Staring down a S$5.45 billion loss for the current year ending March 2021, the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is offering travellers the chance to snap up Shinkansen tickets on the cheap.

According to Bloomberg, this comes after a national government campaign — which included subsidies for transport, hotels, and attractions — aimed at encouraging domestic tourism fell short of giving a boost to the country's famed bullet train.

50 per cent off Shinkansen tickets

With passenger volumes down 74 per cent in August as compared to the year before, JR East decided to slash the price of its Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets in half.

The offer is only available when purchasing tickets directly from the JR East website and is also valid on some limited express train tickets.

The promotion started in August this year and will run until March 2021, this applies to all JR East Shinkansen lines except the Hokuriku Shinkansen’s Kagayaki and Hakutaka trains (for destinations like Toyama and Kanazawa), which will be half price only until Sep. 30, 2021.

According to Time Out, the discount will see a one-way Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Akita — usually ¥17,920 (S$231) — sell at ¥8,950 (S$115.50).

According to JR East — at the time of the discount's announcement in July — these are the Shinkansen routes that will be included in the promotion:

• Hayabusa: To/from Tokyo Station and Morioka (Iwate Prefecture)
• Hayabusa: Tokyo and Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto Station (Hokkaido)
• Yamabiko: Tokyo and Fukushima
• Nasuno: Tokyo and Nasushiobara (Tochigi)
• Komachi: Toyko and Akita
• Tsubasa: Tokyo and Shinjo (Yamagata)
• Toki: Tokyo and Jomo-Kogen (Gunma)
• Tanigawa: Tokyo and Niigata
• Asama: Tokyo and Nagano
• Kagayaki: Tokyo and Kanazawa (Ishikawa)
• Hakutaka: Tokyo and Itoigawa (Niigata)

These are the limited express trains that will be participating:

• Hitachi: Tokyo and Haranomachi/Soma/Watari/Iwanuma/Sendai
• Azusa: Tokyo and Haranomachi/Chino/Kami-Suwa/Matsumoto
• Kaiji: Tokyo and Kofu/Ryo
• Wakashio, Shinjuku-Wakashio: Tokyo and Oamishirasato/Ohara/Katsuura/Awa-Kamogawa
• Sazanami, Shinjuku-Sazanami: Tokyo and Goi/Anegasaki/Kisarazu/Kimitsu/Tateyama
• Shiosai: Tokyo and Sakura/Yachimata/Naruto/Yokaichiba/Asahi/Choshi
• Inaho: Tokyo and Tsuruoka/Amarume/Sakata)
• Nikko, Kinugawa, Spacia Kinugawa: Tokyo and Tobu-Nikko/Kinugawa Onsen

Do note that tickets must be purchased via the JR East website between 20 days and one month ahead of your date of departure.

Profitability a long way off

Yet the steep discounts are unlikely to provide a quick way back into the green for JR East.

Bloomberg reported that the high fixed costs of railway operators mean profitability will still be some distance away even after the pandemic is over.

Meanwhile, social media users have posted online about how empty the Shinkansen trains have been — even with the discount.

北海道新幹線開業後のGWは仙台は勿論盛岡でも乗客入れ替わりがあってそこから新函館北斗方面向かう人も多かったけど、今や盛岡出発後は閑古鳥。#新幹線半額 でもこれか。閑散期でも満席にするLCCの #イールドマネジメント が神すぎるだけか。 pic.twitter.com/HtIzvGOcUl

— kenzy＠マイルからJRE POINT乗換組 (@kenzy201) September 23, 2020

“After departing Morioka station, it’s deserted,” said one user according to Bloomberg, noting that the seats were usually filled up even in the off-season.

After closing its borders to foreigners for more than half a year, the Japanese government is now planning to welcome tourists back into the country in the first quarter of 2021.

Business and official travel has also resumed between Singapore and Japan since Sep. 18, 2020.

Business travel between Japan and South Korea is likely to resume soon too.

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Top image from Fikri Rasyid via Unsplash