JAF Translation for Japan: Get Yours Before You Fly (2026)

What the document is, and who is allowed to issue it

The Japanese translation of a foreign driver's licence (外国運転免許証の日本語翻訳文) restates what is printed on your licence: your name, date of birth, licence number, the vehicle categories you hold, and the dates your licence runs from and to. It is a companion document. It is not a Japanese licence, and it does not replace the card in your wallet.

Article 107-2 of the Road Traffic Act does not name a single issuer. The National Police Agency lists three groups whose translations Japan accepts:

• the authority that issued your licence, or that country's embassy or consulate in Japan;
• a foreign organisation notified to the National Public Safety Commission as competent to translate its own country's licences. ADAC covers German licences; the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association covers Taiwanese ones;
• a body designated by the National Public Safety Commission. JAF is one of three such bodies.

JAF covers all six of those countries, and it publishes an average of two to three business days for them. One line on the police page is worth reading twice: a sworn or certified translator in your own country is not on the list. A translation you commission at home has no standing here, however official it looks.

If you are weighing this document against an International Driving Permit, the comparison is set out in JAF translation vs IDP.

Who needs one

The National Police Agency recognises two documents for a visiting driver. One is an International Driving Permit issued under the Geneva Convention. The other is your own licence carried together with a Japanese translation from a designated body, and the police page names the countries that route covers: Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco and Taiwan. If your licence comes from one of those six, the translation is the route open to you.

Licences from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and most other countries take the International Driving Permit route instead, which you arrange at home before you travel. Country by country, the rules are laid out in driving licence requirements for Japan by country, and the general picture is in driving in Japan on a foreign licence.

Dual nationality changes nothing. What matters is the licence you hand over at the counter. Show a Swiss licence and you need the translation of the Swiss licence, whatever else you hold.

JAF translation online: how the application actually works

Since 1 April 2025 JAF accepts translation applications online only. Counter service and postal applications were discontinued on that date, so there is no walk-in desk and nothing to send by post. The steps, as JAF describes them:

1. Reach the application site. It is open around the clock, but only from a network inside Japan.
2. Upload your licence. Unmodified images of the front and back of a currently valid licence.
3. Pay. Credit card online, or cash at a convenience store. Debit and prepaid cards are refused.
4. Print the result yourself. The finished translation is collected through the convenience-store print service, at ¥20 a page. The first print reference number is valid for a week, and a new one can be reissued from your account for up to a year.

The fee depends on what the translation is for. Driving on your existing licence costs ¥6,000, tax-exempt. Switching to a Japanese licence costs ¥6,600 including consumption tax after the July 2026 revision, though that revision deliberately left the six-country driving fee where it was. Side by side with the delivered price of doing it from abroad, the arithmetic is in what a Japanese licence translation costs.

One detail decides everything else: the finished document is a piece of paper you collect in Japan. JAF is explicit that the translation is valid in paper form only. That holds whichever route you take, ours included.

How long does a JAF translation take?

JAF publishes an average of 2–3 business days for licences issued in Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco and Taiwan, and 5 to 10 business days for everywhere else. Its FAQ gives a second figure for the same service: usually about one to two weeks from application until printing is possible. Read the first as the translation work and the second as the span an applicant tends to experience. Applications can be submitted at any hour, but the work is done during weekday business hours, and anything arriving on a weekend or a Japanese public holiday waits for the next working day.

Those days only start counting once an application reaches JAF from inside Japan, which is why the real question for most travellers is not how fast JAF is, but when the clock can start. Through JDLTC it starts while you are still at home:

• Standard, €99. 3–4 weeks. For trips still a month or more away.
• Express, €139. 5–7 days.
• Rush, €179. 1–3 business days, as an estimate.
• Paper original delivered in Japan, €10. The document you drive with, sent to your hotel or rental counter in Japan from the day after your translation is ready.

Swiss orders are charged in Swiss francs at the same figures (CHF 99 · 139 · 179, delivery CHF 10) and Taiwanese orders in New Taiwan dollars (NT$3,290 · 4,490 · 5,790, delivery NT$350). The application page shows the amount in your own currency before payment.

If the trip is close enough that days matter, the fastest route to a licence translation in Japan sets out what can and cannot be compressed.

Can I apply from abroad?

Not to JAF directly. JAF states plainly that applications are accepted only from within Japan, and its page for customers currently overseas names the ways round it before you enter the country:

• ask an acquaintance in Japan to apply as your agent;
• use an agency that offers the application service;
• or obtain a Japanese translation from the authority that issued your licence, or from your country's embassy or consulate in Japan. German licence holders can go to ADAC.

