Two guidelines are currently available to guide Japanese clinicians caring for patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP): the 2005 American Thoracic Society/Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) guidelines or the 2008 Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) guidelines. We aimed to measure compliance with guideline recommendations for VAP in Japanese intensive care units (ICUs) and to assess the effects of guideline-compliant treatment on outcomes. We retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients with microbiologically confirmed VAP in five Japanese ICUs between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2009. We evaluated whether empiric antibiotic prescriptions were guideline compliant and correlated compliance with clinical outcomes. Among the 95 patients with VAP who were included, 85 patients received empiric antibiotics. Of these, therapy of 62 patients (73 %) was appropriate based on in vitro sensitivity testing. Using ATS/IDSA criteria, 16 patients (19 %) received guideline-compliant therapy and 69 patients (81 %) received noncompliant treatment. Using JRS criteria, 24 patients (28 %) received guideline-compliant therapy and 61 patients (72 %) received noncompliant treatment. All-cause 28-day mortality was 24 %. When compared to patients who received noncompliant therapy, there were no differences in 28-day mortality rates for patients who received ATS/IDSA guideline-compliant regimens (25 vs. 25 %, p = 1.00) or JRS guideline-compliant regimens (21 vs. 26 %, p = 0.78). Our study demonstrates poor compliance with guideline-recommended antibiotic therapy for VAP in Japanese ICUs. Compliance with current VAP guidelines was not associated with increased rates of appropriate antibiotic treatment or improved 28-day mortality.