Japan Trains and the JR Pass: Shinkansen and Tickets

The shinkansen network radiates from Tokyo along nine lines. The Tokaido line (Tokyo to Nagoya, Kyoto and Shin-Osaka) is the busiest, with Nozomi trains every few minutes at peak times. The Sanyo line continues from Shin-Osaka through Okayama and Hiroshima to Hakata in Fukuoka, and the Kyushu line runs on from Hakata to Kumamoto and Kagoshima-Chuo. From Tokyo the Tohoku line heads north to Sendai, Morioka and Shin-Aomori, the Hokkaido line continues under the sea to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto (the Sapporo extension is not expected before the late 2030s), the Joetsu line goes to Niigata, and the Hokuriku line reaches Nagano, Toyama, Kanazawa and Tsuruga, where you change to a Thunderbird limited express for Kyoto or Osaka. The short Nishi-Kyushu line links Takeo-Onsen with Nagasaki, reached by a Relay Kamome express from Hakata.

Train names tell you how many stops a train makes, not how fast it goes; all trains on a line run at the same top speed. On the Tokaido and Sanyo lines, Nozomi stops only at the big cities, Hikari stops a few more times and Kodama stops everywhere. On the Sanyo and Kyushu lines the equivalents are Mizuho (fastest), Sakura and Tsubame. Hayabusa (Tohoku and Hokkaido), Komachi (Akita branch), Tsubasa (Yamagata branch) and Kagayaki (Hokuriku) are the fast, all-reserved trains in the north and east. The distinction matters because the Japan Rail Pass does not cover Nozomi or Mizuho without a supplement, while Hikari, Sakura, Hayabusa and Kagayaki are included.

Fares are for the regular season; reserved seats cost 200 yen less in the off season and 200 to 400 yen more at peak and New Year, Golden Week and Obon peaks, and non-reserved seats are 530 yen cheaper than the regular reserved price. Hikari and Sakura cost a few hundred yen less than Nozomi and Mizuho. A child aged 6 to 11 pays half; under-6s ride free on a lap.

Every JR journey beyond a local train is two tickets, or two components of one ticket. The base fare (joshaken) is set by distance and is the same whether you take a local train or the shinkansen. On top of it you buy a limited express or shinkansen supplement (tokkyuken) for each express train you ride, and that supplement includes the seat type. Tokyo to Kyoto, for example, is an 8,360 yen base fare plus a 5,810 yen Nozomi reserved supplement in the regular season.

• Non-reserved (jiyuseki): sit anywhere in the non-reserved cars, usually cars 1 to 3 on the Tokaido line. Never sells out, but you may stand at busy times. Not available on Hayabusa, Komachi, Kagayaki or most Tokyo-area limited expresses, which are fully reserved.
• Reserved (shiteiseki): a specific car and seat, 330 to 930 yen more than non-reserved depending on season. Worth it with luggage, with children, or on any Friday evening, Sunday evening or holiday.
• Green car: 2+2 seating instead of 3+2, more legroom, quieter, and a lot more money: Tokyo to Kyoto is around 19,000 yen. Always reserved.
• Gran Class: 2+1 leather seats on Hayabusa and Kagayaki trains, with a light meal and drinks on some services. About 10,000 yen more than an ordinary reserved seat from Tokyo to Kanazawa.
• Oversized baggage: on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi-Kyushu lines, any bag whose height, width and depth add up to between 160 and 250 cm (roughly a 28-inch suitcase or larger) must travel in a reserved seat booked with “oversized baggage space”, which puts you in the last row with the bag behind you. Turn up without one and the conductor charges 1,000 yen and moves the bag. The booking is free; you just have to tick the box. Bags over 250 cm total are not allowed at all.

Tickets for more than 100 km are valid for several days and allow stopovers on the base fare, so a Tokyo to Hiroshima base ticket can be used to stop in Kyoto and Osaka on the way, buying a new supplement for each leg. Backtracking is not permitted.

Reservations open at 10:00 one month before travel. Ticket machines at every shinkansen station have an English menu and sell base fare plus supplement in one go, take cash and cards, and let you pick your seat from a map. The staffed ticket office is the Midori no Madoguchi (green window); write the date, train, stations and number of seats on paper if you prefer, and expect a queue of 20 to 40 minutes at Tokyo, Shinjuku and Kyoto in high season.

Online is easier. SmartEX covers the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu shinkansen (Tokyo to Kagoshima), accepts foreign cards, and lets you register a Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA so you tap through the shinkansen gates with no paper ticket; its Hayatoku advance fares are a few hundred to 2,000 yen cheaper than the walk-up price. Eki-net does the same for JR East and JR Hokkaido (Tohoku, Hokkaido, Joetsu and Hokuriku shinkansen, Narita Express, Azusa and Hitachi), with Tokudane discounts of up to 35 percent when booked early. JR West’s online reservation handles the Sanyo shinkansen and Kansai limited expresses, and JR Kyushu sells its own trains online too. All of them let you choose a seat and book the oversized baggage space. Collect paper tickets at any JR machine with the booking number and the card you paid with, or use the QR or IC options where offered.

