Rail Travel in Japan: A quick guide

🚆 You will be traveling inter-city in Japan, and will be making multiple long distance trips in a short period of time

🚆You want flexibility to cater for last minute inter-city travel without chalking up costs

🚆 You will mostly be staying in a single city

🚆 The regions you will be traveling in do not have an extensive JR network

1️⃣ Have a rough itinerary of your trip: decide which areas of Japan you will be visiting.

2️⃣ Check out the coverage of the different regional passes offered by the various companies in JR group:

3️⃣ After identifying a suitable regional (or multi-day) pass, compare the prices against the option of buying single-tickets at: https://www.jrpass.com/farecalculator/ to determine if you would benefit from buying a JR pass.

In addition to inter-city connections, you might also want to consider the main modes of transport within each city. For example, the JR pass would be very useful in cities like Tokyo and Osaka, but less so in Kyoto where buses and non-JR networks are more common.

There are multiple websites that are authorised to sell JR passes, such as https://www.jrailpass.com/ or https://www.jrpass.com/. You can also purchase the passes directly from the official JR website, though their prices tend to be higher. Alternatively, you could purchase the tickets from an authorised local tour agent at your home country. Whether you purchased it online or via a tour agent, you will need to head to a JR ticket office when you are in Japan to exchange for a pass.

You can also purchase a JR pass from a ticket office at selected major stations in Japan, but prices tend to be more expensive.

Your JR pass is your ticket and you will be able to use it to enter the railway stations. You can also use your JR pass to make seat reservations at the ticket machines or ticket offices across Japan. If you purchased your pass via the official JR website, you will also be able to make seat reservations on the website. Note that it is mandatory to make reservations for some trains, so be sure to check in advance if you will need to make a reservation for your trip.

Single-ride tickets are tickets that you could purchase when traveling between two points in Japan. All train operators (not limited to just JR trains) provide the option of purchasing a single-ride ticket, though the fares and rules might differ.

Generally, you will be able to purchase single-ride tickets either at the ticket machines or ticket counters at the train station.

At the ticket machines, simply select the station that you will be traveling from and your destination, and select the number of tickets that you will be purchasing. Additional fees may apply if you purchase a green-car ticket (which are more comfortable), a limited express train (which has less stops), or if you have a reserved seat.

If you are traveling longer distances (above 100km) on a JR network, you might want to note that your ticket entitles you to as many stopovers as you want, as long as there is no backtracking, and the stopovers are not in the same zones as your departure and arrival stations. Separate seat reservations, green-car tickets, and limited express passes will have to be purchased for each segment if you will be stopping-over at various stations.

IC cards are prepaid cards that you can reload and use for almost all forms of transportation, and are mostly operator-agnostic. IC cards are very useful for urban transportation, especially if you will be travelling within a single city or region.

There are ten major IC cards in Japan, and are mostly similar other than the fact they are issued by different operators. The cards can be used on trains and buses operated by different companies, and can be used interchangeably in most major cities across Japan. Which IC card you purchase primarily depends mostly on which region you are in.

However, you would want to note that your travels would be limited by the coverage of the IC cards — you wouldn’t be able to use the IC cards to go to regions where it does not have coverage. You will also not be able to use the IC card when travelling between different IC card regions. If you will mostly be staying within the same city or region, a IC card would be a more convenient option than purchasing single-ride tickets.

For example, if you have a SUICA card, you will still be able to use it when you travelling within Osaka; but you wouldn’t be able to travel from Tokyo to Osaka using the same card as that is considered as travelling between regions.

The IC cards can be reloaded at ticket machines, and can also be used to make purchases in some restaurants and shops in Japan.

If you are travelling within a single city and expect to be taking the local transport extensively in a single day, you could also consider day passes that are offered by the local transport operator. For example, if you were in Tokyo, you could get a one day Tokyo Combination ticket offered by Tokyo metro. Similar passes are also offered by the local transport operators in major cities.