Road Trip Japan: Best Drives, Car Rental and Costs

Is driving in Japan difficult?

Less than people expect. Traffic drives on the left, roads are well maintained, signs on major routes carry English, and Japanese drivers are patient and rule-abiding.

What does catch visitors out:

• City driving, especially Tokyo and Osaka, where parking is scarce and expensive. Avoid it entirely

• Narrow rural roads, often one lane with passing places, common on peninsulas and in the mountains

• Toll costs, which add up fast. Tokyo to Kyoto runs to roughly ¥11,000 in tolls alone

• Parking rules, which are strictly enforced with no tolerance for on-street parking

• Speed limits, typically 40 to 60 km/h on ordinary roads and 80 to 100 on expressways, with speed cameras

Alcohol is a zero-tolerance offense with severe penalties, including for passengers who let a driver drink.

Renting a car in Japan

Toyota Rent a Car, Nippon Rent-A-Car, Times and Orix have desks at every airport and most large stations. English-language booking is available on all of them.

• Compact car: ¥6,000 to ¥9,000 a day

• Mid-size or SUV: ¥10,000 to ¥15,000 a day

• Insurance waiver: ¥1,100 to ¥2,200 a day, worth taking

• ETC card rental: around ¥330, which pays for itself immediately on tolls

• Fuel: roughly ¥170 a liter, and most stations are full service

Take the ETC card. It runs the automatic toll gates, gets you the discounted rate, and saves stopping at every barrier.

Regional expressway passes for foreign visitors still exist for Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kyushu and the Sanin-Setouchi-Shikoku area, running from around ¥6,200 for two days up to ¥23,800 for ten. The nationwide Japan Expressway Pass has been withdrawn, so check what covers your specific region when you book the car.

Before committing, it is worth thinking through whether to drive or take the train, because for the Golden Route the answer is almost always the train.

Hokkaido: the big skies drive

Shimanami Kaidō

Hokkaido's open north is where driving in Japan makes the most sense. Distances are long, public transport is thin, traffic is light, and the roads run straight across farmland in a way nothing else in the country does.

The classic loop runs Sapporo to Furano and Biei for the flower fields in July, then east to Lake Akan and the Shiretoko Peninsula, a UNESCO site with brown bears and sea ice in winter. Allow a week to ten days.

Roads are closed by snow from November to April in the mountains, and winter driving here needs studless tires and experience. Summer is the season.

Shimanami Kaido

Owakudani Valley

Six bridges link Onomichi on Honshu to Imabari on Shikoku across the islands of the Seto Inland Sea, a 60 km route that is world-famous for cycling and also a good drive. Each bridge gives you a different angle on the island-studded water below.

The expressway toll for the full crossing is around ¥4,000 for a standard car. Stop at Setoda for lemon products, at the Kirosan observatory above the Kurushima Kaikyo bridge, and at Oyamazumi Shrine, which holds a large collection of medieval armor.

You can drive it in 90 minutes without stopping, which would be a waste. Give it a day.

Izu Peninsula and Hakone

Chirihama Nagisa Driveway

Image Credit: Howard Stanbury

The Izu Peninsula south of the Hakone mountains is the easiest road trip from Tokyo, about two hours to the top of the peninsula and another two to the southern tip.

The east coast road passes hot spring towns at Atami and Ito, the Jogasaki coast has a suspension bridge over black volcanic cliffs, and the west coast from Dogashima north gives you Fuji across the bay at sunset, which is the reason to go clockwise.

Hakone itself has the Ashinoko Skyline and Izu Skyline toll roads, both scenic and both charging around ¥1,000 per section. Weekends are heavy with Tokyo traffic, so go midweek.

The Noto Peninsula and Kanazawa

Coastline

The Noto Peninsula juts into the Sea of Japan north of Kanazawa in Ishikawa, with terraced rice paddies running down to the water at Shiroyone Senmaida, salt farms on the west coast and fishing villages that see almost no visitors.

The peninsula was hit by a major earthquake on January 1, 2024, and reconstruction is ongoing. Some coastal roads and facilities are still affected, so check current road conditions with the Ishikawa prefectural site before planning a route here.

Kanazawa itself is worth two days at the start or end, with Kenroku-en garden, the Nagamachi samurai district and the Omicho market.

