Japanese Licence in Turkey 2026: Keep Right, IDP Won't Do

For a Japanese driver, Turkey changes two things at once, and the first is the one that matters most: you cross to the other side of the road. Japan keeps traffic on the left; Turkey is firmly right-hand. Everything that has become automatic — which way you look pulling out, how a roundabout unwinds, where the gear lever and mirrors sit — now runs in reverse.

That switch is most dangerous in the first hour and at low-speed moments: leaving a petrol station, turning across traffic, or glancing the wrong way at a junction. Take your first stretch on a quiet road rather than straight into city traffic, and say the direction out loud at each turn until it sticks. Pick up the car somewhere calm if the rental desk lets you choose.

The second change is paperwork. A foreign licence can be used in Turkey for six months from entry, but the usual Japanese add-on no longer works: Japan is a party only to the 1949 Geneva Convention, so the JAF permit is a 1949 IDP, and UK government travel advice states that in Turkey “the 1949 IDP is not accepted any more”. Arrange a Turkish translation of your licence certified by a notary or a Turkish consulate before you fly, and carry it with the licence and your passport. The Driving Permit Checker confirms exactly what your licence needs.

Speeds run higher than Japan across the board — 130 km/h on motorways (140 on build-operate-transfer toll motorways) against your 100, 90 rural and 50 in towns — so you are accelerating into faster traffic on the unfamiliar side. Turkish driving is also assertive: overtaking is bold and Istanbul’s congestion is severe, so leave more room than instinct suggests. Cameras, fixed and mobile, enforce the limits, and roughly 10 km/h over costs about TRY 2,000 (≈ EUR 50); the Speeding Fine Calculator estimates steeper penalties.

The alcohol limit is 0.05, looser than Japan’s strict 0.03, but the safe habit travels well — don’t drink and drive. Fill up before leaving the cities, and the emergency number is 112. Read the full Turkey driving guide before you set off, and budget that first day for getting comfortable on the right.

Sources

• GOV.UK foreign travel advice, Turkey, road travel (“You need a 1968 international driving permit (IDP) or a UK driving licence notarised in Turkish… The 1949 IDP is not accepted any more”): gov.uk
• Karayolları Trafik Yönetmeliği art. 88, as amended in Resmî Gazete no. 31146 of 5 June 2020 (foreign licences usable for six months from entry)
• UN Treaty Collection, 1949 Convention on Road Traffic (Japan 1964) and 1968 Convention on Road Traffic (Turkey a party; Japan not): treaties.un.org