Yes. A Canadian licence works in Japan as long as you carry an International Driving Permit with it, and in Canada only one organisation can issue that permit: the Canadian Automobile Association. With the permit, your provincial licence card and your passport, you can rent a car here like anyone else.
Where do Canadians get the permit?
From CAA. Its own page is blunt about it: CAA is the only body authorised to issue IDPs in Canada, and a permit from anyone else is fake. That's worth knowing, because search results are full of sites selling an "international driver's licence" as a download or a plastic card. Japan doesn't accept those.
The fee went up to 32 Canadian dollars on 1 December 2025. You have to be 18 or older with a full licence, so a learner's permit won't do. How you apply varies from club to club, which is a good reason to call your local CAA office early rather than count on the mail.
Is a CAA permit the kind Japan accepts?
Yes. Japan only recognises permits issued under the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic of 1949, and Canada acceded to that convention in 1965, according to the UN treaty records. Japan never joined the later 1968 Vienna convention. If you already have an older permit from another trip, look at the cover: it should refer to the 1949 convention.
How long can I drive on it here?
Up to one year from the day you land, or until the permit expires, whichever comes first. A CAA permit is valid for one year from its date of issue, so if you pick it up months before the trip, part of that year is already gone. Keep the passport in the car with the other two documents. It's how the police see your entry date.
This is the rule for visitors. People who live in Japan fall under different conditions.
Do I also need a Japanese translation of my licence?
No. The translation route exists only for licences from Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco and Taiwan, whose permits Japan doesn't accept. That's the service this site runs, and a Canadian licence doesn't need it.
What takes getting used to?
The side of the road. Japan drives on the left, with the steering wheel on the right. Give yourself an easy first hour on quiet roads, away from a city centre, and take the first few turns slowly, because that's where the habit of keeping right tends to show. After that it's mostly toll roads to figure out, and we've written about paying tolls without an ETC card.
Where would we send you?
We live in Fukuoka, on Kyushu, and besides this site we rent campervans there under the name VAN TRIP JAPAN. A CAA permit is all our campervans need. If you're still choosing a region, the note at the end of this page is ours.
Checked against CAA's International Driving Permit page, the UN Treaty Collection and Japan's National Police Agency guidance in September 2026. Karen and Doko Shibagaki, Camjyo Inc., Fukuoka.
