From October through December of this year, Niigata Prefecture will be conducting a ‘Niigata Destination Campaign’ to promote travel to their region. In conjunction with this event East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is offering foreign visitors a very economical discount Regional Rail Pass called the ‘JR East Pass Special.’ This pass, limited to travel from September through the end of December, will go on sale Tuesday, 1 September 2009 at the price of ¥10,000 (child: ¥5,000), valid for any three days within a one-month period. Since a regular round-trip ticket between downtown Tokyo and Sendai costs ¥21,180 the pass offers our visitors from overseas huge savings.

All JR East passes cover the entire Tohoku (‘Northeast’) Region which is the large area encompassing the northeastern part of the main island of Honshu including Miyagi Prefecture. This expansive region offers a wide range of tourist attractions: shrines and temples, soothing hot springs, clear lakes and seashores, and refreshing hikes in the mountains. Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture and the gateway to regional attractions, is located only 1 hour 40 minutes away from Tokyo on Shinkansen ‘bullet trains’. During this promotional period JR East wishes to encourage travelers to use our trains to experience and enjoy the charms of the whole Tohoku Region, especially Miyagi Prefecture.

In addition to the Tohoku Region, all JR East passes, including this autumn’s special pass, cover any JR East service in the metropolitan Tokyo area, to and from Narita Airport, and to many other popular destinations in central Japan such as Nikko, Niigata, Nagano and the Izu Peninsula.

> See details (JR East page)

[Improved and More Comfortable Service from Tokyo and Kansai Regions to Kanazawa]

• One additional round-trip Limited Express Hakutaka is being added between Echigo-Yuzawa and Kanazawa so that service will be once an hour. With this additional train, rail access from Tokyo to Kanazawa will become even more convenient since there will be 13 round-trip connections daily, all via Echigo-Yuzawa on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line.

New rail cars will be introduced for the Limited Express Thunder Bird on the route: Osaka - Kyoto - Fukui - Kanazawa - Toyama - Uozu.

[Non-Smoking Limitations Expanded]

Starting in the spring of 2010 the area where Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) ‘s ‘TOICA’ IC smart card can be used will be expanded. Rail lines covered by the card will then include sectors of the Gotemba Line, the Minobu Line, the Iida Line, and the Takayama Main Line as well as the entire Taita Line.

In addition, the ‘TOICA’, along with the JR East ‘Suica’ card and the JR West ‘ICOCA’ card, will be able to function as electronic cash cards for use in shops and kiosks located along the Tokaido Shinkansen route and selected other JR Central areas.

> See more details

On Saturday, 28 March 2009, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) will celebrate two full years of offering its ‘Suica & N’EX Ticket’. This discount ticket allows foreign visitors arriving at Narita Airport to enjoy savings on the Narita Express trains to downtown in combination with a Suica ‘smart card’ for use on all Tokyo transit and as an electronic money card for shopping. Until now the Suica card has been available only for Ordinary Cars (coach class) at a price of 3,500 yen which includes the Narita Express charge and 1,500 yen of usable Suica fare with a 500 yen Suica deposit.

On 28 March, the Suica card will be expanded to include a Green Car (first class) version for 5,000 yen. This will give the traveler a reserved first class seat on the Narita Express to downtown Tokyo or to many other locations in greater Tokyo (‘Designated Tokyo Area’), as well as the same Suica card use described above. Traveling on the Narita Express to Tokyo Station the traveler will save 1,430 yen with the new Green ticket and even more if going to further spots such as Yokohama where the saving is 2,670 yen. In addition, the Suica & N’EX card will sport an attractive new design featuring Hiroshige’s world-famous woodblock print ‘Red Fuji’ with the Narita Express superimposed.

On February 26, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) will be opening its new ‘UQ WiMAX’ system in all stations on the Yamanote ‘Loop’ line in downtown Tokyo, as well as others, for a total of 44 stations providing this mobile internet access system. Rail passengers in stations will then have easy high-speed access to the internet from areas that are traditionally difficult to reach with electric waves such as interior concourses and underground platforms.

The new service will be provided by the UQ Communications Company and is part of JR East’s ‘Group Management Vision 2020: Idomu = Challenge’ which aims at providing customers with ever better service using IT technology. The UQ WiMAX system operates at speeds as high as 40Mbps, and will be offered free of charge during the initial test period until 30 June. Initially the system will cover all 23 wards of Tokyo as well as the adjacent cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki.

At present, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is operating several unique ‘resort trains’ which service tourist areas, providing passengers with easy and comfortable access to natural beauty, regional cuisines and relaxing hot springs. These trains have given the company great success in achieving the goal of expanding its tourism business.

Now JR East is planning on introducing 10 new ‘hybrid’ rail cars for operation on three new resort train routes: the Tsugaru, Ominato and Gono Lines in far northern Honshu, as well as the Oito Line in the Nagano area, closer to Tokyo. The northern service is designed to coordinate with the opening of the new Aomori extension to the Tohoku Shinkansen ‘bullet train’, scheduled for December 2010.

The new cars will utilize the same hybrid system that was introduced in 2007 on the Koumi Line as the world’s first such system in actual use. These hybrid rail cars are effectively designed to be beneficial to the environment through reduced fuel usage (as much as 10% less) and lower carbon emissions (approximately 60% less) when compared with the existing resort train cars. They are also quieter in operation producing 20 to 30dB less noise in stations or while traveling. Four of the new cars will be used on the Tsugaru and Ominato Line, four on the Gono Line and two on the Oito Line. The train sets will feature an observation car lounge, reclining seats in all cars, and on the Gono Line train, private compartments for groups or families. Service on all trains should begin during or after the autumn of 2010.

> See more technical details

East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has announced the finalization of its design for a new prototype Shinkansen rail car named Series E5 to be put into service just after the new Tohoku Shinkansen link to Aomori opens expected on Dec 2010. This prototype vehicle for mass production will be run at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mile/h) in FY 2010, and for speeds up to 320 km/h (199 mile/h) in FY 2012. Traveling time from Tokyo to Aomori will be about 3 hours 5 minutes in FY 2012. At present it takes 4 hours with a train change at Hachinohe.

The exterior of the new cars will be colored green and white with a distinctive pink stripe carried over from the existing Hayate trains. The nose of the train is based on the new FASTECH 360 design, modified for even better environmental performance. The interior of the Green (First Class) Cars will feature wood-grain walls and a color scheme capturing the interplay of clouds and mountains. Ordinary (Second Class) Cars will have pale gray walls and the seat colors will alternate between even and odd numbered cars. The design of all cars will focus on the key concepts ‘roominess’, ‘soothing environment’, and ‘just for you: you are our guest’.

The JR East Pass offers unlimited travel on East Japan Railway Company (JR East) ’s lines and trains.
Beginning February 2, 2009 the exchange voucher for JR East Pass will be available via JR East’s website. For purchasing, a Visa or Mastercard is required.

> See more information(JR East Page)

On March 1, Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) will be introducing its IC ‘smart card’ called SUGOCA and by the spring of 2010 the SUGOCA card will become compatible with JR East’s existing Suica card. This means that holders of either card will be able to use their cards for local JR transit in the JR East metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Sendai and Niigata and also in the JR KyushuHo’s Fukuoka and Kita Kyushu area. The existing Suica functions as both a prepaid transit card and also as an electronic money card for shopping; the new SUGOCA will have the same functions. The reciprocal use agreement will also cover some non-JR lines such as the Haneda Airport monorail in Tokyo and the Sendai Airport Access train. Both companies hope that this cooperation will enhance the goal of ‘seamless travel’ for their passengers.