As the opening day of the Hokkaido Shinkansen approaches on March 26th, Hokkaido’s Hokuto City has unveiled plans to commemorate the occasion with a bronze statue of a manga character from “Fist of the North Star”. The new statue will be erected at Shin-Hakodate Hokuto Station, which will be the Hokkaido Shinkansen’s final stop.

“Fist of the North Star,” is a popular post-apocalyptic manga and anime series featuring a warrior hero whose most famous catchphrase is “You are already dead!” The series is known in Japanese as “Hokuto no Ken”, so the good citizens of Hokuto City clearly found a striking pun there, that they felt would add some punch to the newly renovated Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station. Apparently the creators of “Fist of the North Star” have been consulted on this project and have offered their full cooperation. [Read more…]

The launch of the new Hokkaido Shinkansen service on March 26th is likely to popularize rail travel between Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido, and destinations as far south as Kyushu.

The new Hokkaido Shinkansen service will link Shin-Aomori Station in northern Honshu and Shin-Hakodate Hokuto Station in Hokkaido through the undersea Seikan tunnel. Once opened, the new route will provide a speedy service from southern Hokkaido, to destinations in the Tohoku region and Tokyo via the shinkansen network. Travel time between Shin-Hakodate Hokuto and Tokyo will be shortened by 1 hour and 20 minutes to just a 4 hour and 10 minute journey. However, it will also be possible to travel even further than that on the shinkansen network to destinations such as Nagano, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kagoshima. [Read more…]

Tokyo Metro and the Bureau of Transportation announced new 24, 48 and 72 hour tickets for Tokyo subway. The new tickets will replace the current one, two and three day tickets on March 26, 2016. The tickets will be valid on all Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway lines.

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Eizan Electric Railway will introduce the use of an IC card system from March 16th 2016. Ten major IC cards including ICOCA, SUICA, PASMO and PiTaPa, will be compatible with the new system. In advance of this new system however, use of the Kansai Thru Pass on the Eizan Railway was phased out in January.

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In a bid to revitalize tourism in the Niigata region, JR East are introducing a special shinkansen service this spring on the Joetsu Line that runs between Niigata Station on the coast and inland Echigo-Yuzawa Station.

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JR Central and JR West have mutually agreed to a new ticketless service for the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines beginning in the summer of 2017.

The Tokaido Line, and its continuation the Sanyo Line, provide a high speed link between the major metropolitan cities of Tokyo in eastern Japan, and Osaka and Hakata in the west.

For some years now JR Central and JR West have successfully employed a members-only ticketless service on these lines that required the use of the EX-IC smart card. Members of this express service have been able to reserve their seats online, using either a mobile phone or computer, and then have the booking registered to their EX-IC card. This card can then be used instead of a ticket on arrival at the ticket gates. However, up till now seat reservations could only be made with credit cards issued by either JR Central or JR West. [Read more…]

Seibu Railways have released details of a new holiday sightseeing train which will debut on April 17th this year and run between stations in Tokyo and Saitama prefecture. The train will run three courses, between Ikebukuro Station and Seibu-Chichibu Station, Seibu-Shinjuku Station and Seibu-Chichibu Station, and Seibu-Shinjuku and Honkawagoe Station.

This train is a redesign of the #4000 series four carriage train which currently runs along these routes, and has been renamed “52 Seki-no-Shifuku” or “52 Seats of Happiness”. As this is a specially designed restaurant train, set course meals will be included in the cost of the ticket. With beautifully designed interiors and a creative menu from some of Tokyo’s top chefs, this restaurant train offers passengers a truly romantic travelling experience. [Read more…]

Tokyo Metro’s current 1-Day Open Ticket will be replaced by an even more convenient 24 Hour Ticket from Saturday March 26th.

Tokyo Metro’s current “1-Day Open Ticket” offers unlimited travel on all Tokyo Metro lines for just 600 yen for adults and 300 yen for children. This ticket’s period of validity is fixed by the first and last trains of the day it is purchased. So no matter what time you buy the ticket, whether it is 9:00 in the morning, or 5:00 in the afternoon, the ticket can only be used up until the last train of that day.

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Railway fans and sightseers both will be delighted to know that a beautiful new sightseeing train is being introduced on the Fujikyu Line that runs to Mount Fuji. The new model “Fujisan View Express” will be introduced this spring to mark the 90th anniversary of the Fuji Kyuko Railway. It will replace the already popular Fujisan Express #2000 series which is due to be retired in February.

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Starting from April 8th, 2016 a new smart card will be made available to tourists in Kansai region of Japan. The Kansai One Pass card will function as a smart card, similar to Icoca IC card, and allow holders to ride the trains of nine different railways in the region, including JR West and Hankyu Corp. The card holders will also enjoy discounts at about 90 tourist spots and shops, including Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

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