Net B2B rates on private cars, luxury vans, coaches, Shinkansen, IC cards, rail passes, ferries and domestic flights across Japan — briefed to your client's actual itinerary and planned alongside the rest of the ground file, not pieced together as an afterthought.
Categories We Book
A private sedan and professional driver for individuals, couples or small parties — meet & greet at arrivals, flight monitoring included.
Extra luggage capacity and premium seating for families, small groups and corporate travellers.
Full-size coaches for MICE groups, incentive travel and tour series, with multi-stop route planning.
Reserved-seat bullet train bookings and station-to-station coordination for clients moving between cities without a private vehicle for the full route.
Tap-to-ride cards accepted across nearly all rail, subway and bus networks nationwide, loaded via station kiosks or as a mobile pass on a smartphone.
National and regional passes for eligible overseas visitors, best matched to the itinerary before departure rather than bought city by city.
Inter-island and cross-region legs where rail isn't practical — Okinawa, Hokkaido and Seto Inland Sea routings among them — coordinated as part of the same itinerary.
Metered taxis for short, unscheduled city journeys outside a booked private-car window — briefed to the client so it's a known option, not a guess on the ground.
Passes & IC Cards
Suica and Pasmo — Japan's two main IC transit cards — are interoperable across nearly every rail, subway and bus network in the country, and increasingly across convenience stores and vending machines too. They're loaded with cash or card at station kiosks, and available as a mobile pass on a compatible smartphone as well as a physical card, though physical-card availability can vary by region and season, so it's worth confirming current options as part of the brief rather than assuming.
A JR Pass or regional rail pass makes sense for clients covering long distances by rail on a multi-city itinerary, but eligibility (typically limited to overseas visitors on a temporary-visitor entry status), validity windows and the specific network each pass covers all vary by pass type — matching the right one to the itinerary is a briefing exercise, not a single default answer. A pass covers the base fare, but reserved Shinkansen seats still usually need a separate, though usually free, reservation, which is one of the details we confirm rather than leave for the client to discover at the ticket gate.
We advise on the right combination of passes, cards and private transport for each itinerary, and coordinate reserved-seat bookings where needed — briefed into the same file as private transfers and hotels, not handled as a separate, disconnected step.
Vehicle Fleet
Japan's chauffeur trade runs almost entirely on two vehicle families: a standard sedan for one to three passengers with normal luggage, and a Toyota Alphard or Vellfire-class minivan — the de facto premium standard nationwide — for four to six passengers or anyone travelling with more than the usual one bag each. Hybrid and increasingly electric drivetrains are now standard across most fleets in the main cities, which is worth knowing if a client specifically asks about it. A sedan and a luxury minivan can cost noticeably differently for the same route, so it's worth confirming passenger count and luggage volume precisely rather than defaulting to the larger vehicle "to be safe."
Group vehicles split into two practical tiers: a mini-coach in the 20-to-29-seat range, which can access some smaller hotel driveways and narrower streets a full coach cannot, and a full-size coach in the 40-to-50-seat range for larger MICE and tour-series groups. The right tier isn't just about headcount — a mini-coach is sometimes the better choice for a 35-person group if the itinerary includes a property or street with vehicle-size restrictions, which is exactly the kind of detail we check against the hotel and routing plan before confirming rather than after.
Shinkansen
On the Tokaido-Sanyo corridor (Tokyo-Osaka-Hiroshima), Shinkansen services run at three speeds: Nozomi is fastest with the fewest stops, Hikari is a step slower with more stops, and Kodama is the all-stations local. This matters commercially as well as operationally — Nozomi (and its Kyushu-line equivalent, Mizuho) typically sit outside national rail-pass coverage, while Hikari and Kodama are typically included, so the fastest train isn't always the one a pass-holding client should default to.
Seating splits into ordinary cars, Green Car (a premium, wider-seat class roughly equivalent to business class), and on some Tohoku and Hokkaido routes, Gran Class — a smaller, more service-heavy tier above Green Car. Within ordinary and Green cars, seats are further split into reserved (shiteiseki) and non-reserved (jiyuseki) carriages; travelling on a busy date without a reservation can mean standing for part of the journey, which is worth flagging to clients used to airline-style guaranteed seating.
One rule that regularly catches first-time visitors: oversized luggage — generally anything where the three dimensions add up to more than 160cm — needs a pre-booked luggage space on the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu Shinkansen lines, with a fee for travelling without one. Rules can be updated, so we confirm current policy against the client's actual luggage rather than assume last year's guidance still applies.
Regional Passes
Kansai runs on a dense mix of JR and private-rail operators (Hankyu, Keihan, Kintetsu, Nankai), which don't share a single ticketing system the way Tokyo's IC cards do everywhere else — regional multi-day passes bundling several of these networks are usually the more efficient option for a client bouncing between Kyoto, Osaka and Nara on the same trip rather than paying single fares on each hop.
