Is the Japan Rail (JR) Pass Worth It After the October 2023 Price Increase?
Why Did The JR Pass Increase In Price?
The Japan Pass (JR) has long been a staple for visitors to Japan. It allows the use of of all Japan Rail trains, metros, and buses throughout the entire country, including the Shinkansen bullet trains.
Due to the decline in value of the yen against other currencies, rising costs of energy, maintenance, and repairs prompted a massive increase of the JR Rail Pass in October 2023. How massive? The increases range between a whopping 65% – 77%.
The Before And After Price Breakdown
Here’s the breakdown for the regular JR Pass. There’s also a Green JR Pass which includes first class seating which is more expensive (all prices are for adults. Children passes are half of the amounts for the new pricing):
7-Day Pass:
Old Price – 29,650 yen / $207.25 USD
NEW Price – 50,000 yen / $349.49 USD – 69% Increase
14-Day Pass –
Old Price – 47,250 yen / $330.27 USD
NEW Price – 80,000 yen / $559.18 – 69% Increase
21-Day Pass
Old Price – 60,450 yen / $422.53
NEW Price – 100,000 yen / $698.98 – 65% Increase
As you can see, the price increases are quite significant. Deciding on how you want to travel throughout Japan just became much more important!
The JR Pass Calculator
This is a valuable tool to use to ultimately help you decide if a pass is worth it or not. As an example trip itinerary I plugged in my recently completed 3-week trip. I bought the 2-week pass since the bulk of the JR Pass was used after my first week.
| Tokyo –> Hakodate | 20,000 yen / $139.80 USD |
| Hakodate –> Sapporo | 14, 500 yen / $101.35 |
| Sapporo –>Otaru | 1,000 yen / $6.99 |
| Otaru –> Sapporo | 1,000 yen / $6.99 |
| Osaka –> Nara | 500 yen / $3.49 |
| Nara –> Osaka | 500 yen / $3.49 |
| Osaka –> Himeji | 3,500 yen / $24.46 |
| Himeji –> Osaka | 3,500 yen / $24.46 |
| Osaka –> Kobe | 500 yen / $3.49 |
| Kobe –> Osaka | 500 yen / $3.49 |
| Osaka –> Tokyo | 14,000 yen / $97.86 |
| Additional JR trains and JR Metro Lines | 1,500 yen |
| Total | 61,000 yen / $426.38 |
| Sapporo –> Hakodate | 14,500 yen / $101.35 USD |
| Hakodate –> Tokyo | 20,000 yen / $139.80 |
| Osaka –> Tokyo | 14,000 yen / $97.86 |
| Hypothetical Total | 109,500 yen / $769.15 |
I’d add in an additional 1,500 extra yen to the total as well since I took a couple trains and used the JR metro lines while in Osaka too. Based off this, the old 14-day pass (47,250 yen) was worth it.
It defintely would not be worth it based off the new pricing for a 14-day pass (80,000 yen).
I was curious to see if the pass would pay off if I took trains all the way from Sapporo to Osaka. I flew on my actual trip.
Based off this hypothetical trip utilizing nothing but trains, the 14-day pass would certainly be worth it. But would I actually do that? No way.
The flight I took cost less than $100 and took 2.5 hrs. Sure, you get to the airport a couple of hours beforehand so we’ll say the total time is about 4.5 hours between the airport and in the air. I estimate the total time on the train to be at least 11 hours and that’s not counting how long I’d have to wait in between trains. That’s a very long travel day and I’d essentially lose that day in Osaka.
Is It Worth It?
In my opinion, it’s not going to be worth it. Using the same calculator I did another hypothetical trip consisting of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. This is generally the route people take on their first trip to Japan. The total amount for those bullet trains comes out to 41,500 yen, which wouldn’t even make the 7-day pass worth it.
The bullet trains are fast, convenient, comfortable, and a very cool experience, but flying is still going to be faster and cheaper. You can always mix in some bullet trains to get the experience and will most likely use some local rapid express / limited express trains as well (these aren’t too expensive) but it seems like the days when the JR Pass were a good deal are now over, sadly enough.
