Hotel prices in Japan are starting to get out of control. That’s leading some fans to seek ways to see their favorite idols and artists in cities like Tokyo while avoiding the city’s extravagant lodging prices. One bus company says it has a unique new solution: a bus whose seats turn into flat beds.
Japan’s night buses have long been a lifeline for fans who want to go see their oshi (推し) perform. According to Nikkei, 51% of night bus use is by fans who want to go to an event or see a live show, such as an idol group.
With hotel prices in Japan going up (and, honestly, the price of everything going up), fans who travel from far away can find themselves in a pickle. They either have to pay out the nose for a room or catch a late bus back and try to nab a few hours of shut-eye.
Bus company Kochi Ekimae Kanko says that starting in March, they’re testing out a new solution: the “full flat seat” bus. The new seat type is a response to customers who say they love the cost savings of night buses but aren’t fans of the exhaustion that comes from a restless night’s shut-eye sitting upright.
Their new seat design, the Sommeil Profond, is a unit of two seats that can be either upright or can be laid flat and turned into sleeper seats. It will be the first full flat seat design ever used in Japan.
The project has been a long time in the making. Last year, in November, Japan’s Ministry of Transportation released guidelines for full flat seat designs aimed at preventing serious injury. This includes using a double-latching seat belt and a foot plate to prevent people from sliding forward in case of an accident.
Kochi Ekimae Kanko says they made changes to their design in response to the Ministry’s guidelines. While the pictures on the company’s site seem to show the old design, recent pictures provided by the company to news outlets show a new design that incorporates several of the Ministry’s recommendations, such as the foot plate.
The company says it hasn’t come up with a fee structure for the new seat type but that it will likely be a few thousand yen (tens of US dollars) pricier than a normal seat. That still makes a round-trip bus ride a cheaper alternative to hotels – particularly in this economic climate.
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