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I paid $488 in 2019 for a 14 day JR pass. In 2024, the same pass is $60 more. I wouldn't call that a dramatic increase, and still within the same magnitude of a

I paid $488 in 2019 for a 14 day JR pass. In 2024, the same pass is $60 more. I wouldn't call that a dramatic increase, and still within the same magnitude of affordability? https://www.jrpass.com/buy-the-japan-rail-pass-online https://www.jrpass.com/buy-the-japan-rail-pass-online

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gwervc 3y ago
No he's right. The JRP is not sold in dollars but in yens so your comparison is likely skewed by exchange rates. Price rose by 50 to 70% near the end of 2023. I was lucky enough to get one at the old price on my last trip, and new prices aren't worth it anymore (esp. given you can't ride the best trains); old prices was already ok only if you planned to travel a lot.
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- wodenokoto 3y ago
  But nobody is buying with income made in yen, because there is basically no way to make money in yen and be eligible to buy the railway pass.
  - kibibyte 3y ago
    Most credit cards can do foreign transactions, and a number of travelers have cards that can do those transactions with no fees at fairly competitive exchange rates. In the past, most of those were limited to cards with annual fees, but it's easier now to get such cards with no fees (e.g. Apple Card). Personally, I purchased the pass online from JR in JPY with a US Visa card, which converted it to a USD price that came out ahead of all the authorized resellers that sold the pass in USD.
    - wodenokoto 3y ago
      But isn’t it a requirement that you are a tourist (as in, you have a 90day visa exemption or a tourist visa in your passport)? And if you are a tourist to Japan it is very unlikely that your income is denominated in yen, and therefore the cost in yen is not as relevant as the cost in USD or yuan. So the price increase should be considered against the yen depreciation. I couldn’t buy one when I was an exchange student in Japan, due to my visa status (granted, that was over a decade ago …) but sibling comments seems to indicate maybe I could today. It also sounds like you are making money in USD and not yen, so the price of the pass in yen is not important to you, but the price in USD.
      - kibibyte 3y ago
        Ah, I think we're talking about different things. I think you are talking about the overall affordability of the JR pass (and Japan tourism in general) to someone whose income is in USD, whereas I was talking about how much more expensive the JR pass is relative to the cost of train tickets (also denominated in JPY, and therefore also cheaper to people using USD), and it being possible to pay the JPY price of the pass directly without making income in JPY, despite all the authorized resellers pricing the pass in the currency of their target markets. To give a further clarifying example, if I were planning to take the shinkansen round-trip between Tokyo and Osaka, the price is JPY 28000. Back when the JPY was stronger, the price of the 7-day pass was JPY 29650, so the pass would have been a no-brainer. Today, even though the 7-day pass costs JPY 50000, the currency is much weaker, so the USD price has increased only a little bit. However, the price of that train trip in JPY has not changed much, if at all. Therefore, because JPY 28000 (USD 184) is significantly less than JPY 50000 (USD 330), it makes no sense at all to buy the pass today if this is the only JR trip I'm planning to make. That said, the pass is still only for those with a tourist visa (15-90 days for sightseeing), or for Japanese citizens who have lived abroad for at least 10 years.
  - matchamatcha 3y ago
    JR East had a 5-day pass which iirc only required you to have a foreign passport (vs being required to be a tourist for JR-Central/JR-West passes). Not sure if they still offer that, though.
Jach 3y ago
I had a 7-day pass in 2017 for $255, 14-day in 2022 for $365, and a 7-day in 2023 for $207. That page shows $343 and $548 for 7-day/14-day respectively now. It's all within the realm of "affordability" for a tourist, but it no longer makes financial sense for a lot of travel itineraries.
kibibyte 3y ago
For what it's worth, jrpass.com is a reseller. JR nowadays has an official online site to sell the pass, which prices in JPY. https://japanrailpass.net/en/ https://japanrailpass.net/en/ Others have pointed out the currency conversion, which helps in keeping it affordable. But it's worth pointing out that individual train fares are also priced in JPY, and therefore are also cheaper in USD because of the same currency conversion. Compared to the huge increase in price of the pass, train fares themselves have stayed relatively stable. As a result, while the pass itself may still be affordable to those of us using USD, it's even more likely nowadays that it just makes more sense to pay for the individual train fares than for the pass.
resolutebat 3y ago
Before the price increases, you could "pay off" a JR Pass with a single Narita Airport-Tokyo-Osaka roundtrip, it was cheaper than buying regular tickets for the same distance and every additional train was "free". After the price hike, you could cross the entire country to Fukuoka and the pass would still cost more.

