Glenn Stewart comments

This is a foreign inflation rate applied to foreign tourists and will hurt Japanese tourism outside major centres.

Japan; a land of rules and low inflation.

This 70% price increase is best illustrated by the year that we'd need to go back to, it experience the same price incease - and that is 1977.

¥100 in 1977 is now

¥167.26 in 2023

This is not going to solve the problem it is aiming to solve.

I'm a frequent traveller to Japan who has used the pass well over 20 times (20+ return trips to Japan).

In the past 15 years I have seen a significant increase in tourism, with most of that being to Tokyo (which can absorb it) and Kyoto (which cannot absorb it). The Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Osaka is saturated at times.

But after thinking about this issue for months, it is my opinion this is NOT the solution and will dramatically backfire for JR.

This will not necessarily reduce tourism, but it will ensure that tourists only go to major centres.

For the small number of tourists who do use the rail pass and new price, they will move to Nozomi's taking essential seats away from Japanese who were able to use this service without additional competition.

This will significantly reduce tourism to small towns with reduced populations that require tourism to boost their economies.

I feel JR are applying an inflation rule application to only some foreign citizens, not basing this on Japanese inflation as noted above.

The pass in its current form is not sustainable, but I feel there is another way.

Solution?

Increase pass in line with Japanese inflation (as it always had) to prevent inadvertently applying one rule to foreigners and another to Japanese

Apply an additional charge on the Tokyo to Osaka part of the line - to discourage over tourism on this section

Promote other cities outside Kyoto and Tokyo to tourists when selling the JR pass. This could include example itineraries.