###Regional Passes
As previously stated, prices of passes offered by each JR company are also going up (or have actually already gone up as in case of JR Shikoku) on 1 October. Sometimes very significantly (major JR East passes are going up by 50%, sometimes by a fairly small amount – JR Hokkaido and JR West).
####JR EAST
Pass | Old Price | New Price
:–|:–:|:–:
JR East Pass (Tohoku Area) | 20,000 JPY | 30,000 JPY
JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano Area) | 18,000 JPY | 27,000 JPY
JR Tokyo Wide Pass | 10,180 JPY | 15,000 JPY
N’EX Tokyo Round Trip Ticket | 4,070 JPY | 5,000 JPY
JR East-South Hokkaido Pass | 27,000 JPY | 35,000 JPY
JR Tohoku-South Hokkaido Pass | 24,000 JPY | 30,000 JPY
JR East Pass (Tohoku Area) can still be a fairly decent deal: if you visit Sendai, schedule day trips to Yamadera, Matsushima Bay and Hiraizumi/Geibikei Gorge – you will break even.
Still, previously you needed to make a round trip to Sendai to make it work, now the threshold for a round trip is Hachinohe or Tazawako.
JR East Pass (Niigata, Nagano Area) will probably have very niche usage. Previously you needed a round trip to Niigata, or to visit Nagano, Matsumoto with some incidental usage thrown it. Now, you would have to visit Niigata and Nagano to make it work.
JR Tokyo Wide Pass has been previously great for taking Odoriko to Izu, doing a day trip to Karuizawa, or even for a day at Echigo-Yuzawa, now it requires probably planning two decently-sized trips to make it worthwhile.
N’EX Tokyo Round Trip Ticket: if you are not staying next to JR station, you might be better off taking Skyliner. Still some value if you are staying somewhere between Akihabara and Ikebukuro on JR lines.
JR East-South Hokkaido Pass: Still a fairly good value, if you stop multiple times on the way from Sapporo to Tokyo (or vice versa), or if you deviate from Hokkaido/Tohoku shinkansen (visit Hakodate, Hirosaki, Kakunodate or Aizu-Wakamatsu), but if you are just making one or two stops on shinkansen lines (say Aomori, Sendai) abusing multiple day fare makes more sense.
JR Tohoku-South Hokkaido Pass: Same as above, just for Sapporo-Sendai.
####JR WEST + JR CENTRAL
Pass | Old Price | New Price
:–|:–:|:–:
Kansai Area Pass (1/2/3/4-day) | 2,400/4,600/5,600/6,800 JPY | 2,800/4,800/5,800/6,800 JPY
Kansai Wide Area Pass | 10,000-11,000 JPY | 12,000 JPY
Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass | 15,000-16,000 JPY | 17,000 JPY
Sanyo-San’in Area Pass | 20,000-22,000 JPY | 23,000 JPY
Hiroshima-Yamaguchi Area Pass | 13,000-14,000 JPY | 15,000 JPY
Okayama-Hiroshima-Yamaguchi Area Pass | 15,000-16,000 JPY | 17,000 JPY
Setouchi Area Pass | 19,000-21,000 JPY | 22,000 JPY
Sanyo-San’in Northern Kyushu Pass | 23,000-25,000 JPY | 26,000 JPY
Ise-Kumano-Wakayama Area Pass | 11,210-12,200 JPY | 16,500 JPY
Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass | 14,260-15,280 JPY | 19,800 JPY
Mt.Fuji-Shizuoka Area Pass | 4,570-5,080 JPY | 6,500 JPY
JR West All Area Pass | 23,000-25,000 JPY | 26,000 JPY
The changes for JR West area passes are small enough that unless you were thinking of using the pass to make certain round trips (Osaka-Hiroshima, Hiroshima-Hakata) as the only mileage – they are still generally good deals for busy tourists.
Ise-Kumano-Wakayama Area Pass: if you were using it for just Kumano Kodo – that ship had sailed. You need to either also visit Ise or Iga-Ueno to be able to break even.
Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass: previously visiting Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go and Takayama on your way from Kansai to Nagoya was break even point. At 19,800 yen – to break even you would need to visit Toyama and stop at one of the onsen towns (Gero Onsen).
Mt.Fuji-Shizuoka Area Pass: I guess if you were visiting Kakegawa tea farms, Shuzenji and wanted to make your way to Kawaguchiko on three consecutive days – it could work. Otherwise, a fairly awful pass.
Note that:
* in person purchases of these passes will be discontinued
* old 4/6-reservation limit passes had their limits raised to 6/unlimited
* San’in-Okayama Area Pass, Hokuriku Area Pass, Kansai-Hokuriku Area Pass and Hokuriku Arch Pass prices will not change, however, Hokuriku-related passes will likely have their prices significantly raised after opening of Hokuriku shinkansen leg to Tsuruga.
