Belgium Driver licence in Japan, JAF

I booked a car at rentalcars.com for my first arriving day in Narita airport(sunday). Now seems that for Belgium you can not (just) use an international driver licence but you have to get your Belgium driver licence translated by JAF. Now comes the problem that I can only apply for a translation 'out of Japan' because you need 1) a local address 2) to send cash Yen to them. I contacted Rentalcars.com with this issue but until now I didn't got any help. In the meantime I phoned already 2 times to Narita Airport and to our Embassady and they both can't give me a solution. (Apart from arranging this locally but then I need to change my itinerary as well seen that you probably can not do it at Narita and especially not on a sunday).. Anybody any suggestion or experience ?

It does seem like the requirements vary country to country - I am able to do rentals without translation, but for Belgium licences, the official translation from either the Embassy or or Japan Automobile Federation.

https://japanbikerentals.com/licence/licence.php

You might be able to get one done from JapanExperience but they still suggest a two week tournaround.

https://www.japan-experience.com/car-rental/our-cars/driver-licence-tr...

Book through www.japan-experience.com, and they can do the translation for you at a cost, it will take upto two weeks.

https://www.japan-experience.com/car-rental-japan?ap=j0095g

The national police agency in Japan accepts a foreign driving license translated by Ambassade van België in Japan.
However, Ambassade van België in Japan doesn't do this translation, you may ask to the Embassy of Japan in Belgium.
If they don't do that, JAF translation is the final solution.
But, I suppose JAF translation is designed for a long-term foreign visitors in Japan, not well designed for a short-time visitors.
As you mentioned, a short-time visitors don't have physical address in Japan.

It's easy to do at a JAF office once you arrive. They can turn it around within the day. More info here:

http://www.jaf.or.jp/inter/translation/specific_e.htm

Dear yllwsmrf, thanks for your reply but easy is not the right wording seen that we arrive on a sunday-morning in Narita, while there is no JAF office as far as I know and I wanted to drive out of Tokyo so that means that I have to reschedule all my reservations ...there should be a solution.. I'll check with japanexperience...

The process itself is extremely easy, but I guess if you didn't plan ahead for it before setting your itinerary then that is a different matter...

You do have a few options, although none are probably ideal:

1. Apply for your license translation by mail. This would have the benefit of allowing you to keep your itinerary and current car rental. You could do this by using the rental agency address and have it sent there. There is the risk that something happens to the translation along the way. If that happens you probably won't know about it until you arrive at the rental car office. Instructions here:

http://www.jaf.or.jp/inter/translation/specific_e.htm

2. Mail japan experience and see if they'll do a license translation a la carte. I'm not sure they offer this service unless you rent a car from them, but one can hope. Worst case, you'll have to cancel your rental car reservation and rebook through them. Here's their contact info:

https://www.japan-experience.com/contact

3. Change your plans to go to Tokyo Sunday. Then you can get the translation first thing Monday morning in person at the Tokyo JAF office and pick up your car in the afternoon. This is the safest and probably cheapest option, but will require you to change your itinerary and rental plans. The side benefit is that you can delay pick up of your car till Tokyo and save on the headache and expense of driving and parking in the city. Here's the office info:

http://www.jaf.or.jp/inter/entrust/index_e.htm

Hopefully it works out, and let us know how you got on in the end.

Just to give you an update.. I cancelled my booking at rentalcars.com (in the end after 5 calls without any extra expenses) because they didn't want to offer any kind of help for this, and then I booked a car at japan experience included the translation on which I'm waiting now for a few weeks ;-)