JDLTC is the second of those. You send us photographs of your licence, we make the application inside Japan, and the issued document is scanned and emailed to you as a PDF. That PDF is your advance copy: it tells you the document exists, lets you check every field and lets you book your car before you fly. You drive with JAF's paper original, which we deliver to your hotel or rental counter in Japan for €10 / CHF 10 / NT$350, from the day after your translation is ready.

JAF direct compared with JDLTC

Step by step with JDLTC

1. Select your country. The one that issued your licence: Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco or Taiwan.
2. Upload your licence. Front and back, in focus, with every line legible.
3. Fill in your details. Name, date of birth, email and licence data, spelled exactly as on the card.
4. Choose a speed. Standard 3–4 weeks, Express 5–7 days, or Rush 1–3 business days.
5. Pay. Handled by Stripe. Card details never reach our servers.
6. Receive the PDF. By email, so you can book your car with it; it reaches you in time for your flight when the plan you chose has the lead time it needs. Add delivery of JAF's paper original, the document you drive with, to your hotel or rental counter in Japan (€10 / CHF 10 / NT$350, from the day after your translation is ready).

Timing: a month of lead time makes Standard the sensible choice. Inside two weeks, Express or Rush. Booking a rental car earlier is worth doing too, since many companies ask for the translation details at the reservation stage.

What the finished document contains

• Your full name
• Date of birth
• Licence number
• The vehicle categories you are entitled to drive
• Issue and expiry dates of your own licence
• Country of issue
• Official marks, printed on copy-protected stock

Some countries' licences need an appendix sheet describing the categories in more detail. When one applies, it is noted on the main document, and JAF is explicit that the appendix has to be carried together with the translation to drive in Japan. Carry both on paper, the form in which JAF treats them as valid.

How long it stays valid

The National Police Agency sets the driving period at one year from the day you land in Japan, or the remaining validity of your own licence, whichever is shorter. Three things follow from that:

• The clock starts on the entry stamp in your passport, not on the date the translation was issued.
• For visitors, leaving Japan and coming back starts a fresh one-year period. There is an exception for people recorded in the Basic Resident Register: if they leave and return within three months, the return date does not start a new period.
• Renew or amend your own licence, and the translation no longer matches it. JAF requires a new one.

At the rental counter

Bring three things when you collect the car:

1. Your original licence, the physical card from your own country
2. The translation on paper, with its appendix sheet if it has one
3. Your passport, which shows the day you entered Japan

Large chains such as Toyota Rent a Car, Nippon Rent-A-Car, Times Car Rental and ORIX are used to seeing the document and know what to look for. If you are collecting the car straight from the airport, have the paper original delivered to the rental counter there; delivery is possible from the day after your translation is ready. What is on the road once you have the keys is covered in driving in Japan, practical notes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I drive in Japan on my foreign licence alone?
No. You need either a Geneva Convention International Driving Permit or your licence plus the Japanese translation. Without one of those you are driving unlicensed under Article 64 of the Road Traffic Act, which is a criminal offence.

What if I lose the translation while in Japan?
If you applied to JAF yourself, a new print reference number can be issued from your account for up to a year from the application date, and you reprint at a convenience store. If you ordered through us, write to us and we can resend the PDF. Replacing the paper original itself means a new application to JAF, which is charged again.

I hold a Swiss licence but I am German. Which country do I choose?
The country that issued the licence, not your nationality. A Swiss licence means Switzerland.

Can I pick up a rental car at the airport on arrival?
Yes, if the paper original is waiting for you there, for example delivered to the rental counter in advance. Applying to JAF after landing means the car has to wait for the document, and the published average is two to three business days.

Do the police accept it during a traffic stop?
Yes. It is the document Article 107-2 provides for. An officer will look at your own licence next to it.

Do I need a new translation for each trip?
No, as long as your own licence is still valid and unchanged. For visitors, the one-year driving period restarts on each entry to Japan.

Sources (checked 2026-09-07)

• JAF, How to apply for a translation — fee table, average issuing times, online-only application from within Japan, convenience-store printing.
• JAF, To customers currently overseas — online only since 1 April 2025, agent and agency routes, paper-only validity.
• JAF, 運転免許証翻訳文の発行サービス (Japanese) — service overview.
• National Police Agency, drivers holding a foreign licence (Japanese) — the bodies designated under Article 107-2, the six countries, and the one-year driving period.
• Road Traffic Act, e-Gov (Japanese) — Articles 64 and 107-2.

Fees, processing times and procedures are those published by JAF and the National Police Agency on 2026-09-07. Check the source pages before you rely on a figure.

Official driver’s license translation for Japan — how it works