How Much Is a Flight to Japan (2026 Data)

A round-trip ticket from the United States to Japan costs about $1,089¹ on average right now. By month, the average round trip runs from $918¹ in February to $1,377¹ in December, and by departure city the Tokyo average runs up to $1,591¹ from Dallas. The spread in those numbers is the whole story of flying to Japan: where you start, when you go and how far ahead you book move the price more than any sale.

A record 3.31 million² Americans arrived in Japan in 2025, almost twice the 2019 total, while the number of passengers on nonstop US-Japan flights is still below its 2019 level.³ Below: current fares by US city, month, weekday and booking window, the taxes built into every ticket, 36 years of official traffic data, the airports and airlines that carry the load, and where Americans go once they land.

The average fare to Japan in 2026

Round trips from the US to Japan averaged $1,089¹ in current fare searches in early November 2026, counting every US departure airport and every Japanese arrival airport together, and fares were running about the same as a year earlier.¹ The period behind that average is not stated, it mixes cabin classes and it is a snapshot, not a promise of what the next search will show. Over the past 12 months most round trips fell between $877¹ and $1,573¹, and anything below that range counts as a good deal.¹

How much is a flight to Tokyo?

Tokyo's two airports handle 91.5%⁴ of passengers on nonstop US-Japan flights, and round trips from the US to Tokyo averaged $1,152¹ over the past 12 months. That figure covers a full year and both Tokyo airports, so it is not directly comparable with the country average above. A fare under $867¹ is in the cheapest quarter of Tokyo prices, which makes it a good benchmark for a deal.¹ The same threshold is $946¹ for Osaka and $1,043¹ for Okinawa.

Tokyo is the cheapest place to land, if only just: Sapporo's New Chitose airport averages $1,153¹, although it had almost no nonstop US flights in 2025, and Osaka, Japan's second gateway, $1,188¹. Okinawa is the most expensive at $1,318¹, ahead of Nagoya at $1,248¹ and Fukuoka at $1,220¹.¹ The table adds what counts as a good price and the best and worst times for each city.

Two patterns stand out. January or February is the cheapest month for all six cities, and June or December is the most expensive for five of them (Fukuoka peaks in July); Okinawa's December average reaches $1,789¹. Leaving it late is a gamble that depends on the city: last-minute Okinawa fares run 10%¹ below the city average, but Nagoya's run 62%¹ above it.¹

By arrival airport, the cheapest average goes to Okayama at $992¹, followed by Tokyo Narita at $1,037¹ and Kobe at $1,088¹; Tokyo Haneda is not among the six cheapest airports.¹

Okayama, Kobe, Hakodate and Sendai have no nonstop flights from the US, so their fares are for trips with at least one stop. Airport averages come from a different part of the fare pages than the city averages above, built from a different set of prices, so read each chart on its own: within a chart the ranking is what matters.¹ The arrival city matters, but less than one might expect. The bigger lever sits at the other end of the flight.

Where you fly from sets the price

The same trip to Tokyo costs about twice as much from some US cities as from others. Honolulu is cheapest at $779¹ on average over the past 12 months, followed by San Jose ($869¹), Los Angeles ($951¹) and Portland ($969¹). At the other end, Dallas averages $1,591¹ and Atlanta $1,512¹.¹ A Dallas round trip costs 2.04⁴ times one from Honolulu.

Distance is part of it: eight cities in the Pacific states, Alaska and Hawaii included, average $998⁴, eight East Coast cities $1,411⁴. Nonstop service is not a guarantee of a low price. Dallas had 462,368³ nonstop passengers to and from Japan in 2025 and is the priciest origin, while Las Vegas, with only 4,059³, averages $989¹.¹

By region, the Mountain West sits in the middle: Phoenix $1,228¹, Salt Lake City $1,236¹, Denver $1,371¹. The Midwest is a little dearer, with Chicago at $1,396¹, Detroit at $1,372¹ and Minneapolis-St. Paul at $1,272¹. The South is split: Austin ($1,210¹) and Houston ($1,281¹) are cheaper than Miami ($1,442¹), Atlanta and Dallas.¹

The usual range around each average is wide. From Dallas, most round trips fall between $1,133¹ and $2,221¹, a spread of $1,088⁴; from Honolulu, between $617¹ and $1,007¹. Anything under the low end counts as a good deal on that route, so the same ticket price can be a bargain from one city and ordinary from another: $1,100 is below the usual range from Dallas but inside it from Los Angeles ($744¹ to $1,307¹). Several cities with little or no nonstop service sit mid-table: Austin at $1,210¹, Salt Lake City at $1,236¹ and Anchorage at $1,180¹ all average less than New York ($1,343¹), whose JFK airport had 697,941³ nonstop passengers to and from Japan in 2025.¹

Nonstop or with a stop?

