Want to travel Japan in style? You’ll have more choices come 2027, as JR Tokai has announced it’ll add a new “half-private” type luxury seat with plenty of space and a nice view.
The Tokaido is one of the world’s busiest high-speed rail lines, running between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka (and points beyond via the Sanyo Shinkansen). It’s served by three lines – the fast-running Nozomi, the medium-speed Hikari, and the full-stop Kodama.
The Tokaido line is currently split into two sections: regular seating and the Green Car first-class compartments. The latter offers wider seating and a QR code-based food ordering system.
Now, in a new press release, JR Tokai says it’s adding a new luxury option to several of its trips. Slated for 2027, the “half-private room” (半個室; hankoshitsu) type seats will be squirreled away from the main aisle behind a sliding door.
However, the seats won’t have a wall separating them from one another. Instead, they’ll have high backs, offering a modicum of privacy from other passengers. The seats are recliners with a footrest. All passengers in the half-private seats will get access to their own exclusive wi-fi endpoint as well. The seats can also be swiveled to face one another for those traveling as a party of two.
JR Tokai expects to install six seats in car 10 in a subset of its N700S series shinkansen trains. The new seat type will supplement the planned full-private rooms that the Tokaido line will support starting in 2026. With two private rooms per line, this means there will be eight private and semi-private luxury seating options on some Tokaido lines.
Of course, the key question is: How much will this luxury cost? For that, you’ll have to wait until 2027: JR Tokai has not announced prices for either the semi-private or private rooms.
The change is one of several that’s come to the world of shinkansen travel as tourism to Japan is expected to approach 40 million visitors this year. In 2023, the Tokaido’s limited-stop Nozomi service, for example, moved to full reserved seating during peak travel times. The same year, the Tokaido line announced it was retiring its food cart service on its lines, with limited service only available for Green Car riders.
JR Group has also made massive changes to its Japan Rail Pass program, raising the price by around 70%. On the plus side, the Pass now covers all three of the Tokaido’s services, including the limited-stop Nozomi.
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