A few cheaper alternatives are worth knowing. Puratto Kodama is a discounted Kodama-only ticket between Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Shin-Osaka, about 10,000 to 11,000 yen Tokyo to Kyoto for a slower, 3 hour 40 minute ride with a free drink. Discount ticket shops (kinken shop) near major stations resell unused tickets at 3 to 5 percent off. And on JR East you can simply tap in with an IC card and board a non-reserved shinkansen car after a one-time “Touch de Go” registration at a ticket machine.

The nationwide Japan Rail Pass is sold only to foreign tourists entering as temporary visitors (and to Japanese nationals who have lived abroad for 10 years or more). Since October 2023 it costs 50,000 yen for 7 consecutive days, 80,000 yen for 14 and 100,000 yen for 21 in ordinary class, or 70,000, 110,000 and 140,000 yen for the Green car version. Children aged 6 to 11 pay half. Those are the official-site prices; from 1 October 2026 passes bought through travel agents and resellers cost more (53,000, 84,000 and 105,000 yen ordinary; 74,000, 116,000 and 147,000 yen Green), so buy direct unless an agent is bundling something you want.

Buying on the official site lets you pick a start date up to a month ahead, reserve seats online before you land, and collect the pass with just your passport at a machine or counter at Narita, Haneda, Kansai and major stations. Agent vouchers must be exchanged at a JR office within three months of purchase. The pass is personal, cannot be shared, and once issued the start date is fixed. Since 2020 it works in the automatic gates.

What it covers: every JR train in the country including Hikari, Kodama, Sakura, Tsubame, Hayabusa, Kagayaki and all limited expresses; the Tokyo Monorail to Haneda; the JR ferry to Miyajima (you still pay the 100 yen island tax); a few non-JR sections that join isolated JR lines (Kanazawa to Tsubata, Toyama to Takaoka, Fukui to Echizen-Hanando, Aomori to Hachinohe); and some local JR buses. Seat reservations are free and unlimited. What it does not cover: subways and private railways, highway buses, sleeper berths, and the Nozomi and Mizuho trains. For those you buy a Nozomi Mizuho Ticket on top of the pass: 4,180 yen Tokyo to Nagoya, 4,960 yen Tokyo to Kyoto or Shin-Osaka, 6,500 yen Tokyo to Hiroshima, 8,140 yen Tokyo to Hakata, 4,960 yen Shin-Osaka to Hakata. Since a Hikari takes only 15 to 20 minutes longer to Kyoto and Sakura trains are frequent on the Sanyo line, almost nobody needs it.

Does it pay off? Add up your single fares from the table above and compare.

• Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and back in a week: 14,170 + 580 + 14,720 = about 29,500 yen. The 7-day pass loses by 20,000 yen. Buy singles.
• Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo in a week: about 13,850 (Hikari) + 11,300 (Sakura) + 19,000 (Hikari and Sakura) = about 44,000 yen, plus the Narita Express (about 3,100 yen) and Miyajima ferry. Roughly break-even at 50,000 yen, so the pass is a convenience, not a saving.
• Tokyo, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo in a week: 14,380 + about 7,500 (shinkansen plus Thunderbird) + 11,300 + 19,000 = about 52,000 yen before airport trains and day trips. The pass wins, and the saving grows with every side trip to Himeji, Nara or Kobe.
• 14 days Tokyo to Hakodate and back, then Kanazawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka: around 90,000 yen in singles against an 80,000 yen pass.

The rule of thumb: the 7-day pass needs two long shinkansen legs plus a third medium one in a week; a Golden Route trip does not get there. The 14-day pass only pays with Hokkaido or Kyushu in the plan. Everyone else should look at the regional passes below, or at flying one long leg and buying singles for the rest.

Each JR company sells passes for its own area, all restricted to foreign passport holders or non-residents, and most of them undercut the nationwide pass for the trip people actually take. Prices below are the late-2026 adult prices; children pay half, and they rise occasionally, so check before you go.

Two things to notice. First, the Kansai-Hiroshima pass at 17,000 yen covers Kyoto to Hiroshima and back with Himeji and Nara thrown in; with singles from Tokyo to Kyoto (about 28,000 yen return on SmartEX early-bird fares, or a one-way flight) you have the whole Golden Route for under 45,000 yen. Second, the Hokuriku Arch Pass is a cheaper nationwide pass for people doing Tokyo to Osaka in one direction via Kanazawa, as long as they are happy to skip the Tokaido line. The Seishun 18 is a different animal: five days of slow trains for 12,050 yen, loved by students and anyone with time; Tokyo to Kyoto takes about 9 hours with changes.

An IC card replaces every local ticket. Tap in and out on trains, subways and buses in every big city, pay at convenience stores, vending machines, lockers and many restaurants, and the balance (up to 20,000 yen) is deducted each time. The ten major cards (Suica and Pasmo from Tokyo, ICOCA from Osaka, Kitaca, Toica, Manaca, Sugoca, Nimoca, Hayakaken and Pitapa) are interchangeable, so a Suica bought at Narita works on the Osaka subway and a Kyoto bus. Standard cards cost a 500 yen deposit plus whatever you load, and the deposit is refundable (minus a 220 yen fee on any remaining balance) only in the issuing region.

