I am a little baffled that in a country with little inflation (often deflation) and with ticket and passes prices pretty much stable for over a decade, the main JR-Pass got an absurd 50% price increase.
Can anyone pitch in on a cause for this absurd? It used to be that the pass was worth it if you made a round-trip between Tokyo and Kyoto with a couple of small additions, but now you need to make that round-trip twice … in 7 days!
Are they trying to dissuade the JR Pass use or what?
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Oversubscription on a particular line or segment perhaps. Or not all JR companies getting the same profit out of it. Maybe abuse. A need to discontinue it before the Chuo shinkansen arrives. Perhaps a more competitive option is coming.
It’s not like its subsidized by the government.
It’s not absurd and a quite sensible move, I am actually surprised the pass has not been simply scrapped.
First of all, the JR pass is subsidized. Regular tickets are way more expensive (I guess most understand that).
It had some meaning when Japan was not a major tourist destination and there was some need to promote areas outside of Tokyo, especially Kyoto.
There is no such need anymore. Tourists will go to Kyoto anyway, so basically what happens is that locals are subsidizing a trip along the golden route that people will take anyway, even with the price hike. To say that this does not fly well with locals that pay the regular price is an understatement.
This money could be put to better use to promote less travelled destinations.
>Are they trying to dissuade the JR Pass use or what?
With the current way it is used (Tokyo-Kyoto and back), yes, exactly.
The price of the passes for anyone travelling further then Tokyo and Kyoto was absurdly low to be honest.
I don’t think the change has anything to do with inflation and is just a modernisation of the passes to where they will only be used by people doing extensive travel and not just the default for a Return ticket to Kyoto from Tokyo, which is kinda dumb from the JR perspective.
Honestly hard to see how the 7 day pass would make sense anymore though with the price, short of using it to travel from Sapporo through Tokyo and end in Kyoto/Osaka.
Would you use it if you had to go from, say, Tokyo to Fukuoka? That Shinkansen is like 23000Y, which is just a bit more expensive than the JR Pass and allows no ability to stop along the way. I think it might still be worth it if you are going very long distances.
The Japanese can’t use it so not sure what their inflation has to do with it. It’s only for foreigners.
I’m travelling to Japan in feb-march and are doing a fair bit of sight seeing. We are going from Tokyo to osaka, Osaka to kyoto, Nara and back, Osaka to Hiroshima and back, back to Tokyo and then Tokyo to nagano and back. Am I correct that the JR Pass, even with the price hike, would be financially better than buying individual tickets? The price hike hurts the wallet but I’m still thinking I’ll be better off with a 7 day pass.
I’m traveling on the 14-day ordinary pass for 11 days solid and barely making the ¥¥¥ back
¥52,960 = ~$350 pretty good deal vs the $1000 airfare!
but adding up the basic fares:
TOKYO → TAKAMATSU = ¥11,650
TAKAMATSU(Yosan Line)→ KAWANOE = ¥3,170
KAWANOE → MATSUYAMA = ¥4,940
SHIN-YAMAGUCHI → SHIN-OSAKA = ¥14,050
KYOTO → NAGOYA = ¥5,710
NAGOYA → ATAMI = ¥8,750
ATAMI → SHIMODA = ¥2,020
SHIMODA → KAMAKURA = ¥4,650
Total: ¥54,940
so for traveling halfway across the country & back in 11 days is only saving $20 on the two-week JRP, quite surprising really.
If you consider how long it has been since the price has gone up, and how strong the dollar is against the yen, it makes sense for it to get an increase. It’s also likely soon you are going to see fares across the board go up as well, so in time it’s going to likely become a better deal relatively speaking.
Yeah it’s bullshit. Cancelled Japan plans to go Korea instead in November cos of this.
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They haven’t gone up in prices for like 3 decades now. That’s why.
I have to wonder if we will see an increase in flight prices relative to this. As it stands domestic flights will hold an incredible amount of value over the rail pass for many itineraries.
Speculation: They started tracking where and how much JR passes were used now that it is a ticket rather than a booklet, and concluded that it was way too cheap. Also JR groups received more complaints that Nozomis and Mizuho trains could not be used. However JR Central strongarmed negotiations. JR Central hates tourists crowding out their trains with cheapo tickets. They are also the only JR group that does not offer any kind of tourist pass. So, short of abolishing the JR Pass they raised prices in such a way that only the most niche travelers would use it, and that people will buy the (stupid) regional passes instead. And they threw in ridiculous Nozomi and Mizuho surcharges which are so incredibly dumb it’s just short of saying “go away, do not buy this product, don’t use JR trains in Japan”.
