Every guide on this site, grouped by the question it answers. The prices come from counting listings in the Japanese market rather than estimating them, and the state law comes from the statute, the administrative code and the state’s own DMV pages rather than from other import sites. Where a page carries a measurement, the date it was measured is on the page.
If you are starting from zero, read Japanese Mini Trucks: What They Are, What They Cost, and Who Should Buy One first, then check your own state below.
Start here
- Japanese Mini Trucks: What They Are, What They Cost, and Who Should Buy One — what the vehicle is, what it costs landed, and the drawbacks a seller will not raise.
- How to Import a Kei Truck from Japan (2026): Costs, Steps & Real Auction Prices — the whole process end to end, with the paperwork named.
- The 25-Year Import Rule for Kei Trucks: How It Actually Works in 2026 (and What Unlocks Next) — why the age of the truck decides whether it can enter the country at all.
- Are Kei Trucks Street Legal? All 50 States, Explained (Verified August 2026) — the 50-state comparison in one table.
Where you can drive one: all 50 states
Each state has its own guide. Every one was written from the state’s own statute and administrative code, with the registration fee, the insurance minimum and the alternative routes (antique, historic, farm, off-road) written out. The four groups below are my reading of where each state stands as of August 2026; the law moves, and several states moved while this series was being written.
Two pages sit above the individual states: Are Kei Trucks Street Legal? All 50 States, Explained (Verified August 2026) puts all fifty in one table, and How US States Define a Kei Truck: Three Templates, One of Which Excludes Most Imports works through the definitions themselves — the length limits, the weight floors and the off-road class definitions that decide the answer before registration is ever discussed.
Full registration — 11 states
Register it, plate it, drive it on the same roads as anything else.
- Kei Trucks in Alaska: Named as Turned Away, Then Legalized 20-0
- Kei Trucks in Arizona: Legal to Register, but Read the Emissions Rule
- Kei Trucks in Delaware: Open by Statute, Decided in the Inspection Lane
- Kei Trucks in Massachusetts: Open Again, and Still Under Review
- Kei Trucks in Michigan: A State That Says Yes, in Writing
- Kei Trucks in Mississippi: The 35 MPH Rule That Never Passed
- Kei Trucks in Montana: Four Grounds to Refuse, None of Them Yours
- Kei Trucks in North Dakota: The 55 MPH Rule Belongs to a Different Vehicle
- Kei Trucks in South Carolina: No Kei Statute, No Safety Inspection, No Speed Class
- Kei Trucks in South Dakota: The Off-Road Class Was Never the Question
- Kei Trucks in Texas: Legal, Registered, and What They Really Cost
Conditional — 26 states
Registration exists, but the statute attaches a road class, a speed cap, a use restriction or a local opt-in. Read the conditions before you buy.
- Kei Trucks in Alabama: Two Legal Routes, and Only One Gives You a Title
- Kei Trucks in Arkansas: 135 Inches, 1,500 Pounds, and a Sworn Farm-Use Affidavit
- Kei Trucks in Colorado: The Best Law in the Country, and You Wait Until 2028
- Kei Trucks in Florida: The 35 mph Rule and What It Actually Means
- Kei Trucks in Idaho: A Correction, and the Broadest Off-Highway Route in the Country
- Kei Trucks in Illinois: One Sentence, Two Readings, Opposite Answers
- Kei Trucks in Indiana: Every Road but the Interstate, If It Weighs Little Enough
- Kei Trucks in Kansas: The County Has No Say, and the Weight Floor Decides
- Kei Trucks in Kentucky: The State Names Your Truck, Then Runs Two Rules Over It
- Kei Trucks in Louisiana: 55 mph Roads by Default, and Three Policies That Disagree
- Kei Trucks in Minnesota: A Real Class, a Sheriff’s Permit, and Three-Inch Numbers
- Kei Trucks in Missouri: You Can Title One, and the Local Ordinance Route Is Not Yours
- Kei Trucks in Nebraska: The State That Wrote the Definition Right
- Kei Trucks in New Hampshire: No Title Needed Before Model Year 2000
- Kei Trucks in North Carolina: 55 mph Roads, No Antique Plates
- Kei Trucks in Ohio: A Good Definition, and Your Township Decides
- Kei Trucks in Oklahoma: The State That Fixed the Paperwork, Not Just the Roads
- Kei Trucks in Pennsylvania: Legal to Own, One Day a Week to Drive
- Kei Trucks in Tennessee: Two Routes, and You Have to Choose Which Freedom
- Kei Trucks in Utah: Everyone Says 50 mph — Nobody Cites the Statute
- Kei Trucks in Vermont: The 2026 Law Is Good, and It Stops at 130 Inches
- Kei Trucks in Virginia: The Low-Speed Vehicle Route Is Closed, and the Fix Is Colorado’s
- Kei Trucks in Washington: Every Low-Speed Class Here Is Electric-Only
- Kei Trucks in West Virginia: Named in the Statute, Defined Nowhere
- Kei Trucks in Wisconsin: Collector Plates Only, and They Cost Double
- Kei Trucks in Wyoming: Two Definitions That Each Exclude the Other
No road use — 11 states
The state refuses road registration. An off-road or farm route may still exist, and each guide says which.
