Hi all – driving to Kusatsu in a couple weeks and looks like there might be some rain/ice on the roads so looking to get a car with snow tires. Tried renting through hertz, but got an error because I selected snow tires… tried through Toyota Rent a Car English web site and it doesn’t have an option for snow tires. Looked at the Japanese version of the Toyota Rent a Car site and the only option that *might* be snow tires is listed as スタッドレスタイヤ (“Studless Tire”). Googling doesn’t seem completely clear to me whether Studless Tires are considered snow tires.
If anyone has already gone down this rabbit hole and can confirm, I’d greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!
2 comments
Studless mean that there is no stud in the tire : [https://tyre.dunlop.co.jp/tyre/lineup/studless/faq/](https://tyre.dunlop.co.jp/tyre/lineup/studless/faq/)
No idea how it’s called in English, but in French (in Canada) we also call it nails. They are basically metal studs installed in the tire. From the article I linked, it say it is no longer allowed in Japan as it damage the road, but for reference, where I live, it is mandatory to have winter tire in winter and most people have “studless” tire anyway.
From what I can see, they call tire with studs スパイクタイヤ, or spike tire wile the winter tire that do not have studs are called スタッドレスタイヤ studless tire… kind of counterintuitive….
Yes, [studless tires](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4) are a type of snow tire and what you get when you rent a car for driving in snowy conditions.
Edit: Note, if the roads get pretty bad, or are predicted to get bad, they will set up [tire checks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7r1Q2dV-SY) and stop you if you don’t have correct tires.