• Bus
  Often cheaper than railways but does not form nation-wide network
  
• Air
  Many discount services are recently being introduced
  
• Ferry
  Have some long distance route in Japan. Comfortable and cheap, sometimes good choice when having time
• Car
  Traffic condition is terrible in metropolitan areas but driving can be comfortable outside these regions

There is no bus company in Japan that operates at nation-wide level such as Greyhound bus in United States. Most companies specialize in the routes from big city to particular region. This means that there is no convenient bus pass and each bus route does not care about connection with other routes at all. Stopover on the way is not allowed either.

Besides, railway is better than bus in terms of the information and English signs to foreign tourist.

And often they are caught in heavy traffic especially in the case of routes to Tokyo.


Practically, bus has advantage in the travel between only two cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. It is difficult and costly to change many bus lines and travel around many cities freely. In such cases, train is surely the best choice using train passes.

From Tokyo, air does not have large advantage in the case of travel within Honshu Island compared to Shinkansen. But it is much faster than rail when going to Hokkaido or Kyushu Island, and more than 90 per cent of passengers choose air in those cases, indeed.


Most domestic air services are operated by the three largest airlines; Japan Air Lines (JAL), All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Air System (JAS). But recently new air companies are born thanks to the recent deregulation and becoming popular due to the prices cheaper than the major three companies.


Air is expensive, but recently various discount services are being introduced due to the deregulation and competition. When buying the ticket much early one or two months prior to departure for example, or using the inconvenient services such as leaving Tokyo at 6 a.m., the fare might be cheaper. Fifty per cent off, for example. (They have quite complex discount system so please consult the airlines.)

In many small discount ticket shops in Tokyo or Osaka, many kinds of cheaper air tickets are also available. You can also get many discount package tours provided by travel agencies. In those tours you will get the combination of air and hotel ticket, whose total prices are sometimes amazingly cheap. They are advertised in some travel magazines or travel agency offices in Japan, though finding such information requires some Japanese language skills and experiences of course.

For passengers less than twenty-two years old, there are very good discount service called 'Skymate'. Paying only 1,000 yen, you get the membership of 'Skymate' valid for one year, and can use all air routes by 50 per cent off. You can not make previous reservation when using this advantage, and have to wait for the next flight if seats are occupied.


To sum, air fare is not so bad compared to the normal fare of railway, often cheaper than rail.

From Tokyo, there are ferry routes to Tomakomai (Hokkaido), Katsuura (Wakayama Prefecture), Tokushima and Kochi (Shikoku), Kitakyushu (Kyushu), and Okinawa.

There are also International ferry services between Fukuoka and Pusan (South Korea), Osaka and Shanghai (China), Niigata and Vladivostok (Russia).

Japan is a country of quite high population density and road condition is not so good. Around Tokyo, not only in downtown but also in its suburban areas, you can travel only ten or twenty kilometers' journey per hour. In metropolitan area, road capacity is much smaller than demand and roads are jamming throughout the day, even in weekends. Transport there is heavily dependent on railways, mass transit.

Even outside metropolitan area, driving is not so comfortable in Central Japan region unless using expensive expressway. Urban area and road side shops last for hours along the main roads.


In rural area, road traffic condition is much better and most people do everyday tasks such as commuting and shopping by car without using railways at all. The population of Japan concentrates in relatively small area along coastal line from Tokyo to Osaka and Fukuoka, and other region is not so crowded.

Namely Hokkaido is quite comfortable place to drive with its exceptionally low population density by Japanese standard. In these areas, traveling by car is a good choice.


There is intercity expressway network which covers most cities in Japan. Its speed limit is 100 km/h (80 km/h in mountainous routes), but often ignored. In Japan, cars usually run at the speed 20 or 30 km/h faster than the regulation when road is not crowded. Speed limits in Japan are often set at too slow level, such as 40 km/h in six lanes' road or 60 km/h in elevated highway.

It does not mean that police allows common overspeed and there is a risk of being heavily fined. Its possibility is not particularly high but if unlucky you will be caught, even though other cars are running at the similar speed.

In expressways, you should expect some traffic jam around Tokyo and Osaka in weekends. During New Year holidays, Golden Week holidays at the beginning of May, and O-bon holidays in mid August, the condition is worst and traffic jam sometimes extends up to fifty kilometers' long! However, except weekends and these seasons, traffic condition in intercity expressway is not so bad and traffic jams rarely happen outside the expressways around metropolis.

Expressways impose quite expensive fare, 4,100 yen from Tokyo to Shizuoka (160 km) and 7,200 yen from Tokyo to Sendai (330 km), for example. They are nearly equally to the fare of Limited Express trains.

But considering the bad condition of other roads, perhaps you will choose expressway when traveling some distance. Using expressway, usually a bit faster than Limited Express trains unless caught in traffic jam.


Car rental price in Japan is about 10,000 yen per day in the case of medium-sized car. When traveling by group more than three or four people, using car rental is often cheaper than other transports.