Hakone's appeal — mountain railway, cable car, ropeway and lake cruise strung together as a loop — is really a single multi-operator pass product (an Odakyu-issued regional pass) rather than a set of tickets bought leg by leg. Book the pass instead of the individual legs, and the loop day runs itself; book leg by leg, and the client ends up working out five separate fares on the ground.
Tokyo's subway is split across two separate operators, Tokyo Metro and the Toei lines, which confuses most first-time visitors reading a combined map as if it were one network. A combined subway pass (or a standard IC card, which works across both) avoids the client discovering mid-journey that their single-operator ticket doesn't cover the line they need.
Outside the Tokyo-Osaka corridor, JR's regional passes (covering Tohoku and Nagano, Hokkaido, or Kyushu specifically) are usually the better value than the national pass for a client whose itinerary doesn't touch the core Golden Route at all — matched to the actual regional routing rather than defaulted to the broadest, most expensive option.
Flights & Ferries
Some legs are simply too long for rail to be the practical choice — Tokyo to Sapporo, Tokyo to Okinawa and Tokyo to Fukuoka are the three most common domestic flight legs on multi-region itineraries, generally faster door-to-door than the equivalent rail routing once transfers are counted. Japan's domestic network runs on full-service carriers (JAL and ANA, with the widest schedules and easiest rebooking) alongside low-cost carriers such as Peach, Jetstar Japan and Skymark, which trade flexibility and baggage allowance for a lower fare — worth matching to the client's actual priorities rather than defaulting to whichever is cheapest.
Ferries matter on a smaller number of specific routes rather than as a general-purpose mode: the short hop to Miyajima's floating torii gate, the Seto Inland Sea's art-island network around Naoshima, and inter-island connections within Okinawa. On these routes a ferry isn't an alternative to rail or road — it's the only way in, so it needs to be booked and timed with the same care as any other leg of the file, not treated as an incidental extra.
Ticket Types
A one-way (kataimichi) ticket covers a single direction between two stations; a round-trip requires two separate tickets on most Japanese rail products rather than a single return fare the way some other countries structure it. On Shinkansen and limited-express services, a base fare ticket must be paired with either a reserved-seat (shiteiseki) surcharge, a non-reserved (jiyuseki) car with no surcharge but no guaranteed seat, or a Green Car upgrade — three genuinely different products at three different prices, not variations on the same ticket.
For local and subway trips, an IC card tap fare is calculated automatically by distance and is almost always simpler and marginally cheaper than a paper ticket bought from a station machine, though paper tickets remain necessary on some routes and for certain discount fares an IC card can't apply. Child fares (typically for ages 6 to 11) and group rail fares exist but carry their own rules and minimum-group thresholds, which we confirm against the actual travelling party rather than estimate.
Multi-Modal Files
A typical multi-city Japan itinerary rarely runs on a single mode of transport — a private car for the airport arrival, reserved Shinkansen between cities, an IC card for local subway and bus trips once in each city, and sometimes a ferry or domestic flight for an island or distant region. Each of these is booked, priced and confirmed individually, so you can see exactly what each leg costs rather than a single blended transport line that hides where the budget is actually going.
We keep the whole routing as a single file rather than a set of disconnected bookings, so a change to one leg — a flight moved earlier, a hotel changed to a different city — is checked against every other transport booking on the itinerary before anything is reconfirmed, the same principle that runs through how we handle multi-city hotel files.
Who Books This
Independent and FIT-focused agents need a reliable airport pickup and a client who isn't left working out an unfamiliar rail network alone. Our 24-hour quote turnaround and 4-day quotation validity give you a fast answer to put in front of a client without waiting days, and our flight-monitoring standard means a delayed arrival doesn't turn into a stranded one.
Operators running repeat departures need consistent coach and rail booking across many trips, not a one-off quote each time. Group rail and coach bookings are coordinated alongside hotel arrangements so the whole file moves as one plan rather than transport and accommodation confirmed on different timelines.
Conferences and incentive programmes need coach fleets, venue-to-hotel shuttles and sometimes chartered rail coordination handled at scale. This runs alongside our wider MICE & Incentive service, so ground transport is planned as part of the same file as venue sourcing and accommodation, not negotiated separately.
For clients who want a private car for the entire trip, a Green Car or Gran Class upgrade as standard, or a specific charter routing, the value is precision — confirming the exact vehicle class and rail tier before the file is built, not substituted in afterwards.
What's Included
Drivers track your client's flight in real time and adjust automatically for delays — no separate confirmation call needed on your end.
Contract rates quoted net and non-commissionable, per route and vehicle category — transparent, your margin to set.
Multi-vehicle and multi-day transport planned alongside the rest of the ground file, not booked as a separate line item.
English-speaking drivers available on request, with pickup instructions and route confirmed before travel, not worked out on arrival.
