My wife and I have been living and working in Japan for a little over 4 years and are currently planning to return to the UK in the middle of 2016.

Our dream is to buy a land cruiser here in Japan and spend 6-12 months driving home to the UK, where will finally import and register the vehicle. The route we'll probably take is Japan - Russia - The Stans - Iran - Turkey - Greece - some-other-european-countries - UK.

I was wondering if anyone has attempted anything similar in a Japanese registered vehicle here at HUBB or knows of anyone? There's lots of info available about coming to Japan in a foreign vehicle, but almost nothing about leaving Japan in a Japanese vehicle...

The area I'm most interested in finding out more about is the process of getting a carnet drawn up in Japan. My research so far indicates that the 'Japan Automobile Federation' are most likely going to be the people to deal with. Has anyone here had a carnet prepared by them?

Reading translations of the JAF website, I read a concerning detail that they will only issue carnets for vehicles that are returning to Japan. Again, I'd love to hear if anyone knows if this stipulation is absolute, or whether there are ways around it!

Many thanks in advance!

Mark