A connection usually saves money, though not everywhere. On 14⁴ of the 16 routes priced both ways, a trip via the cheapest connecting airport of the past three months averages less than a nonstop. From Boston, a nonstop round trip averages $1,974¹ and a trip via the cheapest connection $966¹, $1,008⁴ less. From Dallas the gap is $1,070⁴; from Washington, D.C., $840⁴.

It is much smaller where nonstops are plentiful: $227⁴ from San Francisco and $230⁴ from Honolulu.¹ The cheapest connections from San Francisco run via Honolulu and from Washington via Seoul (Incheon), which adds hours; the saving is the price of that time.¹ The two exceptions are Anchorage, where a nonstop averages $997¹ against $1,111¹ with a connection, and Orlando, $664¹ nonstop against $1,024¹; neither city had regular nonstop flights to Japan in 2025.¹ Los Angeles is left out of the comparison: its connecting average of $149¹ is not a plausible round-trip fare to Tokyo.

In the middle of the country the connection discount is large too: from Denver a nonstop averages $1,456¹ and a connection $807¹, from New York $1,424¹ against $834¹, and from Chicago $1,451¹ against $928¹. Even from Seattle, with its short nonstop, a connection averages $597¹ against $1,051¹.¹

Booking at the last minute

Waiting rarely pays. On all 20 routes with a figure, tickets booked within two weeks of departure cost more than the route average: 2%¹ more from Miami and Portland, but 54%¹ more from Minneapolis-St. Paul and 26%¹ more from Salt Lake City.¹

One-way tickets right now

One-way fares are a separate market, and in early November 2026 they were unusually low on most routes to Tokyo: below their typical level on 22⁴ of the 26 routes with a figure. From New York a one-way ticket averaged about $478¹, 32%¹ below normal, and from Los Angeles about $371¹, 27%¹ below. Salt Lake City ($1,287¹, 102%¹ above its usual level) and Philadelphia ($1,120¹, 54%¹ above) were the furthest above.¹ These prices move from week to week.

From where to when: the calendar moves the price almost as much as the map.

The cheapest time to fly to Japan

February is the cheapest month to fly from the US to Japan, with round trips averaging $918¹, and January is almost the same at $921¹. December is the most expensive at $1,377¹, 1.50⁴ times the February price, followed by June at $1,360¹. Late summer and early autumn are relatively cheap: August and September average $1,094¹ and $1,057¹, well below March at $1,203¹ and May.¹

These monthly figures are averages of round-trip prices over the past 12 months, with extreme outliers removed. They come from a different part of the fare page than the $1,089¹ headline, so the two are not subtracted from each other: the headline says what a typical fare looks like now, the months say which part of the year is cheap.¹

Outside the peaks, prices move in a middle band: April ($1,090¹), August, September, October ($1,153¹) and November ($1,148¹) all sit between $1,050 and $1,160, while May ($1,259¹) and July ($1,281¹) are closer to the peaks. Tokyo alone follows the same shape: over the past 12 months its round trips averaged $907¹ in January, $1,362¹ in December and $1,345¹ in June.¹

The pattern holds city by city. Of the 24 US cities with a cheapest month for Tokyo, 20⁴ have it in January or February, and 19⁴ of 25 have their most expensive month in June or December. The exceptions are on the West Coast, in Hawaii and in Washington, D.C.: Los Angeles is cheapest in September at $738¹, Washington in September too, and Honolulu and San Jose in April.¹ The seasonal swing is large from the priciest cities: from Dallas, January averages $1,098¹ and December $2,085¹, almost double; from Atlanta, $1,031¹ against $1,885¹; from Honolulu, only $641¹ against $922¹.¹

Which day of the week

Weekday choice is worth a smaller but reliable saving. Across Japan, Tuesday is the cheapest departure day at $1,174¹ and Saturday the most expensive at $1,339¹, about 12%⁴ less on a Tuesday.¹ City by city, Saturday is the most expensive departure day for 12⁴ of the 26 cities and Friday for 9⁴ more; a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday departure is cheapest for 21⁴. From Los Angeles, a Friday departure averages $1,091¹ against $946¹ on a Tuesday, a $145⁴ difference. For Sapporo the gap is wider, $999¹ on a Tuesday against $1,311¹ on a Friday.¹

The weekend premium starts on Thursday ($1,253¹) and peaks on Friday and Saturday; Sunday ($1,208¹) is close to the early-week days.¹ The table shows the cheapest and dearest day for each departure city.

