Any way to pickup and drop off rental car at different locations?

16 comments

1. One way rentals are possible but kind of expensive, as you’re paying for someone to drive the car back.

2. Yeah we once drove from Tokyo to Osaka and came back on the shinkansen

3. Yes, same as anywhere in the world. There are also private shuttle services and I guess a buss would be okay assuming you are not taking more than 3 suitcases?

4. A simple question like this could have gone in the question thread?

   a 2 second google search gives hundreds of results for 片道　レンタカー. Add your location and boom, rent away.

5. yeah they charge you out the ass for it though

6. Any one of the big rentals car dealers (Toyota, Times etc) would let you pick up a car and drop it at a different location at a shop of the same brand. I do it all the time when going on long driving trips essentially picking up a car in one prefecture and drop it off at another prefecture’s shop and then fly/train back home to Tokyo.

   Heck Toyota’s rental car webpage literally lets you pick the pickup and dropoff shop from a pulldown list for an instant quote on its landing page…..

7. Depends if the company offers it, the big rental companies do.

   The cheapy ones don’t.

   I did it in 2019 and it was about 3万円 on top of the rental price.

8. Not possible to have the suitcases delivered to the airport and take the train?

9. Look up クロネコ宅急便. It’s a delivery service. You can bring your suitcases to almost any convenience store a few days before your scheduled flight. Be sure to check your flight details (day/time/ and airport departing terminal).

   Kuroneko will pick them up and deliver them to your departure terminal. Usually it costs between 2000¥-5000¥ per bag depending on size and travel distance.

   At the airport, follow signs with a black cat (kuroneko), and you’ll be able to collect your baggage. Easy peasy.

10. What fdokinawa said – ship the suitcases to the airport the day before you leave. There are lots of things from Japan that I wish other countries had, that service is near the top of the list.

11. Drop fees for rental cars are high in Japan. Best bet is getting your bags delivered. Search ‘Airport Ta-Q-bin’ for Yamato’s service.

12. You can do that with Times rental.

13. As several people have suggested, send the suitcases by Takkyubin （クロネコYamato宅急便) to the airport and you can collect them at the departure hall before check-in.

14. Mailing your bags + train would be way easier, but one-way rentals are possible (although IME the additional one-way fee *starts* around 10,000yen and can get pretty high).

15. I’ve done it. Look for a “乗り捨て” option on the rental car site – some of them only offer it at certain locations.

16. Yes, differing pick up and drop off is a standard option. Won’t be cheap though.