Japan has many kinds of JR passes in operation – regional and country wide. The one that is by far the most popular is the weekly Japan Rail Pass (or the JR pass!) which is available only to the visitors of Japan which gives you unlimited access to all the JR trains and buses, ferry services and airport transfers. It comes in the form of 7, 14 or 21 day passes on Ordinary or Green car. Before October 1st, 2023, the ordinary car passes used to sell for ~30k/~48k/~60k Yen for 7/14/21 days which was a no brainer to take, to save money and the hassle of having to worry about individual tickets. Since October 1st 2023, the prices have been hiked by around 70% to make the same class passes at 50k/80k/100k Yen. People are now having to think hard before buying these passes due to the recent hike in prices. It’s not as straight forward anymore.

Should you buy the weekly JR pass?

The answer we feel in most cases is – No.

The first thing to do would be to start with your itinerary. Typically, an itinerary like the one for Japan will involve your city sightseeing days and days where you have to transfer to other city/travel far. On our itinerary, we stayed 5 nights at Tokyo & 6 nights in Kyoto. We did a day trip to Kawaguchiko (for Mt Fuji) from Tokyo and to Hiroshima and Osaka from Kyoto. There was also the transfer between Kyoto and Tokyo on Shinkansen and the airport transfers in Kyoto and Tokyo.

Cost comparison

Scenario	No of days	IC/Cash	Comments
Osaka airport to Kyoto stay	1	~3200 Yen	We took the Haruka Express to Kyoto station
Kyoto Sightseeing	3	~1000 Yen per day	Includes the more convenient and expensive private lines as well
Hiroshima day trip	1	~27000 Yen	Includes 2 way transfer on Shinkansen to Hiroshima, transfer to and from Miyajima & Hiroshima sightseeing
Osaka day trip	1	~1800 Yen	Covers travel to/from Osaka and sightseeing within
Kyoto to Tokyo	1	~15000 Yen	Shinkansen
Tokyo sightseeing	3	~1000 Yen per day
Mt Fuji day trip	1	~10000 Yen	On the more expensive Mt Fuji limited express train not covered by JR pass. Mt Fuji local sightseeing bus extra
Disneyland day	1	~1200 Yen
Tokyo stay to Haneda airport	1	~700 Yen	JR line and Monorail

Case 1: Buy a 2 week JR pass
Total cost = ~80k Yen

Case 2: Use only IC/Cash with no modifications to the above itinerary
Total cost = ~65k Yen

Case 3: Rejig the above to maximize JR pass usage, buy only 7 day pass
We could try to combine the more expensive days together into a single 7 day window. That means we will do the Hiroshima day trip on our last day in Kyoto. Activate/use the 7 day JR pass starting then. We will have to use the IC/Cash for all days before that and for last day travel to Haneda airport.
Total cost = ~58,700 Yen

Case 4: Combination of some good regional passes + IC/Cash
The best regional JR pass we could find for this itinerary was the “5 day Kansai Hiroshima Area pass” costing 17k Yen. We used that for 5 days in Kyoto including the airport transfer on 1st day, Hiroshima travel day and the Osaka travel day. There was the last full day in Kyoto when we did local sightseeing for which we used the IC card/Cash. Rest of them were all done on IC/Cash.
Total Cost = ~47,900 Yen

We eventually saved a bit more because we booked the Kyoto to Tokyo Shinkansen on SmartEX website on an early bird discount. But even without that, we could get to travel within Japan at a much cheaper price than blindly opting for JR weekly pass.

Ultimately, the cost saving comes from being mindful of the individual costs on each route you take, the knowledge of best passes available on JR apart from the weekly pass and being able to rejig your itinerary to bring the high travel cost days together into the window of the pass you desire to purchase.

Flexibility in travel

Even if the cost on IC/Cash comes close to the JR pass, you should chose IC/Cash over JR pass due to sheer flexibility it offers to travel on any line and the reduction in travel time it brings in most cases.

Some examples for this:
1. From our stay in Tokyo, we had a private line to reach Teamlab Planets and Disneyland faster. If we had to commute strictly using a JR pass, it would have easily added 30-45 mins each way.
2. The nearest JR station for Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto is 3 km away. You will have walk this or additionally pay for a bus ride.
3. The nearest stations to Kiyomizu Dera temple and Gion in Kyoto are on the Keihan Main Line which is not covered by any JR Pass. (JR stations are pretty far away).