Tolls in Japan?

13 comments

1. There is an English version: https://search.w-nexco.co.jp/en/map.php?p=50

2. I would not recommend driving in Japan, public transport is amazing and easily accessible, fast, clean and reliable and can be reasonably priced if you have a rail pass
   For example Tokyo to Hakata driving 1088 kms time 12-14 hours (including stops for food etc)
   Shinkansen (bullet train) 5-7 hours

3. The JP rail pass is also a solid option for travel. Driving is more of a hassle than it’s worth though. Parking alone will cost you about as much as the railpass.

4. I don’t think there’s an English toll calculator, so I can’t help you out there.* (Edit: I see that someone has posted an English site below) I use Navitime but that’s in Japanese. I can help you get an indicative cost if you share your itinerary. Some general advice.

   Tolls are exorbitant in Japan, but tourists-only expressway passes help reduce that cost somewhat: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2354.html

   Weekends are off-peak and you get discounts if you pay via ETC card.

   One-way fees are very expensive for out-of-prefecture returns. It is best to plan your route as a loop, so that you return the car where you had picked it up.

   In some areas, expressways may not save you that much time over un-tolled roads. For example, in the more rural prefectures, expressways are often one lane in each direction, with no passing except at the dedicated passing lanes every 10km or so.

5. I couldn’t imagine driving here while not being able to read the language. I’d really reconsider driving. Maybe only rent a car for a day or so to reach a place off the beaten path from the train.

   Gas station are also far and few between… Plus many of them close at night and on the weekends.

6. It is interesting to see many comments recommending not to take a car.

   Actually, I’m on the no car side. I would generally agree to get a car only for a couple of days if you want to go deeper in the countryside, in place with poor or no public transport.

   I have been to 37 prefectures so far, always using public transportation, mostly train, but sometime use of local bus to reach the places I want to see. I would say that I’ve never seen using public transport a problem to visit places I want to see. There is still many places where I want to go and still no plan to rent a car.

   In any case, I think it always depend on where you want to go, number of people in the group, etc. to see it it’s worth using.

7. If you use Google maps route finding the cost of tolls is displayed in the results.

8. Thank you everyone for your responses. I’m guessing it’s not the best idea to drive across country. Just thought it would be more fun to actually drive to various cities and enjoy the trip with my friend rather than the stress of catching/missing trains and carrying luggage etc, but thanks for all the responses!

9. I have actually driven a lot in Japan on vacation and loved it. We’ve done a large portion of southern half of Honshu and most of Shikoku and Kyushu in a rental car. It was a lot easier once we were doing it than our anxiety beforehand and allowed us to visit places we would have never had the time to get to otherwise. Having a car was also a really nice way to distance ourselves and have *our* space. Highly recommend it to anyone looking to get outside the big/medium-sized cities and out into the country.

   The way we did it was we booked a kei car (Daihatsu Move) a few weeks in advance of our trip and got our international licenses from AAA in the states. We picked up the car in downtown Osaka. One thing to make sure of is that your car rental includes an ETC card for the tolls and bring all your paperwork from booking, passport, etc. You’ll pay the ETC fees when you return the car. Yes, you pay for the fast expressways, but it saves you an incredible amount of time. Japan is very hilly and most of the country non-express roads are small, endlessly winding and very slow going. Fun some times for sure, but other times it’s nice to just get where you’re going.

   Looking back through costs, the car rental for 8 days in spring 2019 was $383US total through easycarrentals for Orix. I don’t remember gas costs, but it wasn’t much for that little car and we only filled it a few times plus a top off before returning it. Tolls for 8 days driving was about $300US if I remember right. Seems high, but we covered something like 1200 miles, most of which was on the expressway system around nearly half the country. All in all it was an awesome way to see the country and get to far-flung corners of the country. I used mostly Apple Maps for navigation and come Google and nothing led us astray. Once you’re out of the main cities, driving like anywhere else really. Road signs are easy to follow, most everyone drives slowly and predictably and parking really wasn’t much a issue everywhere we went.

10. Tolls are immensely expensive. Don’t think if driving as a cheap option, but if you have 2 other passengers it can help justify the cost. Also, it is possible to avoid toll roads entirely and experience the countryside. It is slow going but a lot of fun.

11. When I rented a car through Nippon Rent a Car, it was surprisingly cheap. It was a bit pricey since we had to pay around $120/day, but we rented a 4WD Odyssey with snow tires and a ski rack.

    Gas is no worse than California. I drove alllll over Hokkaido and remember being surprised at how little I spent on gas.

    I didn’t have to pay for ANY tolls – they exempt foreigners from ETC. I remember being baffled at the toll-road costs (like $50 for a 2-hour fwy drive), but it explains why their roads are so well maintained.

    Downside is I think they recently stopped that offering due to COVID-19 issues.
    https://en.driveplaza.com/drawari/hokkaido_expass/

12. I’ve done a a fair bit of leisure driving around Japan, and the best tip I can give is to avoid the toll roads as much as possible unless you just need to get from A to B as quickly as possible; The expressways are, for most of the part, rather dull to drive on. As an added bonus, you save a few yennies on the toll fares to use on fuel instead.

    When doing leisure travel I rely on the expressways to get in and out of the big metropolitan areas and their suburban zones of boredom, but once you’re out, you’ll generally have much more fun taking the chill path and driving the regular highways. And remember, the most fun route is seldom the fastest or most direct one, so turn off that navi feature and route yourself the old-fashioned way, preferring double- or triple digit roads to single- and E-ones.

13. General rule of thumb is that for every 100 km expect to pay approximately 2,000 yen.