Profound luxury for travelers with deep pockets is coming later this year.

Back at the start of the year, Japan Railways/JR announced that come the fall, it’ll be adding private booths to the Shinkansen bullet train network. As we get closer to the launch of the new service, JR Central and JR West have now revealed a slew of new details, including pricing and when reservations will open.

The private booths will be called Supreme Class Cabins, and will be available on select bullet trains on the connected Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines, which run from Tokyo to Fukuoka with stops along the way including Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. This makes it one of the most popular routes for both tourists and business travelers in Japan, but the Supreme Class will represent the very pinnacle of Shinkansen luxury, with only two private cabins per train.

In Car 10 you’ll find the single-person Supreme Class Cabin, a fully enclosed private space with an electronically locking door that you open with either a QR code or the IC card you used when boarding the train. Inside is a far posher seat than what you’ll find in regular or even higher-tier Green Car Shinkansen seating.

In addition to a more pronounced possible reclining angle, the chair offers adjustable lumbar support, an extendable footrest, and even a heating function that you can set to your liking.

You also have control over your cabin’s air conditioning level, lighting intensity, and even the volume of conductor announcements, so if you want to dim the lights, turn down the volume, and maximize the relaxing mood, you can.

Other niceties include a dedicated wi-fi network just for Supreme Class passengers, an in-cabin luggage storage space, classy wooden fold-out table, and even a clothes hanger, since odds are if you’re traveling in style like this, you’re also traveling stylishly dressed with garments that you don’t want to get wrinkled en route.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Class Cabin in Car 7 is sized for two, with one chair and one cushiony sofa-style seat.

Supreme Class passengers will be served a complementary beverage and confectionary after boarding…

…and will also have exclusive access to a lineup of premium snacks and beverages that can be purchased, such as sake, high-end green tea, fruit smoothies, and scallops.

The first Supreme Class-equipped Shinkansen trains will run on October 1, and JR says that reservations will open on September 15. Initially, roughly 10 Shinkansen per day (a total of 10 trains running east or west along the route), from among Nozomi, Hikari, and Kodama express trains, will have Supreme Class cabins,

As you can probably guess, Supreme Class tickets aren’t going to be cheap. Prices will vary a few hundred yen one way or another depending on exact travel dates and reservation system used, but JR’s baseline prices for the one-person cabin are as follows:

● Between Tokyo and Nagoya Stations: 32,440 yen
● Tokyo/Shin Osaka: 42,100 yen
● Tokyo/Hiroshima: 59,640 yen
● Shin Osaka/Hakata: 49,910 yen

Meanwhile, the cost of a regular-class Shinkansen ticket for those rides would be 10,560, 13,870, 18,380, and 14,750, meaning that you’ll be paying roughly an extra 20,000 to 40,000 yen (US$125-US$250), or more than three times the cost of a standard bullet train ride.

Prices for the two-person Supreme Class cabin are higher still.

● Tokyo/Nagoya: 46,840 yen
● Tokyo/Shin Osaka: 60,500 yen
● Tokyo/Hiroshima: 86,240 yen
● Shin Osaka/Hakata: 72,510 yen

At first, that looks like it might be a much more attractive rate, on a per-person rate, than the single-passenger Supreme Class cabin, but there’s a catch. Shinkansen tickets have a complicated pricing structure in which you pay a base fare for the distance travelled between the two stations (which is standardized regardless of train type), a supplementary limited express fee for using a Shinkansen train, and then another supplementary fee if you’re traveling in anything other than a regular-class seat. The above-listed Supreme Class ticket prices include all three of those components, but in the case of the two-person cabin price, that’s only for one person. So your traveling companion who’s going to be sitting in there with you will also need to purchase a ticket to cover the base fare and Shinkansen limited-express fee, although they won’t need to pay the additional Supreme Class fee for their ticket. Adding in the standard-class Shinkansen prices mentioned above for the second passenger, the actual total cost for two people to use the two-passenger cabin would be:

● Tokyo/Nagoya: 57,400 yen
● Tokyo/Shin Osaka: 74,370 yen
● Tokyo/Hiroshima: 104,620 yen
● Shin Osaka/Hakata: 87,260 yen

After consulting your bank account, there’s one other little quirk to take into consideration. The way Shinkansen trains are laid out, the lowest-number car is always pointing west/towards Hakata, and the highest is always pointing east/towards Tokyo.

▼ Like this

Since the train can be driven from either end, after the Shinkansen gets to one end of the line, the seats are rotated 180 degrees to face the other way for the return trip. However, JR says that the seats in the Supreme Class cabins cannot be rotated. In the one-person cabin, the seat is always facing towards Tokyo, and in the two-person cabin the seat always faces towards Hakata and the sofa towards Tokyo. So depending on which route you’re taking, you might end up facing backwards (relative to the direction the train is moving in) for your entire Supreme Class ride.

▼ Diagram showing the Supreme Class cabins in Cars 7 (top) and 10 (bottom), with the square representing the chair and arrows pointing towards Hakata (博多) and Tokyo (東京)

In the above diagram, you might also have noticed six extra-large seats in a section in front of the Car 10 Supreme Class cabin. This is the planned location of yet another upcoming seating option, the Supreme Class Seat, which offers a luxurious seat in a semi-private, but not completely enclosed, section.

The non-private cabin Supreme Class Seats aren’t scheduled to become available until the spring of 2027, though.

Related: JR Central Supreme Class official website
Source: JR Central (1, 2, 3), JR West
Top image: JR Central
Insert images: JR Central (1, 2, 3), JR West
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