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If I take my blue badge with me can I use it for disabled parking, if I hire a car to carry a hired wheelchair
Hello,
Just to confirm, we are talking about one from the UK, like this?
Yes sorry I’m in the UK I should of said that
Thanks for clarifying. According to this website, there aren’t any agreements to honour the badge outside of Europe. So, that is the official answer.
The unofficial answer is that accessible parking isn’t really enforced here, so if it is a parking lot, there should be no problem displaying your badge when parking in the disabled parking spot. However, any perks like discounts on toll roads or being allowed to park in areas in non-parking areas will not be observed without a proper Japanese permit.
So, bringing your badge and using it in a parking lot can help, but you cannot expect any protection from parking laws.
Echoing the “parking isn’t really enforced” idea, if you rent an accessible car, they often have a disabled sticker on them and that can be enough.
I don’t have a car and therefore no Japanese version of the Blue Badge, but have rented accessible cars several times – including last weekend. Even with no badge and just the sticker on the car, I parked in many disabled parking spots with zero problems.
This might be of interest:
It seems to confirm that parking lots are included, but not toll roads. Not sure if there has been an update or not.
Thanks A-J for clarifying that I thought that be case of no reciprocal rights outside of Europe which we may lose as well because of brexit we may lose all reciprocal rights that we have
Thanks Josh for that I will have a read of that file thanks for the help
No problem. I’m on a gov committee and a number of people have asked the government to increase awareness of disabled parking use, which again shows it isn’t really enforced at the moment. So you shouldn’t have an issue if a space is available and you want to use it with your UK badge.
Hi Josh
Can I ask where you hire the accessible cars from and is it all over Japan or just in the major cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and the like as I’ve never found any in my searches, as I would like to hire something along the line of a Kei Camper if I could so I’m not stuck in one placeThey are becoming much more common, but often require contacting the dealer directly. So, speaking Japanese will definitely be needed.
Try searching for: 福祉車両 レンタカー
You should also try in the Japan discussion on TabiFolk:
https://www.tabifolk.com/groups/japan/forum/destinations/asia/japan-discussions/
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