Japan Rail Pass To Be Available For Sale Online This Summer

Above, a Shinkansen train arrives in Atami Station. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

During several trips to Japan, I have made good use out of the Japan Rail Pass and saved a lot of money in doing so.

Up to now, the only way to buy the Japan Rail Pass is for people to go to an authorized travel agent in their home countries.

Now, it has been announced that this coming summer, people can buy their Japan Rail Pass online.

According to SoraNews 24:

There are several reasons Japan has been booming in popularity as a travel destination over the past decade, and a big one is the Japan Rail Pass. Offered by Japan Railways Group (a.k.a. JR), Japan’s largest rail operator, the pass is only available to visitors from abroad, and provides travelers with unlimited use of nearly any JR train in the country, including all but the very fastest classes of the Shinkansen bullet train, for periods of one, two, or three weeks. 

But while the JR Pass is an incredible value for those with wide-range travel ambitions in Japan, the purchase process has long been a bit of a hassle. For many years, the pass could only be purchased outside of Japan and through an intermediary such as a designated travel agency or airline. More recently, the option to purchase the pass at select train stations in Japan has been offered, but with the penalty of being roughly 10 percent more expensive than if purchased outside Japan. 

Those hassles will be disappearing, though, as this week Japan Rail Group announced that it will begin selling the Japan Rail Pass online come summer.

To read more, go here.