Is Japan’s JR Rail Pass Worth It?

Is Japan’s JR Rail Pass worth it? TLDR: It depends. You will need to research to see if you will actually utilize it.

Japan has many railway companies, and JR is only one of many. However, the JR pass might seem like a good deal initially when you look at the cost of the Shinkansen (bullet train). Because the thought is, “Oh, we will use this in the city, too, so it must be worth it.” Not necessarily. Here are some factors to consider:

1. Where is your Hotel/Airbnb? Regardless of which city you’re at, looking to see which train station at is important because this will be the main route you’ll be taking on the daily. If your station isn’t on a JR line, then the chances of you utilizing your pass dwindles.

2. Where are you going? What makes the JR pass worth the money is if you are planning to ride the Shinkansen. Based on where you’re going, I would route it out and calculate the fare for each leg and total it up to see what it comes out. You might be surprised to find out that the JR pass might cost you more than just buying the tickets separately. But this also depends on how adventurous you are and how many cities you plan to visit during the duration of your pass.

3. As mentioned in the beginning, there are many train companies in Japan therefore, you might not be riding a JR line as often as you think. For example, in Kyoto and Osaka, we barely used the pass during our stay there because another company operated most of the places that we went locally. It’s helpful to google the train map of the city you’re going to get a good idea as to how often will you actually get to utilize the pass.

Overall, we felt like the JR pass is no longer as good of a deal as it use to be unless you’re packing a lot of traveling within 7 days. We got the 14-day pass. With the price increase, we probably broke even or got a little bit more value out of it. And this is with very strategic planning in trying to utilize the JR lines as much as we can in Tokyo. So our advice is to do a brief calculations of the Shinkansen routes to see if the JR 7, 14, or 21-day pass is the right choice for you.

Here is our calculations:

*These calculations are based on the date this blog is published. The price has already gone up since our trip in November. The price is also fluctuating due to the exchange rate.

You can use this Japan Rail Pass calculator to see if it’s worth it for you.