Cost of owning a car in Japan (after 1 year)
01 Sep 2026 | #car | #japan | #moneyWe bought a second hand Toyota Voxy minivan last year. Now that it has been over a year, let’s review how much we spent on the car.
Summary
Overall we spent 417,800 yen on our car this year. Adding 300,000 yen for depreciation, it cost us overall 717,800 yen to own a car. Going forward I expect this to be around 526,000 yen per year with 250,000 yen of that being depreciation, and the rest being the costs paid directly (fuel, parking, ETC, shaken, insurance). Owning a car is not necessary in Tokyo, but for us with small kids, the convenience and comfort definitely worth this price.
Our usage
Before having kids I was confident that you don’t need a car in Tokyo. I still think it is generally true, however having a car can be very helpful with kids: between going to supermarket or restaurant when it’s raining, going for hospital check-ups (we had our second kid last winter), or just weekend trips, it makes life more comfortable.
In the daily life we still mostly walk, and even on weekends we often take the train, but if we are going to place that needs multiple train transfers, or if we hope that the kids will sleep on the way, we often take the car.
We also did 3 weekend trips during this year, each time to Fujikawaguchiko (this is the closest destination to us). The distance is around 100 km (one way) and it takes 1.5-3 hours depending on traffic. Since the baby was born we haven’t done any similarly long trip: he initially hated the child seat and he only got used to it around 6-7 months of age.
The rest of our usage was inside Tokyo: visiting friends, going to events (e.g. the Hungarian embassy’s Christmas party), or very short trips to do shopping, or going to a clinic.
Especially with the newborn baby, there were many times that the car proved to be very useful: going to the hospital for check-ups, going to the hospital after the baby was born (I visited every day together with our older kid), taking my wife to 産後ケア, shopping when it rains, picking up friends/family at the station.
Overall we drove 2,650 km in one year which is pretty low.
Fuel
During the 2,650 km that we drove, the car used 360 l of gasoline that cost 57,000 yen. This brings the average fuel consumption to 7.4 km/l or 13.6 l/100km.
The advertised fuel consumption for this model (2WD Voxy 80系) is 13.2km/l (combined) with 9.3 km/l for city driving, 13.1 km/l for suburban, and 15.1 km/l for highway driving. But these are best-case numbers, so between the endless red lights of Tokyo, short trips (cold engine), and idling to run the AC, our 7.4 km/l is mostly expected.
Looking at actual, reported fuel consumption for the same car, our 7.4 km/l falls on the lower end of the average.
Hybrid alternative
Meanwhile the hybrid version of the same minivan has an advertised fuel consumption of 19 km/l (combined) with 19.7 km/l for city and suburban, and 18.5 km/l for highway driving. The difference compared to gasoline is 44% (combined), 112% (city), 50% (suburban), 41% (highway) more distance for the same fuel.
Our usage is mostly city, so using the 112% number, having a hybrid would have saved us 190 l of gasoline and around 30,000 yen bringing fuel costs to 27,000 yen. While saving more than half of fuel sounds great, the 30,000 yen/year saving would take some time to make back the higher cost of the hybrid model. So at our usage it seems not getting the hybrid was a good choice.
Highway fees (ETC)
Another big expense is the highway fees (ETC). These get charged to my ETC card, so I can add them up. Going from Tokyo to Fujikawaguchiko costs 2,000 yen (one way), while driving from our home into Tokyo costs between 500 and 1,000 yen.
Overall this year we paid 18,550 yen. The 3 trips to Fujikawaguchiko was already 12,000 yen, and the rest for trips within Tokyo.
Parking
At home
We moved into our new house in November which has a parking spot, but until then we had to rent a parking place. Our old apartment had a fairly big parking and we could rent a spot there for 16,000 yen. Including the 21,500 yen initial fee, we paid 85,500 yen for the 4 months we used it. Despite the short usage, this still makes it one of the biggest expense of the year.
Elsewhere
Land is expensive in Tokyo, which makes parking also expensive, especially the closer you get to the city center. The most we paid was near the Hungarian embassy in Minato: 300 yen per 12 mins (so 1,500 yen per hour) with no daily maximum:
But even in less central places we often end up paying around 1000-2000 yen for being there for a few hours.
This is likely our biggest cost, but since we just pay it with our regular debit card, I can’t easily sum it up. My estimate is around 30,000 yen, but this is really just a guess.
