It's not that hard really, I recommend it. RV rentals are a thing in Japan. I am from USA, so I went to a local shop here that offers International Driver's Permits. All they do is look at your driver's license to ensure it's valid, and then stamp a little paper brochure that has a bunch of translations of what your country permits with a driver's license. You can get as many of these as you want, it's not an actual license but just a certified translation, so you still need to carry your regular license. I got pulled over once at 3am in the middle of nowhere and the officer didn't speak any English and was so confused when I handed him my documents but once I pointed to the Japanese section of the IDP he studied it for a bit and then made the sounds of "ohhhh, I get it now" and let me go.
(Aside: If you're traveling to a country where casual roadside police bribes are a fact of life, (NOT Japan, more like Turkmenistan) multiple IDPs can be really handy, since the mechanism of the bribe is often 'I will hold your important document for you until you are ready to give the money' and they may not realize the IDP isn't actually your license, so you can just drive away.)
Also, language barrier isn't really an issue day to day. Most people in the huge urban centers (such as where you'd pick up the RV) speak English well. Once you get off the beaten track, English is a lot less common but translation apps work well (i enabled the Japanese keyboard on my iPhone and often we'd just pass the phone back and forth, typing messages) locals off the beaten path tend to be interested in foreign travelers, happy to take time to help, learn more about you, etc. Small regions in Japan tend to have strong local identity and there is generally an interest in sharing that with travelers.
I only did it for 2 weeks but Japan would have let me stay for 90 days without a visa.
> language barrier isn't really an issue day to day. Most people in the huge urban centers (such as where you'd pick up the RV) speak English well.
This is not the general experience in Japan, and advising people to expect English speakers is misleading :) That said, you will certainly still get by, and if you're nervous about it there are definitely other (more expensive) rental options with strong English language support - one of them is linked from the blog.
Good point, not a precise statement from me. I personally did not want to use one of those more expensive options so I called around to find an agency that was open to renting to a foreigner, but wasn't too targeted at renting to foreigners. So, definitely selection bias there since my memory is the ones I didn't go with basically just said no, which isn't enough data to show if there was enough English support to complete a complicated rental transaction.
> locals off the beaten path tend to be interested in foreign travelers, happy to take time to help
I had this experience everywhere, not just off the beaten path. Language barrier was never a problem for me in Japan because people would bend over backwards to help me.
You can get by without speaking Japanese as a normal tourist, but if you try to live in a van and get hassled by the police, lacking Japanese language skills will not go well for you.
Related to this, a good idea when traveling internationally is to carry contact information for a local embassy or diplomatic branch of your home country.
One thing a traveler could do for some peace of mind is notify an embassy of the trip ahead of time, such that in a police hassling scenario someone on scene can call and get official confirmation in Japanese of who you are and what you're doing, act as an interpreter, etc.
To note, this is not about getting shot in the night or forcefully locked for weeks without recourse.
Just spending hours trying to convince local cops that you’re not a drug dealer, having them look at papers they don’t understand, and getting more lecturing on how you wasted their time. And that every few days as you move to new places.
Of course shit can happen, but it will be the exception more than the rule.