Time of day and how far ahead to book

Night departures to Japan are the cheapest, at $1,185¹ round trip on average, and morning departures the most expensive, at $1,266¹. Afternoon and evening flights sit in between, and a morning departure costs $81⁴ more than a night one on average.¹ The best time differs by city: for Tokyo, evening flights average $1,154¹ and morning flights $1,262¹, while for Osaka night departures are cheapest at $1,191¹ and evening ones the dearest at $1,285¹.¹

Booking early pays, up to a point. Averaged week by week over the past 12 months, the lowest price came 20¹ weeks before departure, at $1,115¹, and fares stayed close to that level from 26 to about 18 weeks out. From there they climb, to $1,266¹ in the final week, $151⁴ more than at the cheapest point.¹ Booking four to six months ahead is the safe window; the last few weeks are the most expensive.

Whatever the date or the city, one part of every fare is not the airline's to set.

Taxes and fees inside a Japan ticket

Every round trip from the US to Japan carries a fixed layer of government charges. On the US side, the international transportation tax is $23.40⁵ on departure and again on arrival in 2026, plus the September 11 security fee of $5.60⁶, the customs arrival fee of $7.61⁷, the immigration user fee of $7.00⁸ and the agricultural inspection fee of $3.98⁹: $70.99⁴ in all; the customs and agricultural fees rose on October 1, 2026, with the new federal fiscal year. The security fee is charged once, on the leg that starts in the US.⁶ For travel in 2027 the international transportation tax rises to $24.10¹⁰ each way. The customs and agricultural fees apply to the arrival back in the US.^{7 9}

Japan adds its own. The International Tourist Tax, charged on every departure from Japan, tripled on July 1, 2026, from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000¹¹, about $19.05⁴ at the late-October 2026 rate of 157.47¹⁴ yen per dollar.¹¹ Tickets issued on or before June 30, 2026 still pay the old rate, and infants under 2 are exempt; airlines add the tax to the ticket price.¹¹ At the same rate the old tax was $6.35⁴, so the increase adds about $12.70⁴ to every ticket; for a family of four flying on adult tickets, the tax alone is now ¥12,000, about $76.20⁴. Leaving from Narita's Terminals 1 and 2 adds ¥3,160¹² in facility and security charges ($20.07⁴), and leaving from Haneda's international terminal ¥2,950¹³ ($18.73⁴).

Together these come to about $110.11⁴ for a round trip returning from Narita, 10.1%⁴ of the $1,089¹ average fare. Airline surcharges are not in this total.

Children pay less at the Japanese end: the Narita charges are ¥1,940¹² for a child aged 2 to 11 and the Haneda charge ¥1,470¹³. Departing from Narita's Terminal 3 costs ¥2,070¹² instead of the Terminal 1-2 charges for an adult.

The yen matters for everything after the flight. A dollar bought 149.57¹⁵ yen on average in 2025, against 79.82¹⁵ in 2012, so the same yen prices cost an American 53%⁴ of what they did then. Even against 2019 (109.02¹⁵ yen), a dollar bought 37.2%⁴ more yen in 2025. The weak yen has coincided with the surge in American visitors shown below.¹⁵

Cheap yen, full planes: the traffic numbers show how the market has answered.

How many people fly between the US and Japan

At least 10.15 million³ passengers flew nonstop between US and Japanese airports in 2025, counting both directions and all nationalities. That is 93.9%⁴ of the 10.81 million³ of 2019 and 66.6%⁴ of the all-time high of 15.25 million³ in 2000. In 2021 the route carried only 806,293³ people, 7.5%⁴ of the 2019 level.³ The 2025 total is a floor: Japan Airlines' July 2025 flights are missing from the release.

The long-run line is flat to slightly falling, which can surprise anyone who has heard about record tourism. Traffic through the Pacific resorts has shrunk: Guam handled 1,011,789³ Japan passengers in 2019 and 633,637³ in 2025, and Honolulu fell too (see below). American travel to Japan, by contrast, has boomed.²

The series has absorbed four shocks. After the 2000 peak, traffic fell to 13.10 million³ in 2001 and 11.25 million³ in 2003; the recession year 2009 brought 10.28 million³; 2011, the year of the Tohoku earthquake, 10.20 million³; and the pandemic cut it to 806,293³ in 2021. The recovery since has been quick: 8.24 million³ in 2023, 9.51 million³ in 2024 and at least 10.15 million³ in 2025.³ The straight-line trend reaches about 8.1 million passengers by 2050, with a wide range; it is our calculation, not a forecast.³

The number of flights tells the same story: 50,259¹⁶ nonstop passenger departures in 2025, about 138⁴ a day across both directions, or roughly 69⁴ each way, against 62,860¹⁶ at the 2000 peak.¹⁶ The planes have changed too. The average flight carried 202.0⁴ passengers in 2025, after 247.8⁴ in 1997 and a low of 193.6⁴ in 2017. In 2021 flights kept running with an average of only 37.7⁴ passengers aboard.^{3 16} The straight-line trend of 1990-2025 falls to about 155 passengers per flight by 2050, with a wide range; it is our calculation, not a forecast.

