Starting a rent-a-car business (paid lending of private vehicles): what do the garage and office premises need?

The key point: When you start a rent-a-car business (the "paid lending of private vehicles" permit under the Road Transport Act [Act No. 183 of 1951] art. 80(1)), the premises that matter are the office and the parking space (garage) for each vehicle. Unlike the freight-haulage business (green plates), the permit's review standards do not squarely impose numeric requirements such as the distance between office and garage or the garage's capacity. Art. 80(1) says: "a private vehicle may not be lent for hire as a business without the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's permission—unless the borrower is the user of that private vehicle" (so a lease where the borrower is the user needs no permit). Art. 80(2) says the Minister must grant permission unless the manner of the lending is found to resemble running a motor-transport business. The permit application goes to the Transport Branch Office with jurisdiction over your principal office (the application form is under Road Transport Act Enforcement Regulation art. 52), and the standard processing period is about one month. What bites on the property side is the parking space for each vehicle lent. The Act on Securing Parking Spaces, etc. for Vehicles (Act No. 145 of 1962, the "Parking Space Act") art. 3 obliges the holder to secure a parking space, and an ordinary vehicle needs a police chief's parking certificate (a "garage certificate") at registration. By Enforcement Order art. 1, the parking space must be within 2 km straight-line of the base of use, allow the vehicle to enter/exit from the road and hold the whole vehicle, and be one you have the right to use. Drafting the permit documents is an administrative scrivener's; the permit itself the Transport Branch Office's; the parking certificate the police's; a dispute over the lease or an accident a lawyer's. We (a real-estate transaction business) handle the survey and terms of office/garage premises and the brokerage, connecting you to each as an independent business contracted with separately (no referral fees are exchanged).

For operators looking for shop or garage land to start or expand a rent-a-car business (including car-sharing), this article organises where the permit and the premises divide, and what you can check before signing for the parking space (garage) and the office, in the order of the law and public materials. This is general information; the individual judgment on whether a permit is possible and whether a parking space is suitable rests with the Transport Branch Office and the police, and with qualified professionals such as administrative scriveners.

Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (四葉不動産株式会社), based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, provides surveys, terms-arrangement and brokerage for business-use property. You can consult us from the stage of "can this property be a rent-a-car office and garage?".

How far do premises and a garage matter for a rent-a-car permit?

A rent-a-car business (paid lending of private vehicles) runs on the permit under Road Transport Act art. 80(1). What is easily confused here is that the garage requirement of the general freight-haulage business (green-plate haulage) and the property requirement for rent-a-car are different things. For haulage, the permit's review standards state in numbers the distance between office and garage and that the garage can hold all vehicles; the rent-a-car standards do not ask that squarely.

Business	Basis	What is squarely asked on the property side
Rent-a-car (paid lending of private vehicles)	Road Transport Act art. 80(1)	An office and a parking space for each vehicle (Parking Space Act)
General freight-haulage (green plates)	Motor Truck Transport Business Act	Office–garage distance, garage capacity, front-road width, etc.

What a rent-a-car permit reviews is that the applicant and officers have no grounds for disqualification, that they have not been disciplined for acts resembling a transport business within a set period, and that they carry enough vehicle insurance—set in each Regional Transport Bureau's public notice (the review standards). So the centre is the operator, the insurance and the lending plan, rather than the property's pass/fail itself. Still, the application form (Enforcement Regulation art. 52) records the office where the lending business is carried out, so the office's real existence and your right to use it are a premise. And to register and run each vehicle lent, a parking space must be secured per vehicle. The property requirements for a haulage office and garage are covered in the property requirements for a haulage office and garage; this article limits itself to the rent-a-car-specific "office" and "parking space".

How do I check the parking space (garage)—area, location, right to use?

What bites as property for rent-a-car is the parking space for each vehicle lent. Parking Space Act art. 3 obliges the vehicle's holder to secure a parking space in a place other than the road. An ordinary vehicle needs a parking certificate issued by the police chief at new/transfer/change registration (art. 5). A light vehicle needs only a post-registration notification of the parking space, and only in certain areas (art. 13).

Requirement	Content	Basis
Location (distance)	Within 2 km straight-line of the base of use	Parking Space Act Enforcement Order art. 1
Entry/exit, capacity	Can enter/exit from the road without trouble and hold the whole vehicle	Enforcement Order art. 1
Right to use	You have the right (ownership, lease, use-consent, etc.) to use it as a parking space	Parking Space Act art. 4 / Enforcement Order art. 1

The "base of use" means, for an individual, the address or residence, and for a company, the office location, with a premise that there is in fact living or business there. So if the office (the base of use) and the garage are too far apart, the 2 km distance requirement blocks the parking certificate. The right to use is proven by a self-declaration for your own land, or a parking-space use-consent certificate for another's land/building. If you use leased garage land, whether the lease permits that use (vehicle storage / business use) is the dividing point to check before signing. The parking certificate is applied for at the police station with jurisdiction over the parking space's location. We organise how a candidate property looks against the 2 km requirement, entry/exit and capacity, and the use restriction (the final judgment on suitability rests with the police).

