Iceland on a Japanese Licence — Side Switch, IDP & the 4WD-Only F-Roads

Iceland stacks three changes for a Japanese driver, and it’s worth taking them in order. First, the side of the road: Iceland drives on the right, the opposite of home. Your first hour out of Keflavík is the risky one — pulling out of the rental lot, taking a roundabout the wrong way round, glancing the wrong direction at a junction. The empty airport road and open country beyond it are the place to let the new habit settle, not Reykjavík’s streets.

Second, the paperwork. Bring an International Driving Permit with your Japanese licence; rental desks expect it, and it heads off any roadside dispute. Arrange it before you leave Japan — you can’t get one in Iceland. Confirm exactly what you need with our driving permit checker.

Third, and most consequential, is where you’re actually allowed to drive. Iceland’s interior runs on F-roads — mountain tracks restricted by law to 4WD vehicles. Take a standard hire car onto one and the insurance is void the moment you leave the marked route, and many of these roads ford rivers with no bridge, the classic way a rental is written off. The paved Ring Road is fine for an ordinary car; the highlands need a proper 4WD and a contract that allows it.

There are no motorways here — sealed roads cap at 90 km/h, gravel at 80, and gravel is everywhere. Slow hard at every tarmac-to-gravel seam to keep grip and protect the windscreen. Weather compounds it: wind and whiteouts close roads at short notice even in summer, so check road.is before each leg. Off-road or closed-road driving draws a fine from about ISK 10,000 (around EUR 65).

Alcohol is 0.05, a touch looser than Japan’s 0.03, but with single-car crashes common, keep it to none. Fuel is steep at roughly $2.15/litre and the emergency number is 112. Read the full rules on our Iceland driving guide before you collect the car.