Traffic has a clear but moderate season. In 2024, the last complete year in the data, the busiest month was August with 865,456³ passengers and the quietest February with 648,466³; March carried 837,664³.³ In 2019 the peak was August with 1,020,447³ and the low February with 788,457³. The busiest month carried about a third more passengers than the quietest in both years. The quiet months are the cheap months: February also has the lowest average fare of the year.¹

The first half of 2026 is ahead of 2025. From January to June, 5.22 million³ passengers flew nonstop between the US and Japan, 4.1%⁴ more than the 5.02 million³ of the same months of 2025, with Japan Airlines reporting every month.³ March 2026 was the busiest month of the half, at 968,376³; every month was above the same month of 2025.

Where do these passengers board, and on which airlines do they cross the Pacific?

Gateways, airports and airlines

Honolulu is still the largest US gateway to Japan, with 2.06 million³ passengers in 2025, but it has shrunk by 36.2%⁴ since 2019, when it handled 3.22 million³. Los Angeles, at 1.95 million³, grew 26.3%⁴ over the same years and San Francisco 54.6%⁴: less resort traffic through Hawaii, more traffic through the mainland gateways. Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco together handled 51.2%⁴ of all US-Japan passengers.³

Some gateways have all but disappeared. Kona, on Hawaii's Big Island, had 159,562³ Japan passengers in 2019 and 20³ in 2025; Portland had 109,335³ and now 4³. Others grew: New York JFK from 521,801³ to 697,941³, Newark from 209,212³ to 319,651³ and Seattle from 438,465³ to 539,123³, while Detroit fell from 267,916³ to 182,127³.³

Haneda has overtaken Narita

On the Japanese side the change is even sharper. In 2019 Tokyo Narita handled 7.06 million³ US-Japan passengers and Tokyo Haneda 1.89 million³. By 2025 Haneda had 5.40 million³, 2.86⁴ times its 2019 figure, and Narita 3.89 million³, down 44.8%⁴. Haneda alone now takes 53.2%⁴ of the traffic, and the two Tokyo airports together 91.5%⁴.³

Outside Tokyo the losses are steep. Osaka's Kansai airport handled 1,188,652³ US-Japan passengers in 2019 and 654,735³ in 2025, and Nagoya's Chubu 474,721³ and 147,669³; Fukuoka fell from 116,308³ to 55,746³. In 2025, 35⁴ airport pairs carried at least 10,000 passengers.³

The busiest single route is Los Angeles to Haneda, with 1,108,301³ passengers in 2025, followed by Honolulu to Haneda (902,195³) and Los Angeles to Narita (736,391³). New York JFK to Haneda carried 693,955³.³

Airlines have moved whole routes from Narita to Haneda. From Los Angeles, 1,108,301³ passengers flew via Haneda in 2025 against 524,171³ in 2019. Seattle, Dallas and Washington Dulles had almost no Haneda traffic in 2019 and 323,464³, 300,010³ and 270,984³ passengers in 2025, while New York JFK's Narita traffic fell from 262,009³ to 2,407³. Houston and San Francisco still send more passengers to Narita than to Haneda.³ Honolulu is the only US gateway with nonstop flights to five Japanese airports (Haneda, Narita, Kansai, Chubu and Fukuoka); most mainland gateways serve only Tokyo.³

Flights from Hawaii and Guam

Hawaii has the shortest nonstop flights to Japan, about 9 hours 24 minutes from Honolulu to Tokyo, and the cheapest fares: Honolulu's Tokyo average is $779¹, and a Honolulu trip via the cheapest connection averages $552¹ against $782¹ nonstop.¹ Their route maps have thinned, though. Honolulu to Narita carried 1,643,631³ passengers in 2019 and 719,249³ in 2025, and Honolulu to Osaka Kansai fell from 748,171³ to 286,633³. Only Honolulu to Haneda grew, doubling to 902,195³. From Guam, the Narita route fell from 695,176³ to 393,233³, while a new Guam-Haneda route carried 90,018³.

