Wheelchair taxis in Japan: what fits, and what to book

The accessible taxi is the JPN TAXI

Most taxi-company cars in Tokyo are now Toyota's JPN TAXI, the universal-design cab with a sliding door and a fold-out ramp. JNTO, Japan's national tourism organisation, cites an industry figure of 72 percent of taxi-company cars in Tokyo in 2025, and Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo's largest taxi group, runs 5,616 of them out of 6,316. A wheelchair user can ride in one without leaving the chair, within limits.

With a wheelchair aboard, a JPN TAXI takes the wheelchair user and one companion, two people in all. A third traveller needs a second car.

Nihon Kotsu says a chair may not fit if, with the rider in it, it measures 70 cm wide, 120 cm long or 130 cm high or more, and that some foreign-made power chairs, and reclining chairs longer than 120 cm, may be turned away. Weight counts as much as size. Some JPN TAXI ramps are rated for 300 kg and some for 200 kg, and the figure covers the chair, the rider, the luggage and the person pushing the chair up the ramp. Nihon Kotsu will not take a booking for the stronger ramp, so with its cars a heavy power chair can be ruled out by weight alone.

If a power chair cannot turn to face forward inside, Nihon Kotsu will carry it sideways on request, but then the chair cannot be fully secured and the rider cannot wear a seat belt. It allows about 15 minutes to get in and 10 to get out, and its drivers handle the ramp and the luggage but give no other help.

Calling one

Since 2021 the GO app has been able to call a wheelchair-capable car in Tokyo, part of Kanagawa and Kyoto city: a UD taxi whose driver has had wheelchair training. Visitors can register with a foreign mobile number and card, and the app runs in English. The taxi company may add its own fee for choosing the vehicle. GO's advance booking does not guarantee a car at the set time, a car that cancels on its way is not replaced unless you order again, and DPI Japan, the disability rights group, warns that if no wheelchair car is nearby, none may come. DiDi cannot order a car type at all, and S.RIDE, which can send a sliding-door car, says some chairs will not go up a JPN TAXI ramp and asks you to phone the taxi company.

Refusals still happen. In a nationwide test by DPI Japan in October 2025, wheelchair users were refused 15 of 69 rides: 2 of 26 in Tokyo, and 13 of 43 elsewhere.

If the traveller can move to a seat and the chair folds, an ordinary taxi can be sent, though a saloon's boot is tight. Tokyo's taxi association says the passenger or a companion normally stows the chair, with the driver helping when there is no companion, and gives a folded size of 105 by 90 by 35 cm as a guide to what fits a JPN TAXI's luggage space.

Kyoto and Osaka

In Kyoto and Osaka, MK Taxi runs wheelchair cars, Nissan Serenas and in Kyoto Toyota Sientas too, on the ordinary meter, and Osaka MK charges no fee for choosing the car when a wheelchair user rides. The chair goes in at the back, and the car seats four, the wheelchair user included. MK warns that some chairs leave room for only two, some will not go in at all, and in Osaka the low roof leaves little head room in some chairs. Nissan's own limits for the Serena are a chair up to 112 cm long and 70 cm wide, a ramp rated for 200 kg with the helper aboard, an electric winch that pulls up to 120 kg of chair, rider and luggage, and a rear opening 136 cm high. MK's wheelchair cars are not reservation-only, but there are few of them, so book ahead. Kyoto MK has run a dedicated wheelchair line since 2020.

Welfare taxis and lift vans

A welfare taxi (介護タクシー or 福祉タクシー) is a different vehicle: a van converted with an electric lift or a ramp at the rear, so a wheelchair or a stretcher boards without the person moving. A good one has anchors for the chair, a seat for the carer beside it, and crew trained to handle chairs, and takes power chairs and reclining chairs. Welfare taxis charge by time, an hour and then by the half hour, or on a meter, and add fees for the pick-up and for help. Some sell charters by the hour or by the day, long enough for a day of sightseeing.

They are booked in advance, as a rule, and their fleets are small, so a popular date can go. Kyoto has a city-backed dispatch centre for welfare taxis, booked by phone on weekdays, whose large vans carry two wheelchairs and two to four companions. Osaka's equivalent closed on 31 March 2026, so in Osaka each operator is booked direct, whatever older guides say. One Tokyo operator will not take a chair up or down stairs with fewer than two people: either the family lends a hand or a second member of staff comes, at a cost.

One lift-van operator explained why its lift has a 120 cm length limit: the flaps at the front and back of the platform flip up as stoppers, and a longer chair stops them rising, so the lift will not run. A chair whose longest part sits about 30 cm or more off the ground can still go on that lift. Another lift-van company said yes, then withdrew once it learned the chair's length. Toyota prints the largest chair each HiAce Welcab position takes, and one Tokyo operator prints its own limits, including 200 kg. So send the chair's length, width, height and weight in the first message, with the rider seated, and say whether the footrests come off: a chair that can be brought under 120 cm goes on a lift that a longer one cannot.

For groups, one Tokyo and Osaka coach company runs lift coaches that carry from one to six wheelchairs, and every chair costs seats: its large coach seats 45 with one wheelchair aboard and 29 with six.

A car also gets closer than a train at some sights. Kyoto City's wheelchair route takes a car carrying a wheelchair user in at Kiyomizu-dera's Chawan-zaka entrance, after a call on the intercom, and up to near the admission desk, and Todaiji in Nara has a taxi drop-off beside the Great Buddha Hall.

Outside the big cities

JNTO warns that most standard cabs cannot carry a person in an electric wheelchair, and outside the big cities a wheelchair vehicle may not exist at all. A taxi branch in a port town on the Sea of Japan told us it had none in its area. A taxi company in a northern port city owns no lift taxi and has no welfare-taxi partner to pass you to. Nagano's taxi association, in its table for June 2024, lists no welfare vehicle at the companies in Hakuba or Nozawa Onsen, and a Karuizawa taxi firm has one JPN TAXI that does not run every day. One Nagano taxi company charters a wheelchair car with room for four family, from a day trip to five days, though not for a large power chair or a reclining one, and not in the Nagano and Suwa areas. The few cars like it should be booked ahead.

Driving yourself

Wheelchair-accessible rental cars exist, but booking them is clumsy. Toyota Rent a Car takes a Welcab request online and answers by email after checking stock, ORIX's welfare cars cannot be booked on the web, and Nissan's are by phone only. Toyota's and ORIX's rental pages list passenger adaptations, such as a wheelchair space or a swivel seat, not hand controls. To drive, a visitor needs an International Driving Permit under the 1949 Geneva Convention, or, for six countries and regions including Germany, France and Switzerland, the home licence with an approved Japanese translation.

For the trains and the airports, see our note on stations and airports.