Can the office be a virtual office or my home?

For a rent-a-car office, the application form under Enforcement Regulation art. 52 records the name and location of the office where the lending business is carried out. What often becomes an issue is whether a virtual office or your home can be the office. It splits into two points. One is whether that place actually carries out the lending business (a virtual office that only rents an address tends to be found to lack business substance). The other is whether it is recognised as the "base of use" under the Parking Space Act. As above, the base of use requires actual living/business, and the parking space must be within 2 km of it.

Form of office	What to check in property/contract	Who judges
Leased office	Does the lease permit business use / the lending business	Lessor / Transport Branch Office
Home	Is business use not barred by the lease or management rules; can a garage be secured within 2 km	Lessor / management association / police
Virtual office	Is there substance actually carrying out the lending business (address-only tends to lack it)	Transport Branch Office

The final judgment on where the office can be is the Transport Branch Office's; whether a parking certificate can be obtained as the base of use is the police's. We help arrange the property/contract side—what use the lease permits, how far the office and garage are. For the general issues of building a base see also consultation on a business base / office.

How do property requirements change for unattended / ICT lending (car-sharing)?

For unattended lending using ICT (rent-a-car-type car-sharing), the way you read the property changes. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism organised the treatment of rent-a-car-type car-sharing, including the one-way (drop-off) method, in a notice (27 March 2014, Kokujijо No. 205 / Kokujiryo No. 609, etc.): those found able to grasp the vehicle's status accurately through ICT may make an unattended off-street car park the vehicle's placement location (placement office), and treat it as the parking space under the Parking Space Act and the "base of use" under the Road Transport Vehicle Act.

Issue	Treatment under unattended / ICT lending	Basis / window
Placement location (unattended car park)	Those able to grasp status by ICT may make an unattended off-street car park the placement office = parking space = base of use	Kokujijо No. 205 / Kokujiryo No. 609
Notification	Notify the location of the vehicle's placement location (placement office) to the Transport Branch Office head with jurisdiction over the principal office	The notice / Transport Branch Office
Distance requirement	The parking space and the base of use within 2 km straight-line	Parking Space Act Enforcement Order art. 1

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So even if you make a bay in an unattended monthly car park or a coin-parking a car-sharing vehicle location, the parking-space requirements (2 km, entry/exit and capacity, right to use) and the notification of the placement location follow. At the property-choosing stage, the point is to check whether that bay may be used for lending/storing vehicles (the lease and the car park's management rules). Whether it falls under the notice, and whether an unattended car park is recognised as a placement office, is the Transport Branch Office's judgment. The issues of monthly/coin-parking land itself are touched on in turning inherited land into monthly/coin parking to sell or lease. This article shows only the framework and leaves the individual judgment to the Transport Branch Office and police.

Who do I refer the permit application, parking-space notification and property search to?

Starting a rent-a-car business spans separate fields—the permit (Transport Branch Office), the parking space (police) and the property (real estate). What a real-estate company handles is the survey, terms-arrangement and brokerage of office/garage land; the rest goes to each qualified professional and administrative window, as an independent business contracted with and applied to separately.

Trouble	Who to refer to
Survey of office/garage land, arranging lease terms, brokerage	Us (a real-estate transaction business)
Drafting/submitting the paid-lending permit application	Administrative scrivener
The permit itself (Road Transport Act art. 80) / receiving the placement-location notification	Transport Branch Office
Parking certificate (garage certificate) / parking-space notification	Police (with jurisdiction over the parking space)
Lease, and disputes over accidents or unreturned vehicles	Lawyer

These are each independent businesses, contracted with separately. We neither receive nor pay referral or introduction fees. Whether the permit is possible is the Transport Branch Office's judgment; whether the parking space is suitable the police's; drafting the permit documents the administrative scrivener's. We investigate the property/contract side—the office–garage distance (the 2 km requirement), the use the lease permits, how an unattended placement location is used—and take consultations from arranging who to consult on each. For finding business-use property see also the consultation desk for business-use/investment real estate.

