Studless winter tires are snow tires made of hydrophilic rubber with special tread designs that reduce their susceptibility to slipping on frozen and snow-covered road surfaces. When driving in Hokkaido or the Tohoku region, or toward mountainous winter sport areas, you need a vehicle equipped with either studless winter tires or snow chains. During or after snowfall, expressways become off-limits to vehicles not equipped with studless winter tires or snow chains. Such vehicles have no choice but to use local roads, or worse; give up on reaching their destination altogether.

Given that studless winter tires can also be driven on roads that aren't snow-covered, renting a car equipped with such tires means that you never need to get involved with any equipment yourself during the duration of your rental. When you're likely to stick mostly to the area's main roads, opting for studless winter tires is the recommended choice. Note that studded (spiked) tires are not allowed on Japanese roads (except for special designated vehicles), and therefore aren't offered by car rental companies in Japan.

If you were to drive with snow chains on roads that aren't snow-covered, you would risk breaking them. This tends to mean that you need to install and remove them frequently along the way. Clearly, this can be quite a hassle, especially if you don't have much experience working with snow chains.

However, expressway use is subject to two special restrictions that may come into effect during and after snowfall: "Winter Tire Restriction" and "Snow Chain Restriction". When "Snow Chain Restriction" is announced, driving on the expressway becomes only permitted to vehicles with chains installed. If you are heading for an area known for its particularly heavy snowfall or anywhere where snow isn't cleared from the road regularly, it is recommended that you bring snow chains too.

Winter tire options vary in price between companies, but usually cost 2000 yen or less. Also, additional fees can sometimes be avoided entirely by choosing a plan that comes with winter tires included, or by choosing from a company that equips all its vehicles with these tires in winter (depending on the region).

Pages of plans that have optional studless winter tires available show a blue icon with "Studless" written on it.

When making a reservation for such a plan, you can select this option for the column of available options to include it in your reservation.

Depending on the package some cars are fitted with studless tyres The price of studless tyres is usually included in the price. With this package you do not need to select studless tyres as an option.

As written in the branch details screen cars fitted with studless tyres are limited by area and period. Vehicles rented from this specific branch during this limited period wil come fitted with studless tyres free of charge.

If you're going to drive in a snowy region of Japan, I hope this guide will be of use to you.