Tokyo Hidden Rule: Bus Fares Are Flat—No Distance-Based Pricing!

▲ Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bus, illustration. (Photo/Fromthe Tokyo Fan Club official page)

Text by Urban Life Research Project, excerpted from "Don’t Be Silly, This Is the Real Tokyo," published by Yamakei Publishing
Translator: Yu-Wen Hsu

Hidden Rule 13: [Bus fares don’t vary based on distance.]

Even if you've lived in Tokyo for a while and gotten used to trains, subways, and standard Japanese, you might still encounter a scary and dangerous mode of transport—buses.

Tokyo does have buses, but they're so inconspicuous you barely notice them. Just like in other prefectures, the primary bus riders in Tokyo are usually kids or elderly people.

In rural areas, anyone with a driver’s license tends to drive, and in the city, since trains are so convenient, the only people who use local public transport like buses are high school students commuting to school or elderly folks living nearby.

But if you ever find yourself having to take a bus,and don’t know how to ride one, you might run into some trouble...

In other prefectures, you usually board from the back door, take a fare ticket from a machine, and then pay based on the distance calculated when you exit at the front. That’s the straightforward method. But in Tokyo, if you’re from out of town and happen to be at the front of the line, you might instinctively board from the back—only to get a surprised look from everyone behind you as they head to the front door. That’s right,in Tokyo, buses almost always board from the front, and you pay when you get on.No matter how many stops you ride,you pay the same fare.If you’re new to riding buses in Tokyo and panic, spilling all your loose change from your wallet, not only will you look like a country bumpkin—you might even get yelled at!

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