- Kei Trucks in California: Why You Cannot Register One
- Kei Trucks in Georgia: The State That Took Titles Back
- Kei Trucks in Hawaii: The FMVSS Bar Has Three Exceptions, and One Is Age-Blind
- Kei Trucks in Iowa: One Sentence Closes the Road, and It Has Been Amended Once
- Kei Trucks in Maine: The One State That Studied It and Said No Unanimously
- Kei Trucks in Maryland: The MVA’s Own Page Accepts the 25-Year Box
- Kei Trucks in New Jersey: One Office in Trenton, and Two Definitions That Decide
- Kei Trucks in New Mexico: The MVD Asks for a Letter That Cannot Exist
- Kei Trucks in New York: No Road Plate, and Not an ATV Either
- Kei Trucks in Oregon: Refused, and the Rescue Bill Would Have Missed by 1.7 Inches
- Kei Trucks in Rhode Island: A Ban With a 130-Inch Hole in It
Unclear — 2 states
No statutory bar that I could find, but no confirmed registration either. These two are the ones I would call the DMV about.
- Kei Trucks in Connecticut: One Discretionary Sentence Decides It
- Kei Trucks in Nevada: The DMV’s Own Guide Has a Route Nobody Cites
Which truck to buy
- The Best Kei Truck in 2026: Acty vs Carry vs Hijet vs Sambar vs Minicab, Settled With Data — the five trucks compared on measured supply, measured price and parts availability.
- Suzuki Carry Buyer’s Guide (2026): Generations, Real Japan Prices, and the Parts-King Advantage
- Daihatsu Hijet Buyer’s Guide (2026): Real Japan Prices, the Dump-Bed Premium, and Which Generation You’re Actually Buying
- Honda Acty Buyer’s Guide (2026): Generations, Real Japan Prices, and What to Check Before You Import
- Subaru Sambar Buyer’s Guide (2026): Generations, Real Japan Prices, and the Supercharger Question
- Mitsubishi Minicab Buyer’s Guide (2026): Real Japan Prices and the Cheapest Honest Entry in the Kei Class
- Honda Acty Attack: What It Actually Is, What It Really Costs, and How to Find One — the off-road trim people search for by name.
Kei vans
- Kei Van Buyer’s Guide (2026): Every vs Acty vs Hijet vs Sambar vs Minicab, With Real Japan Prices — the five vans compared.
- Suzuki Every Buyer’s Guide (2026): Real Japan Prices, the Two Turbo Eras, and the Wagon Question
- Daihatsu Hijet Van Buyer’s Guide (2026): Cargo, Atrai, Atrai Wagon — the Name Maze Decoded, With Real Japan Prices
- Subaru Sambar Van & Dias Buyer’s Guide (2026): 59 Vans Measured, the Supercharger Map, and the ¥390,000 Corner
- Honda Acty Van Buyer’s Guide (2026): the Street, the Vamos, and Japan’s Two-Tier Market — Measured
What it costs
- Kei Truck Cost (2026): Every Dollar, Measured — From Japan Price to Your Driveway — every line item from the Japanese asking price to your driveway.
- Kei Truck Landed Cost Calculator: What It Really Costs to Import One — put your own numbers in.
- The Data: Kei Truck Prices, Measured in Japan — the raw dataset, the method, and the CSV.
Buying
- Where to Buy a Kei Truck: Importer, Dealer, Auction or Direct Import — importer, US dealer, auction or direct, priced from both ends.
- Best Kei Truck Exporters & Agents in Japan (2026): Verified Data, Not Marketing
- How to Read a Japanese Auction Sheet (Kei Truck Buyer’s Guide) — the grades and the inspector’s shorthand, which is where the rust is disclosed.
Owning one
- Kei Truck Top Speed, MPG & Specs (2026): Real Numbers for Every Model — top speed, fuel economy, bed dimensions, payload and transmission mix, measured.
- Kei Truck Maintenance: Schedules, Costs and an Engine-by-Engine Guide
- Kei Truck Mods (2026): the Upgrades Worth Doing, in Order
- Kei Trucks Off-Road: What Japan Actually Sends You
- Kei Truck vs UTV / Side-by-Side: the Honest Comparison
- Kei Truck & Kei Van Campers (2026): the Three Paths, Priced With Real Data
- Kei Fire Trucks and Food Trucks: Why You Cannot Find One — fire trucks, dump beds and the bodies that rarely leave Japan.
About the numbers
Prices are asking prices from Japanese listings on the dates shown, not sale prices, and they are what I could find listed on Carsensor rather than a claim to have captured the entire market. Statutes are quoted from the enrolled text where the bill status could be confirmed; where a rule people repeat online turned out to come from a bill that died in committee, the guide says so. About Kei Truck Japan explains who writes this and how it is funded.