Prices and conditions were checked on 23 and 24 October 2026 against official information from rail companies, airports and other providers, and public booking site screens. Prices change. Check each provider’s official page before booking or buying. The rupee figures are estimates calculated using the Reserve Bank of India’s reference rate (this is not financial advice).
A week in Japan. Search for the cost and you may find a package “from 100,000 Indian rupees (INR) per person” or guidance giving a range “up to 300,000 rupees per person”. How much should you prepare?
The answer is not in someone else’s total. The room you stay in, the train you take and the places you eat can change the cost of the same seven days dramatically. So this article does not give one total. Instead, it divides what you pay within Japan into seven boxes that you can add up for your own itinerary.
The answer first — this is our short answer
Stop searching for a total. Set the flight aside and add up your costs within Japan in seven boxes. This is how we would do it.
- Accommodation How many nights, in which cities, and how many people in a room
- Between cities Shinkansen journeys from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka
- Within cities Subways and trains
- Airport to accommodation Train or car
- Connectivity An eSIM or similar, for each phone
- Food How many meals each day and what kinds of places
- Activities How many observation decks, temples, theme parks or other places you enter
The order matters too. Your choice of accommodation alone can make a big difference. So we start there, then work out the shinkansen. Once those two are set, you can fill in the remaining boxes later.
One more thing: If your trip is only Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, we would not buy a nationwide JR Pass in advance. Buying the shinkansen journeys separately costs less (see “Between cities” below).
Add it up — one example
Here is what it looks like. These figures are an example of one itinerary. They are neither an average nor the lowest possible cost.
Example itinerary: Two adults, one room, six nights and seven days. Arrive at Haneda Airport, stay three nights in Tokyo, take the shinkansen to Osaka and stay three nights there (with day trips to Kyoto and Nara), then take the shinkansen back to Tokyo and fly home from Haneda.
| Box | What the example adds | For two people | Rupee estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation | Tokyo: 13,805 yen per night × 3 nights + Osaka: 8,756 yen per night × 3 nights (examples from a booking site’s screen on a particular day, one room for two people) | 67,683 yen | ₹40,941 |
| Between cities | Tokyo ⇔ Shin-Osaka shinkansen, return trip, 29,440 yen × 2 people | 58,880 yen | ₹35,617 |
| Within cities | Tokyo Subway Ticket, 72 hours, 2,000 yen × 2 people + three-day JR pass in Kansai, 3,000 yen × 2 people | 10,000 yen | ₹6,049 |
| Airport to accommodation | Monorail from Haneda Airport (Terminal 3) to Hamamatsucho, 520 yen × outward and return journeys × 2 people | 2,080 yen | ₹1,258 |
| Connectivity | Seven-day eSIM, 4,350 yen × 2 phones | 8,700 yen | ₹5,263 |
| Total so far | 147,343 yen (about 73,700 yen per person) | ₹89,128 (about ₹44,600 per person) | |
| Food | Your figure (work it out under “Food” below) | ____ yen | |
| Activities | Your figure (work it out under “Activities” below) | ____ yen |
The accommodation calculation assumes the same nightly price for all three nights. In practice, it changes with the date. The rupee figures use the Reserve Bank of India’s reference rate for 23 October 2026 (100 yen = 60.49 rupees). This differs from the actual rate when paying by card (see “Thinking in rupees” below).
The value of this table is not its total. It shows how much the total changes when you change a box. Even for the same date in Tokyo, the first 20 properties with prices in the listings ranged from 10,932 yen to 63,002 yen per night. Accommodation choice alone can change the cost of three nights by around 150,000 yen.
Accommodation — a box that can change a lot. Price depends on date, people and room
Accommodation prices depend on the dates, number of people and kind of room. There is no single answer to “How much is a night in Japan?”
For example, on Agoda’s public search screen without logging in, we saw the following (checked on 24 October 2026; listings in the default “match with your conditions” order):
- Tokyo One night from Tuesday, 8 December 2026; two adults; one room → among the first 20 properties displaying prices, 10,932–63,002 yen per night (displayed prices including taxes and service charges)
- Osaka One night from Friday, 11 December 2026; two adults; one room → among the first 19 properties displaying prices, 6,384–30,406 yen per night
These are all examples from the screen on that day. Some prices carried sale labels. Some properties carried a “promoted listing” label, which the screen said meant Agoda received an additional fee and that this affected the order of listings. Move the date by one day and both the order and the prices change. Enter the price you find for your own dates in the table.