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gwervc 3y ago

No he's right. The JRP is not sold in dollars but in yens so your comparison is likely skewed by exchange rates. Price rose by 50 to 70% near the end of 2023. I was lucky enough to get one at the old price on my last trip, and new prices aren't worth it anymore (esp. given you can't ride the best trains); old prices was already ok only if you planned to travel a lot.

deleted 3y ago
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wodenokoto 3y ago
But nobody is buying with income made in yen, because there is basically no way to make money in yen and be eligible to buy the railway pass.
- kibibyte 3y ago
  Most credit cards can do foreign transactions, and a number of travelers have cards that can do those transactions with no fees at fairly competitive exchange rates. In the past, most of those were limited to cards with annual fees, but it's easier now to get such cards with no fees (e.g. Apple Card). Personally, I purchased the pass online from JR in JPY with a US Visa card, which converted it to a USD price that came out ahead of all the authorized resellers that sold the pass in USD.
  - wodenokoto 3y ago
    But isn’t it a requirement that you are a tourist (as in, you have a 90day visa exemption or a tourist visa in your passport)? And if you are a tourist to Japan it is very unlikely that your income is denominated in yen, and therefore the cost in yen is not as relevant as the cost in USD or yuan. So the price increase should be considered against the yen depreciation. I couldn’t buy one when I was an exchange student in Japan, due to my visa status (granted, that was over a decade ago …) but sibling comments seems to indicate maybe I could today. It also sounds like you are making money in USD and not yen, so the price of the pass in yen is not important to you, but the price in USD.
    - kibibyte 3y ago
      Ah, I think we're talking about different things. I think you are talking about the overall affordability of the JR pass (and Japan tourism in general) to someone whose income is in USD, whereas I was talking about how much more expensive the JR pass is relative to the cost of train tickets (also denominated in JPY, and therefore also cheaper to people using USD), and it being possible to pay the JPY price of the pass directly without making income in JPY, despite all the authorized resellers pricing the pass in the currency of their target markets. To give a further clarifying example, if I were planning to take the shinkansen round-trip between Tokyo and Osaka, the price is JPY 28000. Back when the JPY was stronger, the price of the 7-day pass was JPY 29650, so the pass would have been a no-brainer. Today, even though the 7-day pass costs JPY 50000, the currency is much weaker, so the USD price has increased only a little bit. However, the price of that train trip in JPY has not changed much, if at all. Therefore, because JPY 28000 (USD 184) is significantly less than JPY 50000 (USD 330), it makes no sense at all to buy the pass today if this is the only JR trip I'm planning to make. That said, the pass is still only for those with a tourist visa (15-90 days for sightseeing), or for Japanese citizens who have lived abroad for at least 10 years.
- matchamatcha 3y ago
  JR East had a 5-day pass which iirc only required you to have a foreign passport (vs being required to be a tourist for JR-Central/JR-West passes). Not sure if they still offer that, though.

Jach 3y ago

I had a 7-day pass in 2017 for $255, 14-day in 2022 for $365, and a 7-day in 2023 for $207. That page shows $343 and $548 for 7-day/14-day respectively now. It's all within the realm of "affordability" for a tourist, but it no longer makes financial sense for a lot of travel itineraries.

kibibyte 3y ago

For what it's worth, jrpass.com is a reseller. JR nowadays has an official online site to sell the pass, which prices in JPY. https://japanrailpass.net/en/ https://japanrailpass.net/en/ Others have pointed out the currency conversion, which helps in keeping it affordable. But it's worth pointing out that individual train fares are also priced in JPY, and therefore are also cheaper in USD because of the same currency conversion. Compared to the huge increase in price of the pass, train fares themselves have stayed relatively stable. As a result, while the pass itself may still be affordable to those of us using USD, it's even more likely nowadays that it just makes more sense to pay for the individual train fares than for the pass.

resolutebat 3y ago

Before the price increases, you could "pay off" a JR Pass with a single Narita Airport-Tokyo-Osaka roundtrip, it was cheaper than buying regular tickets for the same distance and every additional train was "free". After the price hike, you could cross the entire country to Fukuoka and the pass would still cost more.