Japan Rail Pass calculator — and why the price now depends on where you buy it

Prices last checked against the official pass site on —. Everything runs in your browser.

One pass, two prices since 1 October 2026

The revision JR Group announced on 9 April 2026 took effect on 1 October 2026, and only for overseas agencies. The official price page now shows two tables — online at the earlier prices, agency at the revised ones — and until 30 September it also showed the agency prices before the revision. All three are below.

So the increase is real, and it is confined to Exchange Orders sold by overseas agencies. The official online service is holding the earlier prices for a limited period — 一定期間 in JR Group's Japanese release — and the end of that period is to be announced.

For a couple buying two 7-day ordinary passes on the same day, that is ¥6,000 — the difference between paying the agency price and paying the online price, for as long as the online hold lasts.

Which channel suits you anyway

The child rule is worth reading twice if you are traveling with an eleven-year-old. A child is 6–11 at the time of use, but if they are 11 on the payment date (online) or on the issue date (agency), they keep the child price even if they turn 12 before the trip.

The pass is not the default answer any more

In October 2023 the nationwide pass went from ¥29,650 to ¥50,000 — a 69% rise that changed the arithmetic for most itineraries. The 2026 revision is much smaller, but it lands on a price that was already high enough to lose to individual tickets on the classic routes.

The break-even is simply the pass price: your fares have to add up to more than it before the pass is worth buying. A week centered on Tokyo with day trips will not get there. Three or more long-distance Shinkansen legs inside seven days usually will.

Why we do not ship a fare table

Every competing calculator hard-codes route fares. It makes the tool feel complete, and it is the part that goes stale first: operators revise fares on their own schedules, and a fare that is two revisions old produces a confident, wrong verdict.

So this calculator asks you for the totals. Get them from a route search on the day you decide, and the comparison is as current as your search. What we do keep current — because we read the tariff pages ourselves — is the pass price, by channel and by purchase date.

Three things that change the answer

NOZOMI and MIZUHO are not included

The fastest Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu Shinkansen services are outside the base pass. Pass holders can buy a supplement ticket at the station, or take HIKARI or SAKURA on the same route for roughly 20–30 minutes more. If your plan assumed NOZOMI journeys, add the supplements to the pass side of the comparison.

Regional passes often win

If the trip stays inside one region, a regional pass is usually cheaper than the nationwide one. Kansai, Hokuriku and Kyushu all have their own. The nationwide pass earns its price on itineraries that cross the country.

The pass covers JR lines, plus a few named others

Besides JR Group trains, the official scope page lists the Tokyo Monorail, set sections of the Aoimori, IR Ishikawa, Ainokaze Toyama and Hapi-Line Fukui railways, local JR Bus routes (not expressways) and the JR West Miyajima ferry. Subways, other private railways and most airport express services belong to other operators and are not included. Those fares should be added to both sides of your comparison, or left out of both — just not added to only one.

Related tools

• Japan lodging tax calculator — the other per-night cost that is not in the price you were quoted.
• Tax-free refund calculator — what comes back on your shopping, and what changes on 1 November 2026.
• How we verify — why the pass prices here are dated, and the fares are not shipped at all.