Consult Yotsuba Real Estate about rent-a-car office/garage land—initial consultation is free

In your message, write "rent-a-car (paid lending of private vehicles)" and include the expected form of office (leased office, home or virtual office), the number of vehicles, whether it is unattended / ICT lending (car-sharing), and the property's location (municipality). Without presuming the permit will or will not be granted, we begin with the property survey and arranging which parts to refer to the permit, parking-space and contract professionals.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Does a rent-a-car permit have garage-size or distance standards like haulage?
A. The rent-a-car review standards (Road Transport Act art. 80(1), paid lending of private vehicles) do not squarely ask the office–garage distance or garage capacity in numbers, as the general freight-haulage business does. The review centres on no grounds for disqualification, no disciplinary history for resembling-a-transport-business acts, and carrying enough vehicle insurance. But each vehicle lent separately needs a parking space secured under the Parking Space Act (a garage certificate for ordinary cars), and this is what bites on the property side. The detailed standards are in each Regional Transport Bureau's public notice, and the judgment is the Transport Branch Office's.

Q. How far from the office may the garage (parking space) be?
A. By Parking Space Act Enforcement Order art. 1, the parking space must be within 2 km straight-line of the base of use (for an individual the address/residence, for a company the office location). It must also allow entry/exit from the road without trouble, hold the whole vehicle, and be one you have the right to use. The parking certificate (garage certificate) is applied for at the police station with jurisdiction over the parking space, and suitability is judged by the police.

Q. Can a virtual office or my home be the rent-a-car office?
A. It is not decided uniformly. The points are whether that place actually carries out the lending business (an address-only virtual office tends to be found to lack substance), whether it is recognised as the base of use under the Parking Space Act (actual living/business is a premise), whether a garage can be secured within 2 km of it, and whether the lease or management rules bar business use. The final judgment on the office is the Transport Branch Office's; whether a parking certificate can be obtained is the police's.

Q. For unattended car-sharing (one-way), can a coin-parking be the garage?
A. The Ministry's notice (2014, Kokujijо No. 205 / Kokujiryo No. 609, etc.) treats rent-a-car-type car-sharing found able to grasp the vehicle's status accurately through ICT as able to make an unattended off-street car park the vehicle's placement location (placement office) and the parking space / base of use under the respective Acts. The placement location is notified to the Transport Branch Office head with jurisdiction over the principal office. The 2 km distance requirement and a check that the bay may be used for lending/storage are needed, and whether it falls under the notice is the Transport Branch Office's judgment.

Sources

The following public materials are starting points. Laws are amended, so check the current text, paragraph, item, enforcement date and latest amendment on e-Gov Law Search. The permit's review standards are each Regional Transport Bureau's public notice, and parking-space practice differs by prefectural police, so confirm with the Transport Branch Office or police you apply to. All were consulted on 1 November 2026. They do not guarantee an individual permit or parking certificate. The sources below are in Japanese.

• e-Gov Law Search: Road Transport Act (Act No. 183 of 1951; art. 80(1) = permit for paid lending of private vehicles [unless the borrower is the user], art. 80(2) = must grant unless it resembles running a motor-transport business)
• e-Gov Law Search: Road Transport Act Enforcement Regulation (Ministry of Transport Ordinance No. 75 of 1951; art. 52 = items recorded in the private-vehicle lending permit application)
• e-Gov Law Search: Act on Securing Parking Spaces, etc. for Vehicles (Act No. 145 of 1962, the Parking Space Act; art. 3 = duty to secure a parking space, art. 4 = right to use, art. 5 = parking certificate [ordinary vehicles], art. 13 = parking-space notification [light vehicles])
• e-Gov Law Search: Enforcement Order of the Act on Securing Parking Spaces, etc. for Vehicles (Cabinet Order No. 329 of 1962; art. 1 = parking-space requirements [within 2 km straight-line of the base of use, entry/exit from the road and holding the whole vehicle, right to use])
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, "On the treatment of the one-way (drop-off) method in rent-a-car-type car-sharing" (27 March 2014, Kokujijо No. 205 / Kokujiryo No. 609; those able to grasp status via ICT may make an unattended off-street car park the placement location = parking space = base of use. Consulted 1 November 2026)
• Each Regional Transport Bureau's public notice "On the treatment of the permit for paid lending of private vehicles" and each Transport Branch Office's guidance (review standards, standard processing period and application forms differ by region. Consulted 1 November 2026; the possibility rests with the Transport Branch Office)

This article provides general information and does not guarantee an individual permit, parking certificate, or the suitability of an office/garage. Drafting the paid-lending permit documents is an administrative scrivener's; the permit itself and the placement-location notification the Transport Branch Office's; the parking certificate/notification the police's; and a lease or a dispute over a lent vehicle a lawyer's.

Joji Uramatsu (浦松 丈二), Representative Director and licensed real estate transaction specialist, Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (四葉不動産株式会社). We provide surveys, terms-arrangement and brokerage for business-use property. Author profile

Updated: 1 November 2026