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I agree, in the spring of 2018 I hitched all the way from Tokyo to Kyusu and found it very easy, eventhough I'm a very tall strange looking European. Most people seem to know what hitching is, and their hospitality once in their vehicle is astounding. You will be offered food, candy, drinks. Even a place to stay at times. I also bet several other hitchhikers with similar experiences.

By far one of the easiest countries to hitch in as long as you stay in the expressway system.

The top worries of a Japanese driver when they see a hitchhiking gaijin are: Can he '''communicate'''? Does he know how to behave? The quick way to answer those questions is with a [[signs|sign]]: 日本語できる！ (''Nihongo dekiru!''), literally "Japanese can!", is just six characters and works like a charm. And you don't really need to know Japanese all that well to use such a sign, as long as you can communicate... somehow... Most people have smartphones now that are connected to the internet all the time and love to use translation apps on them. So it is pretty common to have entire conversations over a smart phone. [[User:Rdoc101|Rdoc101]] had a deep conversation about getting married to my travel partner entirely through a smartphone.