Mario Kart in Tokyo: Prices, Licenses and What It's Really Like
TripToJapan.com Editorial Team
May 13, 2026
Contents
You are sitting roughly twenty centimeters off the asphalt, at eye level with the wheel nuts of a delivery truck, waiting for the light to change at Shibuya Crossing. Several hundred people are filming you. This is a real road with real traffic and you are in it, which is the entire appeal and also the reason the rules around it have tightened.
Street go-karting in Tokyo costs roughly ¥10,000 to ¥22,000 depending on route and time of day, and you cannot do it without a valid International Driving Permit alongside your home license. The karts are no longer Mario-themed. Nintendo sued, Nintendo won, and the company now operates as Street Kart with superhero and anime costumes instead.
Tourists dress up in superhero character costumes
Is Mario Kart in Tokyo still legal?
The activity is legal. The branding was not.
Nintendo sued the operator, then trading as MariCAR, for trademark and copyright infringement over the name and the rental of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Princess Peach costumes. The Tokyo District Court found for Nintendo in 2018 and ordered ¥10 million in damages plus a ban on renting the costumes. The company appealed. In 2020 the Intellectual Property High Court upheld the ruling and raised the damages to ¥50 million.
The operator rebranded as Street Kart and dropped the Nintendo characters. What you get now is a costume box of superheroes, anime characters, and animal onesies. Several operators will let you drive in a Mario costume you brought yourself, since the restriction is on them renting it to you.
The karts themselves never changed, and neither did the routes.
Mario Kart in Shibuya
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Do you need a license?
Yes, and this is where most bookings fall apart.
You need one of the following, plus your passport:
A Japanese driver's license, or
An International Driving Permit issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention, carried together with your home country's license, or
An official Japanese translation of your license, if your country is not a 1949 Geneva signatory
The IDP has to be the 1949 Geneva version. The 1926, 1968, and other conventions are not accepted in Japan, which catches people out. Drivers from Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Taiwan, Monaco, Estonia, and Slovenia generally cannot use an IDP at all and need a certified Japanese translation instead, available through JAF or their embassy.
Get the IDP at home before you travel. In most countries it is issued over the counter by the national motoring organization for a small fee and takes minutes. You cannot obtain one in Japan, and no operator can issue one for you.
You must be 18 or over. An IDP is typically valid for one year.
Take this seriously. In 2024 a Tokyo go-kart operator was charged over renting to foreign tourists who lacked valid licenses, and checks at the counter are now strict. Turning up without the right paperwork means losing your booking and usually your deposit.
Mario Karts
What it costs
Prices move with the season, the route, and how far ahead you book.
Short city loop, around one hour: roughly ¥10,000 to ¥13,000 with an early booking
Standard two-hour route: roughly ¥13,000 to ¥18,000
Evening and night slots: ¥18,000 to ¥25,000, the most expensive and the most popular
Tokyo Bay and Rainbow Bridge routes: from about ¥7,500 to ¥15,000 when booked early
Costume rental is usually included. Photography by the guide is often included as well, though some operators charge for the full set of images. Fuel and insurance are included, and a refundable deposit is standard.
Booking two to four weeks ahead gets the lower rates. Weekend evening slots go first.
Where the tours run
Go-kart Experience
Operators run from several bases across the city, and the starting point determines what you actually see.
Shibuya is the headline route, because it crosses Shibuya Scramble. It is also the busiest traffic and the most stop-start driving.
Akihabara runs through the electronics district and often out toward the Imperial Palace moats. Good for a first ride, since the roads are wider. More on the area sits in our guide to Akihabara's electric town.
Asakusa takes in Senso-ji and the Sumida River, with Skytree in view for much of it. Our things to do in Asakusa guide covers what else is there.
Tokyo Bay and Odaiba routes cross the Rainbow Bridge, which is the best driving of the lot: open road, sea on both sides, and the skyline behind you.
MariCAR go-karts
What the ride is actually like
You get a briefing, a costume, and a short practice loop in a car park before going out. The karts are road-legal single-seaters with a top speed around 60 km/h, though you will rarely exceed 40 in traffic.
You ride in a convoy behind a guide, and you stay in it. The guide sets the pace, signals turns, and stops for photographs at the good spots. There is no racing and no overtaking, which surprises people expecting the video game.
Mario Kart Rider
The experience is loud, cold, and exhilarating. You are in open air at road level, breathing traffic, with no doors and no roof. Drivers in ordinary cars wave. Pedestrians film you constantly. If you dislike being looked at, this is not the activity for you.
Two hours is longer than it sounds when you are sitting in a low seat with your knees up, and the night routes are considerably colder than the temperature suggests.
Street karting at Akihabara
Safety and road rules
You are a road user in Japan, bound by the same rules as any driver.
Traffic drives on the left. Seatbelts are fitted and must be worn. Helmets are not universally required on these karts, but most operators provide them and wearing one is sensible at 40 km/h with no crumple zone.
Japan has zero tolerance on drink driving. Not a low limit, zero, with criminal penalties that extend to anyone who supplied the alcohol. Do not have a beer at lunch before an afternoon booking.
Stay in the convoy, keep a full kart length back, and signal early. Do not use a phone while moving. Do not stop for photographs anywhere the guide has not stopped.
Street Kart Tokyo
What to wear and bring
Dress warmer than the forecast. At road level and in motion you lose heat fast, and this is the single most common complaint from people who booked an evening slot in November.
Closed shoes are required. Gloves are worth having from October to April. Tie back long hair and secure any hat, since anything loose will leave at speed.
Costumes go over your clothes and are usually one size, so bulky coats underneath are awkward. A thin thermal layer works better than a thick jacket.
Bring your license, your IDP, and your passport. Operators check all three.
Cosplayers doing a kart tour in the city
Action cameras are generally allowed if they are properly mounted, and handheld filming while driving is not. Most operators take photographs throughout and hand them over afterward, which is the easier option.
Is it worth doing?
If you want to see Tokyo from an angle no other activity offers, yes. Crossing Shibuya Scramble at road level, or running the Rainbow Bridge at night, is genuinely memorable in a way that a bus tour is not.
If you are uncomfortable in heavy traffic, dislike attention, or cannot get an IDP in time, skip it. There is no version of this that avoids real roads.
Opinions among Tokyo residents are mixed, since convoys of costumed tourists in slow karts do not improve anyone's commute. Staying tight in the convoy, not blocking junctions, and keeping the noise down at night is the courteous way to do it.
Booking and planning around it
Book two to four weeks out for the best rates, longer for a weekend evening. Confirm the license requirement at the point of booking rather than assuming, since terms differ slightly between operators.
Allow half a day. A two-hour drive plus briefing, costume, and paperwork runs to about three hours door to door.
Getting to the depot is straightforward on the subway, and our guide to Japan transport basics covers the passes worth having.
There is plenty more to fill the rest of the day with across the rest of Tokyo.
You can also browse experiences around the city and build the day around whichever slot you manage to book.
For a longer trip, a two-week route through Japan puts a couple of days in Tokyo at the start, which is the right place for this: do it early, while the novelty of the city is still doing half the work.
If you would rather have the days planned around it, a week in Tokyo at a local pace leaves room for a long afternoon on the road without losing the rest of the trip.