Keep two things in mind.
- Is the price per room or per person? The example above is for two adults in one room. If your family has three or four people, check each property’s room capacity for your group (“Places to Stay in Japan Come in 4 Types”)
- Accommodation tax. Some cities charge it separately from the room price. Check whether it is included on the booking screen; if not, pay it at the accommodation (“Paying for Your Stay”)
If you are unsure which part of Tokyo to stay in, see “Where to Stay in Tokyo on Your First Trip”.
See places to stay in Tokyo on Agoda (affiliate link)
See places to stay in Osaka on Agoda (affiliate link)
Between cities — buy shinkansen journeys separately; do not buy a nationwide JR Pass first
A one-way ordinary-class reserved seat on the Nozomi shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka costs 14,720 yen (adult, regular season, the “current” price in JR Central and JR West’s announcement of 16 October 2026). Kyoto is a stop between them.
A nationwide JR Pass costs 50,000 yen for seven days (adult, ordinary class, bought on the official JAPAN RAIL PASS site). Bought through a designated overseas agent or similar, it costs 53,000 yen, which is 3,000 yen more. A Tokyo–Osaka return costs 29,440 yen, so if you are only visiting Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, buying journeys separately costs less. For a more detailed comparison, see “Is the JR Pass Worth It?”.
If you extend your trip to Hiroshima or beyond, the calculation changes. Then compare the pass price with the prices of the journeys you will take.
The Nozomi reserved-seat price rises for purchases from 1 July 2027 (Tokyo–Shin-Osaka: 15,420 yen). If you buy on or after 1 July 2027, replace the table figure accordingly.
Within cities — unlimited subway rides in Tokyo, three days of JR trains in Kansai
For travel within a city, it can be easier to estimate with an unlimited-ride ticket than to add individual fares.
- Tokyo → “Tokyo Subway Ticket” covers all Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway lines: adult 24 hours 1,000 yen; 48 hours 1,500 yen; 72 hours 2,000 yen. Travellers visiting from outside Japan can buy it
- Kansai → “Kansai Mini Pass” covers JR trains in places including Kyoto, Osaka and Nara for three days: adult 3,000 yen (shinkansen separate)
Both tickets cover only the specified operators. Add Tokyo JR trains, Osaka subways and any other travel outside their coverage separately.
Airport to accommodation — Haneda is a few hundred yen by train; Narita costs more
The airport you arrive at changes this box.
- Haneda (Terminal 3) → Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsucho: 520 yen (onward trains separate)
- Narita → Narita Express to Tokyo Station: 3,140 yen (ordinary class)
- Taxi from Narita → Narita Airport’s fixed taxi fare is 29,000 yen to areas including Chuo and Chiyoda wards, or 31,500 yen to areas including Shinjuku and Shibuya (both via Keiyo Road; expressway charges separate; surcharge from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.)
“Airport to City by Train in Japan” covers which train to take from each airport.
If you have many people or bags, or arrive late at night, you can arrange a car in advance instead of taking the train. If you are unsure which way to go, see “Airport to the City in Japan: Train, Bus or Taxi?”. For an airport pickup where someone waits at arrivals holding a sign with your name, see “Book an Airport Pickup in Japan Where Your Driver Waits With Your Name on a Sign”.
Connectivity — count each phone
A travel eSIM is priced per phone. For example, Airalo’s Japan eSIM showed a seven-day plan labelled “Unlimited” for 4,350 yen (public screen on 24 October 2026, without logging in, prices shown in yen). If two people each use their own phone, count two plans.
If you are choosing between an eSIM, SIM card and pocket Wi-Fi, see “eSIM, SIM Card or Pocket Wi-Fi for Japan?”. Pocket Wi-Fi may suit a family connecting several devices.
Food — no average; count meals each day and the kind of place
Food is a box with a wide range from person to person. So we do not give an average. Instead, work it out like this.
Food = meals per day × price for that kind of restaurant × number of days
You can find a price for a kind of restaurant on the menu of a place you want to visit. For example, at Marugame Seimen, a Sanuki udon chain, the official menu lists a regular kake udon at 440 yen (including tax; the price may vary by branch). Look up and enter your own figures for neighbourhood diners, set-meal restaurants and restaurant dinners.