####JR Hokkaido
Pass | Old Price (outside Japan/inside Japan) | New Price (outside Japan/inside Japan)
:–|:–:|:–:
Sapporo-Noboribetsu Area Pass | 8,000/8,500 JPY | 9,000/10,000 JPY
Sapporo-Furano Area Pass | 9,000/9,500 JPY | 10,000/11,000 JPY
Hokkaido Rail Pass (5 day) | 19,000/20,000 JPY | 20,000/21,000 JPY
Hokkaido Rail Pass (7 day) | 25,000/26,000 JPY | 26,000/27,000 JPY
Hokkaido Rail Pass (10 day) | not sold | 32,000/33,000 JPY
The slight price increases have not significantly affected the viability of the passes.
####JR Kyushu
Pass | Old Price (outside Japan/inside Japan) | New Price (outside Japan/inside Japan)
:–|:–:|:–:
Northern Kyushu Pass (3 days) | 10,000 JPY | 12,000 JPY
Northern Kyushu Pass (5 days) | 14,000 JPY | 15,000 JPY
All Kyushu Pass (3 day) | 17,000 JPY | 20,000 JPY
All Kyushu Pass (5 day) | 18,500 JPY | 22,500 JPY
All Kyushu Pass (7 day) | 20,000 JPY | 25,000 JPY
Southern Kyushu Pass | 8,000 JPY | 10,000 JPY
The minimum viability requirement has increased for 3-day Northern Kyushu Pass – a round trip from Hakata to Kumamoto or Beppu + a one-way trip within the region (to say Saga or Takao Onsen) is now required for the pass use to make sense.
All Kyushu Pass (3 day) went from covering a round trip from Hakata to Kagoshima with a room to spare to barely covering that trip.
All Kyushu (5 day) requires you to make round trips to Beppu and Nagasaki from Hakata to break even, and a 7-day one instead of breaking even on Hakata to Kagoshima trip, requires an additional day trip (Takeo Onsen).
####JR Shikoku
Pass | Price
:–|:–:
All Shikoku 3 day pass | 12,000 JPY
All Shikoku 4 day pass | 15,000 JPY
All Shikoku 5 day pass | 17,000 JPY
All-Shikoku 7 day pass | 20,000 JPY
3-day pass minimum viability: Takamatsu to Matsuyama round trip with a stop at Kotohira
4-day pass: round trips from Takamatsu to Kochi and Naruto or Tokushima
5-day pass: visiting Takamatsu, Kochi and Matsuyama
7-day pass: round trip on a Takamatsu-Kochi-Uwajima-Matsuyama-Kotohira route
7 comments
I am so thankful that the regional price increases aren’t as high. I absolutely demolished my 5 day JR Kansai Hiroshima pass back then. Planning a trip to Fukuoka next year and that 5 day Kyushu pass looks like a great deal even with the slight price increase.
Jr Kyushu now has a separate mobile only pass that only covers unreserved tickets, but might be viable if you were, say, only going to Nagasaki or only going to Beppu. It would save you from the slow moving line of people at Hakata station if you’re flying into Fukuoka. (Luckily, they had a separate window for pass redemption and directed any seat reservations to the regular line- which was also long. I was *really motivated* to figure out seat reservations via machine.)
You may notice that the Hakata wide area pass has an area floating off to the side that’s not connected to the rest. Part of the route is run by a different train company- you don’t switch trains, but it’s not covered by the national jr pass either. I was using the old paper version of the pass when I went to Karatsu (which was pretty charming) and simply resolved the issue by talking to the station staff at the ticket gates and paying the difference there, but if you’re only going in that direction a paper ticket or if card would be simpler.
I went Nagasaki as a day trip out of Fukuoka last month and it worked out pretty well. I saw the peace park, the peace museum, and went on a gunkanjima cruise. I could have taken one train earlier than I did, but I couldn’t figure out if the relay Kamome had unreserved seating in the thirty seconds I had before doors closing. I had reservations for a much later train and had forgotten them in my hotel room. I ended up retrieving the tickets, canceling them, then changing my reservations to the next departure. (I got to use that tiny window next to the ticket machines!)
Oddly enough, I ran into someone who also went on a day trip to Nagasaki, but they went to Huis Ten Bosch. (I’m not sure why they were telling a stranger about this in team lab, but there we are.)
Thanks for posting! Looks like I will get great value with the Kansai-Hiroshima pass as I will be doing Osaka->Himeji->Miyajima->Hiroshima->Kyoto within the 5 days. If the Hokuriku Arch price goes up, it’s likely not worth buying for the end of my trip.
When do you have to buy it by? I was going to buy mine the next couple days
Kansai-Hiroshima Pass is still worth it since you’ll still save ~4000JPY just by doing Osaka/Kyoto-Hiroshima round trip. Then you can easily add a trip to say, Kinosaki Onsen or something to save even more. Truly a great pass.
> Northern Kyushu Pass (3 days) 10,000 JPY 12,000 JPY
Damn this was 3500 yen during the pandemic.
Friendly reminder that JR West also run [one-way ticket deals for foreigners](https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/one_way/), which as the name suggests may be preferable to the passes if you are only going one-way. Osaka -> Hiroshima then flying to NRT, for example.
[Purchase on Klook](https://www.klook.com/en-US/activity/79827-jr-sanyo-shinkansen/) (Non-affiliate link but you should use one, such as Topcashback for 6% back)