Wakayama and the Kii Peninsula

Matsue Castle

South of Osaka, the Kii Peninsula is mountainous, thinly populated and full of pilgrimage routes. The coastal road runs past Shirahama's white sand beach and the rock formations at Sandanbeki, then around to Nachi Falls and Kushimoto at the southern tip.

Inland, the road up to Koyasan climbs through cedar forest in a series of hairpins, and the monastic town at the top has over 50 temples that take overnight guests.

This is a three or four day drive from Osaka. The mountain roads are narrow and slow, so halve whatever the map suggests you can cover.

Kyushu: Aso to Cape Sata

Mt. Aso

Central Kyushu is volcano country. The Milk Road across the Aso caldera rim gives you the full 25 km width of the crater, with farmland and towns inside it, and the Yamanami Highway runs north through highland pasture toward the hot springs at Yufuin and Beppu.

South of that, the road continues through Kagoshima, where Sakurajima erupts regularly across the bay from the city, and on to Cape Sata, the southernmost point of mainland Japan.

Access to the Nakadake crater rim at Aso depends on the volcanic alert level and gas readings, which change daily. Check the official status the morning you drive up.

Tohoku

Matsushima Bay

Image Credit: gunnsteinlye

Northern Honshu is the most underrated driving region in Japan. The Sanriku coast road follows a rebuilt coastline, the Oirase Gorge stream path near Lake Towada is one of the best fall color walks in the country, and Hachimantai's Aspite Line crosses a highland plateau between volcanic peaks.

Fall color runs from late September at altitude to early November lower down, which is the best time to be here. Winter closes many of the mountain roads entirely.

Shikoku

Shikoku

The 88 Temple Pilgrimage circles the island for 1,200 km, and while the traditional way is on foot over 40 to 60 days, many Japanese pilgrims now drive it in a week to ten days.

Driving the full circuit gives you the coast road around Cape Muroto and Cape Ashizuri, the Iya Valley with its vine bridges, and the Shikoku Karst plateau along the Ehime and Kochi border. Temple stamps cost ¥500 each.

The Iya Valley roads are genuinely narrow and steep, so take the smallest car you are comfortable with.

Tsushima

Tsushimamaru Museum

Tsushima sits in the strait between Kyushu and Korea, closer to Busan than to Fukuoka, and it is one of the least visited places in Japan. The island is almost entirely forest, with a deeply indented coastline, and it is reachable by ferry or a short flight from Fukuoka.

Rental cars are available at the airport and ports. The Eboshidake observatory looks over the fjord-like Aso Bay, and the island's history as the front line in relations with the mainland runs through every site.

How much does a road trip in Japan cost?

• Car rental: ¥6,000 to ¥15,000 a day depending on size

• Fuel: roughly ¥170 a liter, or around ¥4,000 for 300 km in a compact

• Tolls: ¥3,000 to ¥6,000 a day if you use expressways heavily

• Parking: ¥200 to ¥600 an hour in cities, usually free in the countryside

• Regional expressway pass: ¥6,200 to ¥23,800 depending on area and days

A week's drive in Hokkaido for two people, including the car, fuel and tolls, comes to roughly ¥120,000 to ¥160,000 before accommodation.

Practical tips for driving in Japan

Set your navigation by phone number or map code rather than address, since Japanese addresses do not work the way Western ones do. Every rental car's system accepts both.

Use michi no eki, the roadside stations, for toilets, local produce, cheap food and free parking. They are spaced along most rural routes, and several allow overnight parking.

Fill up before heading into the mountains or along remote coasts, where stations are far apart and many close by 19:00 or on Sundays.

Book accommodation with parking. Urban hotels often charge ¥1,500 to ¥3,000 a night for it, or have none at all.

Where to drive in Japan

If you only have a week, pick Hokkaido in summer or Kyushu in spring and fall. Both have the distances, the scenery, and the light traffic that make driving the right choice rather than a compromise.

For a first trip where the cities matter too, a route that mixes rail between the cities with a rental car for one region works better than driving the whole thing. A road trip route across Japan shows how the drivable sections string together.

Pick up the car where the good roads start, not at Narita. That single decision saves you money, stress and a day of city traffic.