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Living overseas and planning to go to Japan? Worry not, now you can book your shinkansen anywhere. (Image via JR Pass)
New site to book shinkansen from outer Japan
Japan’s main railway companies, Central Japan Railway Co., and West Japan Railway Co., stated their plan to expand their bullet train (shinkansen) ticketing services for foreigners amid the tourism boom in Japan for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.Operating Tokaido and Sanyo lines that deliver tourists to famous destinations such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Fukuoka, both companies said that they would introduce English-lingo services on their new websites in the upcoming March; so, tourists from all around the globe may book their shinkansen tickets in advance.
The customers may print the tickets for Tokaido and Sanyo lines at the ticketing machines or load them onto smart JR Pass as tickets.
Previously, both companies already released two smartphone apps, “smartEX” and EXpress Ride”, that allow foreigners to book shinkansen overseas. Since the launch of the app in October 2017, the app had been downloaded 130,000 times. However, it is only available for eight countries and regions.
In recent years, Japan has been seeing its golden era of tourism. The number of tourists entering Japan broke the record with 31.19 million in 2018, an 8.7 percent upgrade. The Japanese government is still dissatisfied, aiming to boost the number to 40 million by the Summer Olympics held this year.
Source: https://bit.ly/2sBVv7l
