Reservations for Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains during the summer holiday period have surged by more than 20 percent from last year.
Japan Railway group companies on Friday announced the number of bookings on bullet trains during the Bon holidays from August 9 to 18.
They say about 2.95 million seats have been reserved as of Thursday. They also say trains leaving Tokyo will likely be most crowded on August 10, and those bound for the capital will carry the most passengers on August 12.
The figure is up 22 percent from the same period a year earlier, and marks a 10-percent increase compared with 2018, before the coronavirus pandemic.
The average number of reserved seats per day, including some non-Shinkansen trains, is estimated at 370,000, the highest since records began in 1994.
Officials partly attribute the rise to travelers being less worried about the coronavirus. They also point out that all seats on the Nozomi trains that run on the Tokaido and Sanyo lines now require reservations.