A Japan Rail Pass, a regional pass, or single tickets? List the train rides in your plan and see what each option costs for everyone traveling. Each pass is placed on the days where it covers the most.
Your trip
Examples
Japan Rail Pass price (7 days, adult)
Children under 6 ride free when they share a seat (up to two per paying passenger), so leave them out. The 14- and 21-day passes follow the same price choice.
Your train rides
Adult one-way fare, reserved seat, regular season. Edit any fare.
Add a ride that isn't listed
What each option costs
It's close: separates the two cheapest
Within about 10 percent, the difference is the price of what gives you. Three questions decide it; if your answers split, take the cheaper option.
Will you add rides as you go? A pass covers extra rides on included services inside its area and days; check any required extra ticket.
Do you need the fastest trains at the times you want? The Japan Rail Pass leaves out the Nozomi and Mizuho unless you buy special tickets (¥4,960 between Tokyo and Kyoto). JR Central can schedule up to 13 Nozomi an hour in certain busy periods. Hikari departures are less frequent and the ride is slower; compare actual departure and arrival times.
How much buying and booking will you put up with? A pass is one purchase, picked up with your passport; tickets mean one booking per long ride.
How the check works
Single tickets add up every ride. For each pass, the check finds the run of consecutive days, as long as the pass lasts, whose covered rides cost the most as tickets, and starts the pass there. The pass option is the pass price for everyone plus every amount not covered: rides outside its dates or network, and the uncovered portion of a partly covered ride. Required extra tickets must also be included in your purchase comparison.
Rides on the Tokaido Shinkansen are priced as Nozomi tickets. The Japan Rail Pass covers them on the slower Hikari.
The Japan Rail Pass covers only the JR part of the Fuji Excursion, as far as Otsuki. The JR Tokyo Wide Pass covers the whole ride.
The Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass doesn't cover the shinkansen between Kyoto and Shin-Osaka; from Kyoto, you ride the JR Kyoto Line to Shin-Osaka first.
Children's fares are half the adult fare, rounded down to ¥10, which can differ from JR's own rounding by a few yen.
Most of these passes are sold only to foreign visitors who enter Japan as tourists.