what your absolute “musts” are, but I’d seriously look into doing some form of circular route instead if at all possible.
You’d pay several days rent alone in dropoff fees (last time I did something like this, dropping a Kagoshima car off in Hakata was an extra 10k+k yen), and you’d potentially limit your options in terms of rental option choices. Do your homework at least, and check out also the non-oneway offers for a similar length (or longer!) with roughly the same dates . Niconico has a 20% discount on over one week rentals, and if you book through Rakuten you can usually get cheaper deals than on their main site.
Orherwise, if you have your mind set on something like this, I’d highly recommend to do it and not just go with the “sensible” (admittedly excellent) public transport option others are hawking. Having a car long-term at your disposal is a very different kind of Japan experience that opens a lot pf possiabilties along the way.
This with the assumption you mostly want to skimp on the major metropolitan areas and focus more om the boonies and “small”town side of Japan. Kyushu-Tokyo I’d skip the Tokai/Sanyo areas of urban sprawl and instead either go up the sea of Japan side, or down to Shikoku and then over Wakayama.