Japanese pack airports, railway stations in first New Year holiday travel rush since Covid-19 downgrade

To ease overcrowding, Central Japan Railway Co. and West Japan Railway Co. have made many of their shinkansen bullet train seats reservation-only during the year-end and the New Year period for the first time.

At the bustling Tokyo Station, announcements warned travellers of the need to reserve their seats for the fastest-travelling shinkansen, the Nozomi.

“It is convenient because we don’t have to line up when every seat is for reservation,” said Tomoko Hino, 42, heading to her hometown in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture, in southwestern Japan with her family.

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All Nippon Airways Co. said 99 per cent of its domestic flights departing from Haneda airport in Tokyo on Friday were booked with some 55,000 passengers in total, while Japan Airlines Co. said its flights were also almost fully booked.

“I want to relax and spend the year-end and the New Year with all of my relatives,” said Michiko Otsuki, a 37-year-old Tokyo resident travelling to Okayama prefecture in western Japan.

On December 12, six major Japanese railway companies announced the number of reservations for seats for their shinkansen and other trains totalled 3.5 million between Thursday and January 4, up 44 per cent from the same period a year ago.

The train operators as well as JAL and ANA expect the return rush of travellers to peak next Wednesday.

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American tourists flock to Japan to take advantage of weak yen, strong US dollar

American tourists flock to Japan to take advantage of weak yen, strong US dollar

Japan has seen a sharp rise in both domestic and international travellers since the government downgraded the legal status of Covid-19 in May and greatly relaxed health restrictions after three years of dealing with the coronavirus.

Rules on face masks were lifted in March to let individuals decide whether to wear them in public spaces.