Kansai Wide Area Pass: five-day routes, exchange offices and reserved seats

Compare it with ordinary ticket totals if your itinerary includes eligible limited-express and Shinkansen journeys over several days. First check whether your travel dates fit the five-consecutive-day requirement.

You need a passport issued by a country other than Japan and Temporary Visitor status in Japan. The Kansai Wide Excursion Pass is a separate product with different eligibility and travel days; check it independently.

The official five-day price is JPY 12,000 adult or JPY 6,000 child. The current Japanese terms define children as aged 6–11 when payment is made. Check the agency’s actual selling price and cancellation conditions separately on its sales page.

Each adult or child pass holder can bring up to two children aged 1–5 free of charge. A child pass is needed for the third or any additional child, for a child occupying a separate reserved seat, or for a child travelling alone. Infants under one year travel free when they do not need their own reserved seat.

Validity runs from 00:00 on the start date to 24:00 on the fifth day, Japan time. If you remain on a train into the following day, basic-fare coverage continues until you leave the gate, and the train-charge coverage continues until you get off that train. This does not permit unrestricted travel on new trains the next day.

An agency MCO or E-MCO is an exchange order. Exchange it for the actual pass before boarding. WEST QR Kansai Area and Kansai Mini passes are separate products; this paper-pass exchange process does not apply to them.

The Sanyo Shinkansen is covered between Shin-Osaka and Okayama. Conventional-line boundaries shown on the official Japanese map include Yura · 由良 towards Tottori, Tsuruga · 敦賀 and Maibara · 米原 to the north, Tsuge · 柘植 to the east, Shingu · 新宮, Wakayamashi · 和歌山市 and Kishi · 貴志 to the south, Soja · 総社 and Uno · 宇野 to the west, and Utazu · 宇多津–Takamatsu in Shikoku. The Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen west of Okayama are excluded. Coverage may differ between Shinkansen and conventional trains connecting the same stations. The English map gives a readable route overview; the Japanese map also labels smaller boundary stations such as Tsuge and Soja. Both are linked below.

Eligible local West Japan JR Bus routes in the pass area are covered; the Kanazawa · 金沢 area and highway buses are excluded. Take one numbered boarding ticket per person. When getting off, show the pass to the driver and put only the numbered ticket in the fare box. Do not put the pass in the fare box.

At Kansai-airport Station · 関西空港, go to the JR ticket office (Midori-no-madoguchi · みどりの窓口) on the station’s second floor, rather than the Nankai gates on the same floor. The official station hours are 05:30–23:00, and this station appears on the agency exchange-order location list for Kansai Wide. Bring your electronic order and original passport, and state your start date. Use a machine only after checking its PASSPORT label and support for your particular exchange order.

The separate Terminal 1 exchange counter is on the first floor, south side, and opens 08:00–20:00.

If you cannot exchange at the airport, use a supported station counter: the JR West East Exit Ticket Plaza at Shin-Osaka, the Central Exit JR ticket office at Osaka · 大阪, or the JR ticket office outside the second-floor gates at Okayama. Transfer-gate counter hours and machine hours do not necessarily match exchange-counter hours. Tottori’s JR ticket office currently opens 08:00–19:00.

In the official English station plans, use Central Gate (1F) for Kyoto · 京都 and Osaka, and East Gate (3F) for Shin-Osaka. The plans are dated 1 September 2025 for Kyoto, 14 January 2026 for Osaka and 1 October 2026 for Shin-Osaka. Counter hours were checked separately against current station information.

For a direct JR-WEST online reservation, bring the reservation number, your chosen four-digit identification number, the physical card used to pay and every traveller’s original passport. A machine requires an IC-chip passport; otherwise use a staffed counter. These payment-card requirements belong to direct JR collection, not the agency exchange-order procedure.

Reserve Ordinary Car seats before boarding. The pass alone does not cover Green Car, Green private compartments, Ordinary private compartments on conventional limited expresses or Special Rapid A-Seat: buy the required accommodation charge separately. Sanyo Shinkansen S Work cars and Sunrise Seto/Izumo, including Nobinobi seats, are excluded. For S Work cars, pay the full fare and train charges for that section.

For a Green Car or private compartment on an eligible Shinkansen or limited express, buy both the required accommodation and express tickets before boarding. A local-train Green Car needs its separate Green ticket. Check the train and seat type when asking at a counter; paying only the difference between pass prices is not an upgrade procedure.

If the sum of your bag’s length, width and height is over 160 cm and no more than 250 cm, reserve a seat with an oversized-baggage area before taking the Sanyo Shinkansen. There is no extra fee for that reservation, but bringing the bag without the required reservation incurs a JPY 1,000 fee. Some 16-car trains are trialling deck storage compartments without reservations. Those compartments do not remove the seat-reservation requirement for bags over 160 cm. Distinguish deck compartments from the reserved area behind the last row of seats.

If you miss your reserved train, use an eligible train’s unreserved car or reserve a seat on a later train. Trains with reserved seats only have no unreserved car. Standing is permitted only where an officially available standing arrangement exists for that full service; do not apply it to all reserved-seat-only trains. Lost passes are not reissued. With luggage over 160 cm on the Sanyo Shinkansen, reserve another seat with an oversized-baggage area rather than boarding an unreserved car.

Before an agency MCO or E-MCO is exchanged, request cancellation from the original seller. JR’s terms allow agency refunds within one year of issue, but the actual fee and deadline depend on the seller and option. After exchange, an unused pass can be refunded before its start date or within its validity period at designated exchange counters or Nippon Travel Agency branches handling exchange. The fee is 10% of the selling price, rounded down to the nearest JPY 10, with a minimum of JPY 220. A pass bought at a participating travel agency in Japan must instead be refunded at that selling branch under the same fee rule.

For a direct WEST-TR purchase, the refund fee is JPY 560 per person, regardless of the number of reserved trains. Before collection, cancel online before the first reserved train departs and within the service’s permitted operating hours on the start date. After collection, take an unused pass to a WEST-TR collection counter before the start date or during its validity; if you have reserved seats, the deadline is the departure time of the first reserved train. No refund is available after use begins or for service cancellations and delays.