Depreciation
We bought the car for 2.6 million yen when it was 4 years old. Gemini says a 10-15% yearly depreciation, so assuming a 12% that puts the amount to 312,000 yen for this year then 275,000 yen for next year and so on.
Another “back of the envelop” calculation is to assume we drive it for 10 years and sell it for nothing, then each year the depreciation costs us 260,000 yen.
Let’s say 300,000 yen for this first year, and 250,000 yen per year going forward.
Biannual vehicle inspection (shaken)
We also had to do the biannual vehicle inspection (shaken) this year, which cost us 100,000 yen including an optional oil change and break fluid change.
Insurance
The insurance for the first year was 40,750 yen, and for this year it is 37,480 yen.
Misc
We also had some car-related misc expenses with the main one being seat covers for all seats for 30,787 yen (Clazzio Neo). We also got a “baby in the car” sticker, new SD card for the drive-recorder, sunshade for the windshield, windshield washer fluid refill, car washing brush, etc. Overall probably cost us around 50,000 yen, but many of these were one-time purchases that will last us years, so I expect this to be less going forward.
Vehicle tax
We had to pay 36,000 yen for this year as automobile tax (自動車税). This depends on the engine displacement of the car and the time it was registered:
| Engine displacement | Registered before September 30, 2019 | Registered on or after October 1, 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Kei car (mini car) | 10,800円 | 10,800円 |
| 1,000cc or less | 29,500円 | 25,000円 |
| More than 1,000cc but less than 1,500cc | 34,500円 | 30,500円 |
| More than 1,500cc but less than 2,000cc | 39,500円 | 36,000円 (our car) |
| More than 2,000cc but less than 2,500cc | 45,000円 | 43,500円 |
| More than 2,500cc but less than 3,000cc | 51,000円 | 50,000円 |
| More than 3,000cc but less than 3,500cc | 58,000円 | 57,000円 |
| Over 3,500cc but under 4,000cc | 66,500円 | 65,500円 |
| More than 4,000cc but less than 4,500cc | 76,500円 | 75,500円 |
| Over 4,500cc and under 6,000cc | 88,000円 | 87,000円 |
| Over 6,000cc | 111,000円 | 110,000円 |
We got the bill for this in May by mail and paid it immediately. Since I had the shaken coming up a few months later, I decided to pay it in a konbini to have the stamped receipt, but the mechanic told me that they can see the vehicle tax payment in the system so they don’t need that receipt anymore.
Total
| Category | Last year | Going forward per year |
|---|---|---|
| Depreciation | ¥300,000 | ¥250,000 |
| Shaken | ¥100,000 | ¥50,000 |
| Parking at home | ¥85,500 | ¥0 |
| Fuel | ¥57,000 | ¥80,000 |
| Misc | ¥50,000 | ¥15,000 |
| Insurance | ¥40,750 | ¥40,000 |
| Automobile tax | ¥36,000 | ¥36,000 |
| Parking elsewhere | ¥30,000 | ¥30,000 |
| ETC | ¥18,550 | ¥25,000 |
| Overall | ¥717,800 | ¥526,000 |
Overall having a car cost us 717,800 yen this year, and going forward (assuming a bit higher use) it will be around 526,000 yen per year. For us the benefits worth this price.
Compared to renting
The cost generally split into two categories:
- fixed costs that don’t depend on the usage: depreciation, insurance, tax, parking at home, shaken
- variable costs that depend on the usage: fuel, parking, ETC
Renting a car usually means that all fixed costs are replaced with the fee of the rental. For our cost, it spits into fixed vs variable like this:
| Last year | Going forward per year | |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | ¥105,550 | ¥135,000 |
| Fixed | ¥612,250 | ¥391,000 |
Renting a similar car for a weekend (48 hours) from Toyota Rent a Car costs 20-30,000 yen (Sienta is cheaper, Voxy/Noa is more expensive). So (going forward) the fixed costs equal about 16 weekends of rental. We definitely used it more times than that, however there is also a great deal of induced demand: since we have a car, we use it. Without the car we would have taken the train more (likely combined with taxi) making it harder to make a clear comparison.
There is definitely a value in having the car at our house and being able to use it without much planning. Like last weekend we were going to Kichijoji, and we originally planned on taking the train, but then as we were leaving it started to rain, so we decided to take the car. Without the car we would have likely called taxi.