If you do not eat meat or fish, or want to avoid dashi as well, preparing a way to explain that when ordering can make choosing a restaurant easier (“Allergy Card for Japan (Allergies, Vegetarian, Halal)”). For what “vegetarian” means at restaurants in Japan and what to watch for with Jain food, see “Vegetarian and Jain food in Japan”.
Some places to eat do not accept cards. Work out how much cash to carry with “How Much Cash Do You Need in Japan?”.
Activities — add the price for each place, for each person
Observation decks, temples, museums, theme parks: add this box one place and one person at a time.
For example, the Tokyo Skytree observation deck starts at 1,800 yen for an adult (official information; buying at the fourth-floor counter or ticket machine adds a fee of 500 yen per ticket). For places such as theme parks where prices vary by date, check the official price for the day you will visit.
Write down three places you want to visit and add their prices. That fills this box.
Thinking in rupees — 1 lakh (100,000 rupees) is about 165,300 yen
The rupee figures in this article use the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reference rate for 23 October 2026: 100 yen = 60.49 rupees (checked again on the RBI page on 24 October, Japan time; it was the latest rate at that point).
At that rate, 1 lakh (100,000 rupees) is about 165,300 yen. If you wonder whether 1 lakh is enough, compare it with the yen total you have added up in the table.
This is only an estimate. When you pay by card, exchange money or withdraw yen from an ATM, card issuers’ and exchange providers’ rates and fees apply, so the amount will differ. Exchange rates change daily; recalculate with the rate for the day as your departure approaches.
Rupee cash and cards — get yen from a Japanese ATM using a card with the right logo
Here is a brief account of only what we could verify (from official guidance issued by the relevant organisations, checked on 23 and 24 October 2026).
- Do not assume you can exchange rupees for yen after arriving in Japan; prepare a card or yen before departure. Indian rupees were not on the lists of currencies handled by the Haneda Airport exchange counter, the convenience store (FamilyMart) exchange machine or the station (Keihan Railway) exchange machine that we checked. Also, under Indian rules, a person resident in India may take no more than 25,000 rupees in cash out of the country per person (Reserve Bank of India)
- If you buy and carry foreign currency banknotes such as US dollars, the limit is US$3,000 per trip. Carry any amount above that in a foreign currency prepaid card or similar (Reserve Bank of India)
- To withdraw yen from a Japanese ATM, check the logos on your card. Seven Bank ATMs accept cards bearing logos including VISA, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Discover, Diners Club and UnionPay (for overseas cards, up to 100,000 yen per withdrawal; Seven Bank says some cards may not work despite bearing a logo, and fees vary by card brand). Neither Seven Bank nor Japan Post Bank named RuPay in its guidance on cards usable at its ATMs. If you are taking a RuPay card, check before departure whether it also bears one of the logos listed above
- On entering Japan, you must declare cash and similar items worth more than 1 million yen (including foreign currency) to customs (Japan Customs)
For ways to prepare yen, see “How Much Cash Do You Need in Japan?” and “How to Withdraw Cash (Yen) at a Convenience Store ATM in Japan”.
What this article does not include
- Flights. Their prices vary greatly with your departure city, date and baggage conditions, so they are outside this calculation. Add the fare you find for your own conditions separately from the table
- Costs of pre-departure procedures and insurance
- Shopping and souvenirs
Before you go, just these things
- Decided how many nights, which cities and how many people in a room
- Searched accommodation for those dates and entered the per-room price in the table (and checked whether accommodation tax is included)
- Listed your shinkansen journeys and added the prices for each journey (if it is only Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, do not buy a nationwide JR Pass first)
- Decided how to get from your arrival airport (Haneda or Narita) to your accommodation
- Counted an eSIM for each phone
- Added food as “meals × kind of restaurant” and activities as “places entered × people”
- If thinking in rupees, recalculated using the rate for that day
Once you have added everything, the question changes from “Do I have enough?” to “Which box can I change to make it fit?” That is the aim of this article.
More details
- Choosing a Tokyo neighbourhood → “Where to Stay in Tokyo on Your First Trip”
- Costs outside the accommodation price → “Paying for Your Stay”
- Which train to take from the airport to the city → “Airport to City by Train in Japan”
- eSIM, SIM or Wi-Fi → “eSIM, SIM Card or Pocket Wi-Fi for Japan?”
- How much cash you need → “How Much Cash Do You Need in Japan?”
- Whether to buy a JR Pass → “Is the JR Pass Worth It?”
- How to get from the airport to the city → “Airport to the City in Japan: Train, Bus or Taxi?”
