Student Visa and JRpass

Hi there,

Your friends will be eligible for the Japan Rail Pass provided they are on a short stay holiday. As you are in Japan under a student visa however I'm afraid you will not be able to use the Japan Rail Pass.

If you want to travel with your friends you don't have a huge amount of alternatives as the JR Pass is a highly discounted ticket for foreign tourists. That said, you should consider these options:

• Seishin 18 kippu - (nationwide travel using JR except bullet trains)
• Student discounts 'Gakuwari'. If you are a student and can present a valid Gakuwari student discount card (issued by your academic institution) you should be able to get 20% off all JR travel of over 101km, and a further 10% if you book a return at the same time. This means you could get an effective 30% discount if you plan correctly.

You can read more about the eligibility criteria for the Japan Rail Pass here.

Hope this helps!