Were just about finishing up our Japan trip, and we hired my dream car for two days, a Nissan R34 GTR from a rental company in Noda just a bit outside Tokyo. This particular company is the only one that rents out this particular car for whole days or more, but they didn’t allow rental of an ETC card, which was fine for the first day of driving as we went up into the mountains to Mt Haruna, then over to Mt Akagi, then made our way back to our hotel in Shinjuku for the night, and could enter the “General” toll gates and pay with cash/card. My plan for day two was to take the bridge over and under Tokyo Bay to the Chiba Prefecture, do some driving and sight seeing over there, then head back up north to Noda to drop off the car. We set off in the morning, trying to navigate and find an entry to the expressway that the maps were telling us to go on that isnt an “ETC Only” entry to get over there. After spending about an hour driving around, getting very very ticked off, we decided to make our way out of Tokyo and drive through some random countryside and see what we could find for the day. I would have thought Japan would have a decent toll system in place but turns out theyre many many years behind other countries in that aspect. This could have all been avoided if we just had an ETC card, but from my research, i couldnt find a way to get one unless we were living in Japan, or we rented a car from a rental company that rented out ETC cards too, but then i wouldnt have been able to drive my dream car which was kind of the point
Is there ANY way for next time if we decide to do this again, that we can get an ETC card from somewhere? Or even a way of seeing all the ETC only entrances to be able to find a way to get on one that isnt ETC only? I was so temped to just drive up to an ETC only gate and just hope I could pay the toll with credit card there and just cop the abuse/dirty looks from other drivers who were caught behind me. Driving the car was awesome, but the whole tolls situation and not being able to go where I wanted was a huge bummer
6 comments
Pretty sure an ETC card is tied to the registration of your owned vehicle, so unless you’re a Japan-licensed driver who owns a car here, it’s a no go.
Yeah just rent from somewhere that does rent etc cards. Sorry it probably won’t be your dream car. But this is most practical way to solve your problem. Nippon rent a car or Toyota rent a car are popular.
Almost all the major toll roads have option for cash. But I never pay attention because I always rent a etc card.
Do you know what Expressway you were on that was ETC only? I’m only familiar with Chuo Expressway and it’s pretty decent as ETC was on the right and cash on the left. If you are using Google Maps you could click no toll roads so you don’t have this problem but will make your destination time that much longer. Improvise, adapt, overcome.
You could always just choose the route option to turn off tolls and/or avoid highways. I lived in Japan for years and there were always roads nearly parallel to the highway or nearby if you’re willing to sacrifice some extra time. Plus it’s much more scenic sometimes.
The ETC-only entrances are a new addition the expressways. The original manned toll gates that accept cash have not been closed. You just need to be patient and keep driving along the expressway until you find a standard toll gate. For nearly 40 years I have easily used all expressways in the Kanto area without an ETC card (to lazy to buy the on-board unit for my old Kei car).
As for accessing the Aqua Line running under Tokyo Bay to Chiba, you can add the name of the gate closest to you in Google Maps.
First, pick the name of the gate and add “料金所.” Google Maps will take you straight to the toll gate.
You can copy the name of the gate closest to you from this list of the standard toll gates:
https://www.shutoko.jp/fee/fee-info/pay_cash/adjustment_machine/
To be honest, this is kind of cumbersome. So when I am in Tokyo, I just keep driving along the highway running along/below the expressway until I find the toll gate.
Outside of the Shuto Expressway, other major expressways are much easier to navigate whether you use ETC or not (Tomei, Chuo, Chuo-Kanetsu, etc.)
Hope this work-around helps!
You need the Yahoo map app.
It has an option for navigation routes without ETC cards.
Info here: https://about.yahoo.co.jp/pr/release/2022/03/01b/