Due to Covid-19, inbound tourism has significantly decreased and there is no way to tell when restrictions will be lifted. In order to find new possibilities for traveling within Japan, JR EAST has decided to release the JR EAST Welcome Rail Pass 2020 and encourage foreign residents to use it to pay a visit to one (or more) of the six Tohoku prefectures. TW hosted six events at the JAPAN RAIL CAFE TOKYO inviting some Insider’s Club members to discover the richness of Honshu’s northern prefectures.
The JR EAST Welcome Rail Pass 2020 is a special limited discount pass available only to foreign passport holders (regardless of visa status). It allows unlimited travel on most JR East trains in the areas of Tokyo, Tohoku, Nagano, and Niigata, including the Shinkansen, for three consecutive days. Each event introduced the food and cultural experience of each prefecture and welcomed five participants from various cultural backgrounds and experiences living in Japan. One participant said: “I knew about JAPAN RAIL CAFE for the first time. I never knew about the JR EAST Welcome Rail Pass 2020, nor about a place like this where you could gather travel information about Japan in English.”
The event provided foreign residents in Japan with a chance to experience the culture of Tohoku and share their day on social media while also becoming interesting in traveling the country by train. JAPAN RAIL CAFE TOKYO will continue to be used by foreign residents and visitors to Japan as a “base and touchpoint” for their travels. It will continue to provide opportunities for the future growth of domestic tourism in Japan.
