Is the JR Pass Worth It? My Real World 2 Trip Calculation
In my earlier post, a guide to the JR Pass, I was pretty upfront with my opinion on “is the JR pass worth it?”. But now I want to put my money where my mouth is and show you what the maths looked like for both of my trips to Japan.
A bit of background first: I’ve been to Japan twice. Both times were around two weeks and involved multiple cities. On one of these trips, I bought and used the JR pass. On the other, I booked tickets on the go.
I live in London, so Japan isn’t somewhere I can hop on a £50 Ryanair flight to for the weekend (and honestly, let’s not give Michael O’Leary any ideas, could you imagine how grim that flight would be?). But because of this, each time I’ve gone, I’ve wanted to get the most out of the trip. And, like most tourists, I’ve done the usual Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka itinerary.
All of this to say is that I’ve been a pretty standard Japan tourist, and we’re probably not that different in our plans. I hope my calculations can help you answer your own questions on whether the JR Pass is worth it or not.
How I Calculated the Costs
For the two trips I’ll compare below, I quite literally got out the calculator. It’s an old pink thing from when I did computer science at university, and magically, it still works.
Each of these trips were about 2 weeks. The first one was taken in March 2024, the second in September-October 2025. Both of them took place after the JR Pass price hikes in 2023.
Every calculation you’ll see is based on one person travelling, and I’ve only included means of transport that were or would have been covered by the pass. I have not included things like buses or metros that I used a Suica card for (non-JR Pass).
Full disclosure, I did have to go back and check some of the prices of travel as I wrote this post. I went through my travel journals and Google Photos (honestly as good as a diary sometimes) to check the routes I took. While I may be missing one or two pass-covered buses or local trains, to the best of my knowledge, these are correct. That means that this post reflects the current reality of the Pass’s value against my trips.
Trip 1: With the JR Pass
- Travel period: March 2024
- Pass cost: ¥80,000 for 14 days
| Journey | Cost without Pass |
| Tokyo to Odawara | ¥1,520 |
| Odawara to Kyoto | ¥11,720 |
| Kyoto to Osaka | ¥820 |
| Osaka to Tokyo | ¥15,100 |
| Total | ¥29,160 (loss of ¥50,840) |
On this trip, I also took other means of transport that were not covered by the Pass, such as a bus from Odawara to Hakone. Or in Osaka, we chose to use the private Kinetsu line to take a day trip to Nara as the Osaka station was closest to our hotel.
Based on the calculations above, paying for the JR Pass compared with the cost of the individual tickets put me at a loss of ¥50,840 (about £240).
Even if we gave a bit of wiggle room for trips I could have optimised better, like the Nara trains, or some local trains over buses and so on, I still wouldn’t have hit even the halfway mark of the JR Pass cost.
Trip 2: Without the JR Pass
- Travel period: September/October 2025
| Journey | Cost without JR Pass |
| Tokyo to Kyoto | ¥14,170 |
| Kyoto to Uji | ¥240 |
| Kyoto to Onomichi | ¥8,970 |
| Tokyo to Kamakura (return) | ¥1,900 |
| Total | ¥25,280 ( loss of ¥54,720) |
On this second trip, without the JR Pass, these are the journeys that would have been covered. We took the private Kinestu line back to Kyoto from a day trip to Uji because it was the closest station to the tea museum, our last stop of that day. Not having the pass meant that it was a negligible difference in which train line we took.
Without the pass on this trip, we made more use of domestic flights and were able to add Okinawa to our trip (which was an absolute dream tbh, look out for a post on that soon!).
Overall, had I bought the pass at ¥80,000, I would have been at a loss of ¥54,720 (about £260).
The Calculation Toolkit
So you’ve seen my numbers, and honestly I kind of cringed adding them all up myself. To get your own idea of what you may spend or save, you’ll need to have a rough idea of your own itinerary.
In my first example, we did the standard Golden Route of Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka, with a couple of nights in Hakone, and a day trip to Nara from Kyoto. Maybe you’ve got a similar route in mind, or you already know the major cities you want to hit.
To calculate:
- Map your major journeys:
- Get out a notebook, create a Google/Excel sheet or a Notion doc
- Jot down each major journey you’re confident you’ll make
- eg. Tokyo to Kyoto, Kyoto to Uji (return), Kyoto to Hiroshima etc
- Estimate the cost:
- Use a tool like Google Maps or Jorudan and put in each journey you’re planning to make.
- Don’t worry about exact departure points, just pick the major stations like “Tokyo Station” or “Shinjuku station” for now. You’re trying to get a rough idea, it won’t be exact.
- Add each journey cost estimation to your notes/spreadsheet
- Sum and compare:
- Add up all your journey estimates, and if they’re in your local currency, convert to JPY.
- Compare this to the cost of the JR Pass you’re considering (eg. 7, 14, or 21 day).
- The litmus test:
- If your total is higher than the JR Pass, go for it! If it’s lower, consider booking individual tickets instead.
There’s also a very good, easy to use tool on Japan Guide – their figures may not be completely up to date, and they recommend using Jorudan for exact figures – but you’ll get a very quick answer on is the JR pass worth it for your trip.
Side note: I played around with the Japan Guide tool while writing this. I would have had to do both of my itineraries combined in a 7 day period in order for me to get my money’s worth!
Alternatives
If you’re now questioning whether the JR Pass is actually worth it for you or not, but you still want to take a lot of rail journeys, there is another option: Regional Passes.
While the regional passes, as the name may suggest, limit you to one area of Japan, rather than the whole country, they’re much cheaper than the JR Pass. If you already know that your trip is going to keep you in one region of Japan, with significant travel in that region, these might be the ideal solution.
Bear in mind that on some regional passes, the Shinkansen is not included so you’re restricted to local/limited express trains. Do the maths as you would with any other pass, but it could be a good way to save money without spending the big bucks.
Final Verdict
My two trips provide a pretty clear answer (and some regrets on my part!) to the question: Is the JR Pass worth it? For the average 14-day tourist following some of the more popular Japan routes, the answer is a resounding NO.
These days, the Pass is convenience and an insurance policy against queueing for tickets, but it’s not actually good value for money anymore.
When you’re looking at your own trip costs, add them up – especially the more expensive Shinkansen or longer-distance journeys. If the total cost is less than 90% of the Pass cost, don’t buy the pass.
The inconvenience of queueing a couple of times to buy tickets just isn’t worth the financial loss you’re likely to experience by buying the pass. Going without the pass also gives you more freedom, like choosing the train line most convenient for you, not just what’s covered by the JR Pass.
I’m still very much an advocate for travelling Japan by rail, but when you’ve likely already spent money on expensive plane tickets to get to Japan, don’t shell out more unnecessarily when you can get around for much cheaper!
