Renting a WHILL in Japan: which chair, which plan

The chairs you can rent

WHILL, the Japanese maker of these power chairs, has two rental plans a visitor can use. The daily plan, the one meant for trips, offers two folding chairs, the Model C Lite and the Model F, and the Model R scooter. The monthly plan offers the Model C Lite and the flagship Model C2.

The Model C Lite is the newest and the lightest. Built with carbon, it weighs 18.6 kg without the battery and 21.6 kg with the standard one, 5.1 kg less than a Model F ready to ride. It folds with one hand in one movement, stands up on its own once folded and can be rolled along. Folded, it measures 50 x 58.7 x 75.5 cm. It climbs a 5 cm step, the armrests flip up for a sideways transfer, it takes riders up to 136 kg, and it is rated IPX5 for water resistance. We tried one in October 2026 and found it excellent and very easy to use.

The Model F is the simpler folding chair: 26.7 kg with its battery, folded in three steps, a 3.5 cm step limit, riders up to 115 kg, and casters at the front. Its armrests do not flip up, which matters if the traveller transfers from the side.

The Model C2 weighs 51.9 kg and comes apart into four pieces instead of folding. It is a chair for someone staying a while, and it is on the monthly plan only. The Model R scooter is delivered only in the Kanto region: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi.

The C Lite and the Model F top out at 6 km/h, a brisk walk. In Japanese law the rider is a pedestrian, so there is no licence and no helmet. The C Lite's standard battery is rated for 23.4 km and the Model F's for 20 km, and WHILL says one charge covers a full day at a big theme park.

Daily or monthly

For a C Lite on a two-week trip, the monthly plan costs roughly half what the daily plan does. Most visitors should still choose the daily plan, which can be cancelled, takes debit cards and insures the rider.

The daily plan comes in fixed lengths of 4, 5, 7, 10, 14, 20 or 30 days, and the delivery day and the collection day each count as a full day. It takes credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners and Discover), and a debit card went through at checkout in October 2026; we have not tried a card issued outside Japan. The whole rental is charged when you order, with no deposit. You can book a delivery 10 to 180 days ahead. Cancelling is free until four business days before delivery, and only by phone, to WHILL's desk, open on weekdays from 9:00 to 18:00. The length cannot be changed once ordered: you cancel and order again. The price includes WHILL's own injury and personal liability insurance for the rider. The chair itself is covered only if you add WHILL's protection plan at checkout, and that plan excludes loss and earthquake damage. A lost chair is charged at its sale price either way, a stolen one too unless you took the plan, and a theft has to be reported to the police.

The monthly plan is a subscription that runs in whole months from the delivery day and renews itself until you phone to end it, at least 12 business days before the month runs out. It cannot be cancelled once ordered, an early return is not refunded, and it takes credit cards only, not debit or prepaid cards. It is for individuals only, carries no insurance for the rider, and sells no cover for the chair. Its order page is mostly in Japanese. The daily plan has English order pages and English email support, but both plans share one phone desk, which speaks only Japanese, and a daily rental can be cancelled only by calling it.

Both plans are ordered online only, and the card must be in the name of the person ordering. The daily order form asks for the rider's full name, for the insurance, and which side the joystick should be fitted, so ask the rider which side they want before the order is placed. WHILL delivers only inside Japan.

Getting the chair to the hotel

WHILL delivers to a hotel once you have the hotel's permission. The delivery is then addressed to the name on the hotel booking, which need not be the rider's, with the hotel's name, address and phone number. You cannot choose a delivery time: WHILL phones the number on the order, the hotel's unless you add your own, the day before or that morning with the time it will arrive. On the last day it phones again and collects from the address you gave, and there is nothing to pack or send. The delivery and collection addresses can be in different cities, so a chair received in Tokyo can be collected in Osaka.

Ask the hotel ahead whether it will take the chair in before check-in. An Osaka apartment hotel we asked agreed, at no charge, and our note on barrier-free bathrooms and hired equipment has its answer and what it wanted written on the delivery slip.

On the daily plan WHILL will also hand the chair over at Haneda or Narita, for an extra fee, and at no other airport. The airport day counts as day one, and the earliest delivery slot is 9:00 to 12:00, so an early-morning landing costs a day of hire. Haneda Terminal 1 also has a separate counter, run by a non-profit, that rents a Model F by the day for use beyond the airport, with no maximum length while stock lasts. Terminal 3 has no counter of its own: arrivals there go to the Terminal 1 counter, open 10:00 to 18:00, and for a Terminal 2 arrival its staff can bring the chair at an agreed time.

Trains, taxis and sights

On the Tokaido Shinkansen a wheelchair needs no oversized-luggage booking, whatever its size, but a folded one still needs somewhere to go. A folded C Lite or Model F adds up to more than 160 cm across its three sides, which makes it oversized, and the space behind the last row may be used only by passengers who booked JR Central's seat with an oversized baggage area, which is the last row of some cars. Book that seat, which costs nothing extra, and the folded chair goes behind it. If the traveller stays in the chair for the ride, book the wheelchair space instead.

Taxis are harder. Tokyo's standard cab is the Toyota JPN TAXI, and the guide size for a folded chair in its luggage space is 105 x 90 x 35 cm. Both folding WHILLs are wider than 35 cm whichever way you turn them, so a folded WHILL may not go in. Tokyo's taxi association also expects the passenger or a companion to lift the chair in, with the driver helping only when there is no companion or it looks unsafe. The C Lite has grip handles on its arms for that lift. The GO taxi app in Tokyo lets you ask for a wheelchair-capable car, in which the rider stays in the chair; our note on wheelchair taxis and lift vans gives their size and weight limits.

One sight with its own rule: teamLab Borderless asks riders of power chairs that cannot be held at 2 km/h or less to change into a museum wheelchair. WHILL's slowest setting on the Model C2 and Model F is 1 km/h, and the app can cap the top speed lower.