Do You Need to Book Shinkansen Tickets in Advance

Since the Japan Rail Pass soared in price a few years ago, more of us are buying single tickets for the Shinkansen, but you might be wondering whether you should do this in advance or not. Here’s our guide explaining it all so you can decide which is best for you.

The New Japan Shinkansen Myth

Japan planning groups on Facebook are funny places; people like to shame people for doing the simplest things. And the latest example of this is buying Shinkansen tickets in advance. If you even think of doing it, you’ll be told how stupid you are… well, let’s just get this out of the way now.

As I said above, no, you don’t need to book Shinkansen tickets in advance if you’re travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Hakata (or anywhere on that route). The trains run extremely frequently, and you’ll always get on a train leaving fairly soon.

But there is also nothing wrong with booking trains in advance if you want to – I do it, I hate turning up at the station and hanging around in a huge queue. I want to get there, get on my train and head off for my next adventure all within about 10 minutes.

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But, more importantly, there are also times when you won’t get on the train if you haven’t booked in advance, or you won’t get the seats you want if you do. So, before we talk about buying tickets. Let me talk about when you might want to buy tickets in advance and a few times when you absolutely have to.

When Should You Buy Shinkansen Tickets in Advance?

There are a few times when it might be a good idea.

You Want Confirmed Plans

Japan is a big country, and there’s a lot to do and see. If you’re only on a short trip, you probably want to know exactly what time you’re going to be leaving one city and what time you’ll arrive at the next one, ready to sightsee.

While you can still plan all of that without booking tickets (see our guide on using Navitime to do this) there’s still an element of doubt if you haven’t got your trains sorted – and, while it’s true that trains are frequent so you might only need to wait 10 or 15 minutes if the one you want is full, it’s still an added stress that maybe you decide you don’t need on your holiday.

You’re Travelling in a Big Group

If you’re travelling as a family or a large group of friends and want to sit together, then booking your ticket – and seats – in advance gives you more time to ensure you’re all sat together.

I’ve seen a few families of four and five in my Facebook group recently falling for the ‘don’t book’ hype and having to sit separately as they couldn’t get five seats together on trains for hours.

You’re Travelling in a Busy Period

There are three times when being able to book your Shinkansen tickets in advance is essential – if you’re traveling around Golden Week (April 29-May 6 give or take a few days), Obon, which occurs in mid-August and, around Christmas and New Year, you can no longer travel on the Nozomi (the fastest train between Tokyo and Fukuoka) without a seat reservation in advance.

The slower trains still have unreserved seats, but these trains can get very busy, and you might have to stand.

I’d absolutely suggest booking your tickets a few weeks in advance if you’re travelling over a public holiday (see more about Golden Week travel here).

You’re on a Reservation Only Service

As well as the time above, some Shinkansen trains only have reserved seats all year round. These include one of the trains running between Tokyo and Kanazawa, and a number of trains travelling north/east of Tokyo. Find a full guide to these trains here.

While you might turn up and get seats on these services at the last minute, you’re tired to that train so my theory is you might as well book in advance and know what you’re doing.

If You Have Large Bags

If you’re travelling with oversized luggage, or if you can’t lift your bag onto the overhead rack, it’s better to book in advance.

As I explain in our post on the Shinkansen luggage rules, bags over 160cm (if you add up the length, width, and height) are classed as oversized bags on the Shinkansen, and they need to travel in a special area – and there are only a few seats available that have that area right behind them.

When Not to Book in Advance

The one time people often want to book their Shinkansen ticket in advance, and that I don’t think is always the best idea, is on arrival.

If you want to fly in and head straight to say, Kyoto, on the train within a couple of hours of your flight, you perhaps don’t want to deal with negotiating ticket offices, ticket machines, or queues when tired from your trip, and so I get that booking in advance seems less daunting.

However, there are a lot of variables with timing when travelling. Planes get delayed – or arrive early. One person will get through Haneda in 20 minutes, someone else might take 90 minutes, and this adds a bit of stress to booking the tickets, as you have to magically decide on a time that you kind of have no control over.

I’m not saying don’t book tickets in advance in this circumstance, especially if you are in one of the groups above, but in this case, I would book from the official sources (I’ll list those below) rather than a third party so, if you do miss your train, or, get to the airport two hours early, you can either swap your seat reservation, or, get on an unreserved seat on a different train more easily.

How Far in Advance Should You Book?

When I talk about buying tickets in advance, I don’t mean doing it three months before your trip. Even just heading to the station a day or two before your journey can be enough to secure the seats you need and prevent delays on the day.

In fact, booking seats too early can backfire, especially if buying them from a third party. You see, while tickets might go on sale more than a month in advance from some retailers, the seat selection process doesn’t open until 30 days before the date of travel. This means your actual seats won’t be guaranteed if you book earlier. This can be a problem when booking through a third party, as they will then refund your ticket if they can’t get them.

The sweet spot for booking, in my opinion anyway, is between 30 and 2 days before you want to travel. How early you choose to do it depends on your need for specific seats and your personality.

So, now you need to know where to buy tickets – and you have two options. In person when in Japan, or online.

Where to Buy Shinkansen Tickets in Japan

Buying Shinkansen tickets once you’re in Japan is pretty easy. The first way is to go to the ticket office – known as a Midori no Madoguchi – in the station and do it in person. In big stations, there will be dedicated Shinkansen offices, but you can buy Shinkansen tickets from any JR station ticket office.