Why are regional passes stupid? Because before those regional passes were available for non sequential days, which would make sense, but now they are only available for short term sequential days, which makes no sense.
It is not that the passes are absurdly cheap: They are not!
But that the regular fares are absurdly high, especially for Shinkansen trips!
Fully agree with u/Titibu in terms of the pass usage and the fact that it is fundamentally subsidizing tourists who, in terms of economics, really should be *adding* value to the Japanese economy, not technically profiting from it.
I think that the pass will still have merit as an efficiency gain for people who will be in the country for an extended period of time, because the value for the 14 and 21 day passes increases. Also, it will still most likely save you money if you’re *extensively* using the rail network. For instance, if you planned your trip around staying in central hubs and rode the Shinkansen to smaller destinations, or if you went balls to the wall and took a trip from Tokyo all the way to Kyushu and back (very doable!).
It will probably make it more appealing to people who specifically want to go for rail tourism too, and might encourage people to travel to smaller regions as originally intended.
Controversial opinion but I honestly back anything the tourism board does to disincentivize people going to Kyoto. The tourist sites there are incredibly congested and overcrowding is a big problem, and I think low-key it’s a bit over-rated anyway. It was my least favourite city to be in when I visited, and there’s other areas that could do with a boost.
Consider that the price has remained the same price since the 1980s and that inflation in countries like the US has seen costs basically double due to inflation during the same time period. Train prices in Japan that were once seen as an unreasonable burden for foreign travellers are no longer so expensive compared to their home countries.
For some travellers, the revised pricing of the pass will still save them money. For those that simply travel between Tokyo and Osaka with it, it wouldn’t have saved them that much money even before the revised pricing. Sure, some people will end up spending more, but it’s not unreasonable IMHO.
Because the JR Pass has been incredibly affordable. It was introduced about 36 years ago when Japan didn’t have many tourists from abroad—only one-tenth compared to the number of tourists before Covid.
Now, regardless of your itinerary, the pass is a must-buy. The price hasn’t changed much since it was introduced, so it’s understandable that JR would consider raising its price to control supply and demand.
And yet, the pass remains quite reasonable, even though the price has increased significantly compared to regular Shinkansen tickets.
one thing to keep in mind is that fares are supposedly increasing across the board. that being said i think its worth it even with the increase assuming you will be relying heavily on the shinkansen. my last trip i stayed in tokyo as a hub and took day or overnight trips all over the country. i was on a shinkansen or longer distance limited express train every day.
i blew through the current pre increase value of a 2 week pass in the span of 4 days. that being said if i followed a schedule closer to what i tend to see on this subreddit then it may not hold value depending on where fare prices are
Well considering the prices haven’t gone up in years and years, it only makes sense that it would eventually get raised. The individual tickets are expensive imo as someone who lives in Japan so nothing changes for me. Inflation has been hitting Japan, I see it every time I buy groceries or get my electricity bill.
It’s pretty simple, the JR pass has been way too cheap for way too long.
I thought they were trying to curb tourism, it’s too high.
As a long term resident here, I’ve never used a JR pass, however despite using a ic card for all my travel (or buying tickets where required), I would definitely not even call the standard fare cost over expensive as I feel for the distance you get out of the price is well worth it (especially coming from a country where you pay so much more to travel the same amount of distance via public transport, and on trains which often arrive late and are much slower).Thus, I totally agree with other posts that it is about time they scrap the JR pass (which I think will enevitably happen but they want to milk as much money out of it while they can because despite the price hike, there will still be alot of people who purchase it even though it would make more sense to buy regular tickets). It makes sense to hike the price of the JR pass now that inbound tourism is booming and close to where it was pre-covid.
Have you looked at the yen recently?
Yeh it was far too cheap before
Tbh, long overdue really. Below is my upcoming March trip and it barely makes the 7day pass worth it.
Tokyo – Kanazawa – Kyoto – Fukuoka – Hiroshima – Himeji – Osaka
Fully understand why local regular users weren’t too happy. Too crowded and too expensive relatively.
A lot of the difference is due to the yen being 135 compared to 100-110 for many years.
If you’re going to make the trip, then just bite the bullet.