Physical Suica and Pasmo sales were suspended for 18 months during the 2023 to 2025 chip shortage; regular cards have been back on sale since March 2025, and tourist versions were available throughout. The Welcome Suica (sold at Narita, Haneda and major Tokyo JR offices) and Pasmo Passport have no deposit but expire after 28 days and are not refundable, so do not overload them. The easiest option for iPhone users is to skip plastic entirely: add Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA in the Wallet app before you fly (Settings, Wallet, Add Transit Card, Japan), top up with Apple Pay, and hold the phone to the gate. Most foreign Visa cards now work for top-ups; if yours is declined, Mastercard and Amex usually go through, and the Welcome Suica Mobile app is an alternative for visitors. Android Mobile Suica only works on phones sold in Japan, so Android users still need a plastic card, topped up with cash at any ticket machine or 7-Eleven till.

Where IC cards do not work: between separate IC regions (you cannot tap in at Tokyo and out at Sendai, or Kyoto to Kanazawa), on most highway buses, in some rural areas and small private lines, and for limited express or shinkansen supplements, which must be bought separately, though SmartEX and Eki-net let you link the card so it opens the shinkansen gates. Tap-to-pay with a foreign contactless credit card is spreading on Tokyo Metro, Osaka Metro, Nankai, Keikyu and Fukuoka’s subway, but JR lines mostly still require an IC card or ticket.

Limited expresses (tokkyu) are the fast trains off the shinkansen map, and several of them are the only sensible way to reach places tourists go. The Narita Express runs every 30 minutes from Narita Airport to Tokyo, Shinagawa, Shinjuku and Yokohama in about an hour for around 3,100 yen (all reserved, JR Pass valid). The Haruka links Kansai Airport with Osaka in 50 minutes and Kyoto in 75. The Thunderbird connects Osaka and Kyoto with Tsuruga for the Hokuriku shinkansen to Kanazawa. The Hida (Nagoya to Takayama) runs through the Hida River gorge, the Azusa goes from Shinjuku to Matsumoto, the Hitachi down the Joban coast, the Sonic from Hakata to Beppu and the Yufuin no Mori, a green resort train from Hakata to Yufuin, needs booking weeks ahead. Odakyu’s Romancecar from Shinjuku to Hakone is private, so not on the JR Pass, but at about 2,500 yen it is the comfortable way there.

Japan has one pair of regular sleeper trains left: the Sunrise Seto (Tokyo to Takamatsu) and Sunrise Izumo (Tokyo to Izumo), which leave Tokyo coupled together at 21:50 and split at Okayama around 06:30. The cheapest “nobinobi” carpeted berths cost only the base fare plus a 530 yen reservation (free with a JR Pass), while private B and A compartments add 6,600 to 14,000 yen. They sell out within minutes of the one-month reservation window opening, especially on weekends.

Scenic and sightseeing trains are a growing category. JR Kyushu is the master of them (Yufuin no Mori, the Aso Boy, the Hisatsu line’s switchbacks), JR East runs resort trains along the Gono line between Akita and Aomori and the Tadami line in winter, and the Kurobe Gorge Railway and Sagano Scenic Railway in Kyoto are short private lines built for the view. Most need a reservation and a small extra fee.

Trains are quiet. Phones go on silent, calls are not made on board (step into the vestibule of a shinkansen if you must), conversation is low, and headphones should not leak. Eating is normal on shinkansen and limited expresses and odd on commuter trains and subways, drinks aside. Queue at the floor markings, let people off first, take backpacks off in crowds, and do not sit in priority seats if someone older, pregnant or carrying a baby is standing. Women-only cars operate on many urban lines during morning rush; the pink signs on the platform and car doors mark them. Smoking is banned on all trains and platforms except marked rooms.

Ekiben, the station boxed meals sold on platforms and in concourse shops from about 1,000 to 1,800 yen, are a highlight of a long shinkansen ride: the beef sukiyaki box at Tokyo Station’s Ekibenya Matsuri, Hiroshima’s anago (sea eel) rice, Kanazawa’s crab and Sendai’s gyutan (beef tongue). Buy before boarding, as the onboard trolley has disappeared from most lines.

Avoid Tokyo and Osaka commuter lines between about 7:30 and 9:00 on weekdays, when the Yamanote, Chuo, Tozai and Saikyo lines are packed to a degree that makes moving with a suitcase impossible; the evening peak around 17:30 to 19:00 is milder. Shinkansen are a different problem: the days around New Year (29 December to 3 January), Golden Week (29 April to 5 May) and Obon (around 11 to 16 August) see reserved seats sell out weeks ahead and non-reserved cars with standing passengers for hours, and Nozomi trains become all-reserved during those periods. Book the moment the one-month window opens or travel a day either side.

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