At the counter, you’ll be able to book your train, choose your seats, and book the area at the back of each carriage for oversized luggage if you need it. They will take cash and credit cards. The staff might not be fluent in English, but if it’s a simple journey like Tokyo to Kyoto, everything will be fine.

Or, you can buy from a ticket machine. These all have buttons in English, and increasingly they take major credit cards. So long as you know what station you’re leaving from, what station you’re going to, and, roughly, what time you want to leave or arrive, you have all the information you need.

If you’re travelling in a reserved-seat car, you’ll also be able to pick your seats while you book.

Tickets at ticket offices and ticket machines go on sale a month in advance of the departure date.

How to Book Shinkansen Tickets Online in Advance

If you’d prefer to buy your ticket before you leave home, there are a few different options to do so. Here’s what they are – and their pros and cons.

Buying Shinkansen Tickets from Klook

There are several third-party retailers you can buy Shinkansen tickets from, but Klook is my recommendation as they are a huge brand in Japan, and they don’t mark up their prices too much.

You can order from your app or your computer, and their system supports all foreign credit cards.

They offer the widest network of offshore advance bookers with over 2900 train routes – they also include the Narita Express, and some smaller lines that are popular with tourists (like Kawaguchiko for Mount Fuji), so you can book journeys other than the bullet train.

They will deliver your tickets by QR Code. On some routes, you can just scan this to go through the gate to the platform; on others, you’ll need to go to the station and pick up the printed ticket and your seat reservation from either a ticket office or print it out at a ticket machine. Make sure you know which is which for the ticket you’ve bought.

Klook do offer booking 90 days in advance, but with this, your booking will only be confirmed 25 days before your date of travel. It’s not worth it. You’re better off booking within 30 days of your travel, as you’ll then get confirmation within 48 hours.

The main downside is that you can choose the type of seat you want with Klook, but not the exact position, and, as they are a third party, there are no guarantees as if someone else booked the same seat directly with the train company, you’ll be the one who’s moved.

Klook does charge a small admin fee, so booking your tickets with them does cost a little bit more, but you’re paying for convenience and low-stress booking!

Find the advance Shinkansen booking page here – it also lists some of the most common routes like Tokyo to Kyoto and the Narita Express

Using the Smart Ex App

This is the official app to book the Tokaido Sanyo Shinkansen, which runs between Tokyo and Hakata and all the bullet train stops in between (so that’s Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc). It’s very easy to book, and you can choose your seat.

After you’ve booked, you can either go to a Smart Ex ticket machine or a ticket office and pick up your ticket and your seat reservation. Or you can now add your QR code to your Apple Wallet and use that to get through the gate.

The cost is the same as buying directly from the rail companies. And you can book a month in advance. You also get confirmation straight away.

When I last used this, you also needed to collect a piece of paper after scanning a printed QR code – this had your seat details on it. I’m not sure if this is the case now, as they have upgraded to integrate the tickets with Apple Wallet, but you get full instructions when you are sent your ticket details.

If you do still need this, the gate should spit it out after you’ve scanned your QR Code – if it doesn’t, go to the ticket window and they will print one like the one above.

The downside is that, like many online services in Japan, SmartEx requires you to have a credit card that is 3D secure-enabled so it doesn’t always work for everyone. It’s also not available in every country – right now, for example, it’s not supported in the UK.

Find the app in your app store, or see more here.

Booking Shinkansen Online from Japan Rail

The benefit of doing this is that you’re booking directly with the train company, so you can choose your exact seats, but the downside is that each train line – JR East, JR West, and JR Central offers a separate booking system, which can get a bit confusing if you don’t know which your journey is controlled by.

If you’re travelling from Tokyo to Osaka and Kyoto, then you’ll need to book with JR West. Same if you’re going from Osaka/Kyoto to Hiroshima. If you’re going from Tokyo to Nagano or Sendai, then you’ll book via JR East.

Even with that heads up, the systems are a little bit clunky.

To book on JR East click here

If your journey is covered by JR West, then book their tickets here.

One thing booking direct is very good for is booking specialty trains like the Sagano Romantic Train (above), the Sunrise Sleeper train, or the Hello Kitty Shinkansen as they let you book by train name rather than by route.

Wait, You Don’t NEED A JR Pass?

Even though it hasn’t been cost-effective for most people for a few years now, many people still think you need to have a JR Pass to travel on the Shinkansen. You don’t. Anyone can buy a single JR Ticket for the Shinkansen and ride it to wherever they need to go.

With the old pricing, it was cost-effective to buy the JR Pass if you were just doing one long return trip and a couple of day trips, however, that’s no longer the case, and for most people, buying individual Shinkansen tickets will be the cheapest way to get between Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka (although you might want to look into the Kansai Passes once you get there – we explain those here).

Watch Out: If You’re Ending Up at a Small Station

Lastly, not every single station is available via Klook or SmartEx, so if you’re trying to go to, say, Bunny Island (Okunoshima) from Fukuyama, you might feel more comfortable booking this at the JR Office who should be able to help you with the whole journey.

The other option is to book the bullet train section in advance, which is the one that’s likely to be busiest, and then buy a ticket for the local section once you leave the bullet train, or you could use an IC Card like Suica, Icoca or Pasmo on this segment.

You can use Navitime to plan your journey and time all your connections. If you haven’t used this before, have a look at our guide to using Navitime here.

So, that’s the basics you need to know about booking Shinkansen tickets in advance, or in Japan, but if you do have any more questions, please head over to our Facebook group and we’ll do our best to answer them.

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