Domestic peak-travel timing matters. Golden Week (late April–early May), Obon (mid-August) and the New Year holiday period (late December–early January) are when Japan's own domestic travel is heaviest — road congestion builds and Shinkansen reserved seats sell out well in advance. A brief for these windows benefits from as much lead time as you can give us, the same as hotel bookings in the cherry-blossom and autumn-foliage peaks.
How It Works
Route, dates, times, group size and vehicle preference. We reply with matched net-rate options within 24 hours.
Each option itemised at net rate per route and vehicle category so you see exactly what it costs. Quotations are valid for 4 days from issue.
A USD 100 contract fee secures the booking and is fully credited against your final invoice. Cancellation and deposit terms are stated at confirmation.
Flight or train numbers, pickup points and passenger names confirmed ahead of travel, not chased on the day of pickup.
30% deposit within 3 working days of confirmation, balance due 45 days before departure. Settle in JPY, USD, NZD or via Wise.
A named point of contact and 24/7 emergency line for the duration of travel — issues are resolved directly through our ground team, not logged and forgotten.
Who This Is For
Any advisor whose itinerary needs a client moved reliably between two points — airport to hotel, city to city, or a full multi-day touring vehicle — coordinated alongside the rest of the ground plan, not booked as an afterthought. Works alongside any of our other services, from a simple airport pickup to a full MICE program.
How We Deliver This
We contract vehicle and rail rates on demand and brief every driver against the client's actual itinerary — pickup point, flight or train number, luggage count and any special requirements — rather than handing over a generic voucher. Send us the route, dates and group size as part of your client brief; we quote transport net, alongside hotels, guides and the rest of the ground plan.
Popular Routes
Driver & Booking Standards
Every transfer runs on the same waiting-time policy regardless of who books it, so it's worth knowing what your client can rely on. Drivers wait 60 minutes after actual landing for international flights and 45 minutes for domestic; 20 minutes after arrival for train station pickups. Hotel and theme-park pickups run to the scheduled time with no waiting window, due to strict parking limitations at those locations — clients are asked to be at the meeting point 10 minutes early.
Baggage allowance is one checked item and one hand item per passenger as standard; extra luggage should be flagged in the brief so we can arrange the right vehicle rather than discover a shortfall at pickup. Transfers are point-to-point services — a vehicle held for multiple stops or a full day needs to be booked as a charter or disposal service, not assumed from a standard route quote. Full operational detail is on our Transfer Terms & Conditions page.
Commercials
Pricing is driven by vehicle category, route distance and duration, and whether it's one-way or return. Standard tolls and parking on the quoted route are built into the net rate — not itemised as a surprise add-on afterwards. Coach and rail bookings for groups are priced per route and passenger count rather than a flat per-head estimate, so the quote reflects the actual itinerary rather than a generic figure.
Trade Terms
A direct pickup-to-drop-off service. No standby or multi-stop waiting beyond the confirmed route unless a charter or disposal service is booked instead.
A vehicle and driver retained for a set number of hours or a full day, for multi-stop touring rather than a single route — priced differently from a point-to-point transfer.
The driver waits inside the arrivals area with a name board, rather than a curbside pickup — standard on every airport transfer we book.
A private transfer is exclusive to your client's party; a shared or shuttle service may carry other passengers on the same vehicle and route.
A rechargeable tap-to-ride transit card — Suica and Pasmo are the two main networks — accepted across nearly all rail, subway and bus systems nationwide.
A multi-day pass covering unlimited base-fare travel on a defined rail network, typically restricted to eligible overseas visitors. Reserved seats are usually booked separately from the pass itself.
FAQ
Net and non-commissionable. You see exactly what the route and vehicle cost and set your own margin on top.
Within 24 hours for your first quotation, which is then valid for 4 days from issue.
We track the flight in real time and the driver adjusts automatically — 60 minutes waiting time after landing for international flights, 45 minutes for domestic.
Yes — station-to-station and reserved-seat coordination as part of a wider itinerary, not just private vehicles.
Yes, up to 50-plus passengers, coordinated alongside the rest of a MICE or group file rather than booked separately.
45 days or more before travel: 20% of total cost. 22 to 44 days: 50%. 21 days or fewer: 100%. Full terms are on our Partner Policy page.
Yes — standard tolls and parking on the quoted route are included in the net rate, itemised separately only if something unusual applies.
Standalone is fine — most requests do come in alongside hotels and guides on the same file, but a route can be quoted entirely on its own.
We advise on the right combination for the itinerary and coordinate reserved-seat bookings where needed, briefed into the same file as private transfers and hotels rather than left for the client to sort out alone.
Not automatically — most passes require a separate, usually free, seat reservation, which we confirm as part of the itinerary rather than assume.
Work With Us
Tell us what you need and we will respond within 24 hours.