Kona's routes to Narita and Haneda, with 94,971³ and 64,591³ passengers in 2019, carried only 10³ and 8³ in 2025. Honolulu to Sapporo and Guam to Fukuoka, both running in 2019, had no passengers in 2025.³

How long the flight takes

The shortest nonstops leave from Hawaii and the West Coast: about 9 hours 24 minutes from Honolulu to Tokyo, 10 hours 31 minutes from Seattle and 12 hours 1 minute from Los Angeles. From the East Coast a nonstop takes about 14 hours 32 minutes from New York and 14 hours 29 minutes from Atlanta.¹ Flight time and fare line up only loosely: Seattle's Tokyo average ($1,027¹) is above Los Angeles' ($951¹) despite the shorter flight, and Denver's nonstop is about as long as Los Angeles' but its fare ($1,371¹) is far higher.¹

The airlines

United Airlines carried the most US-Japan passengers in 2025, 2.46 million³, ahead of Japan Airlines (2.25 million³, without July) and ANA (2.20 million³). ZIPAIR, a Japanese airline that first appears in the data in December 2020, carried 0.53 million³.³ In 2019 the order was different: Japan Airlines (2.39 million³) narrowly led United (2.38 million³), with ANA third (2.11 million³).³ Four airlines, United, Japan Airlines, ANA and Delta, carried 78.3%⁴ of all passengers in 2025.³

Delta carried 1.04 million³ passengers in 2025, down from 1.62 million³ in 2019, and Hawaiian 702,373³, down from 844,937³. American grew from 730,953³ to 809,792³. Singapore Airlines, with 154,323³, is the only airline from outside the two countries with a sizable share.³

US and Japanese airlines now split the market almost exactly in half, 49.3%⁴ against 49.1%⁴. That balance is recent. In 2010 US airlines carried 64.2%⁴ of passengers; airlines from third countries held 6.8%⁴ in 2000 and only 1.6%⁴ now.³

The network itself has narrowed on the Japanese end. In 1993, 22⁴ Japanese airports had at least 1,000 nonstop US-Japan passengers over the year; in 2025 only 5⁴ did: Haneda, Narita, Kansai, Chubu and Fukuoka. The number of US gateways has moved less, from 16⁴ in 1990 to a high of 24⁴ in 2014, 2016 and 2017 and 22⁴ in 2025.³ Travelers to Sapporo and Okinawa connect: New Chitose had 303³ nonstop US passengers in 2025 and Naha 2³.

All those seats fill with a growing share of Americans.

Americans flying to Japan: record arrivals

Japan counted 3,306,820² visitors from the United States in 2025, a record, 1.92⁴ times the 1,723,861² of 2019 and 5.04⁴ times the 655,821² of 2003. Americans made up 7.75%² of all foreign visitors to Japan in 2025, the fourth-largest market after South Korea, China and Taiwan.¹⁷ The straight-line trend fitted to 2003-2025 points to about 4.7 million a year by 2050; the real rise since 2023 has been much steeper than that line, which is our calculation, not a forecast.

The climb started well before the pandemic. After a low of 565,887² in 2011, US arrivals passed one million for the first time in 2015, at 1,033,258², and reached 1,526,407² in 2018. The post-pandemic jump then added more than a million a year: 2,045,854² in 2023 and 2,724,594² in 2024.²

The US share of Japan's visitors has moved in the opposite direction to the headcount for most of the period. In 2003 Americans were 12.58%² of all foreign arrivals; by 2017 the share had fallen to 4.79%² as visitors from China, South Korea and Taiwan multiplied. Since the reopening it has recovered to 7.75%².² A straight line fitted to 2012-2025, the years since the share's long fall levelled out, stays near 8% through 2050, with a range from 0% to about 17%; it is our calculation, not a forecast. A line over all years since 2003 would reach 0%, which the recovery since 2019 does not support.

The boom is a leisure boom. Tourists made up 94.3%⁴ of US arrivals in 2025, 3,117,734¹⁷ people, against 58.7%⁴ in 2004. Business visitors fell to 120,041¹⁷, 44.5%⁴ fewer than in 2019.¹⁷ For fares, that mix matters: leisure travelers can move their dates to February or a Tuesday, which business travelers often cannot.

Americans arrive mostly in spring and early summer, and again in autumn. In 2025 the busiest month was June with 345,150² US visitors and March close behind with 342,752²; the quietest was January with 182,556².² Every month of 2025 was above the same month of 2019; January rose by about three quarters, from 103,191². The winter lull is the flip side of February's low fares.

2026 is running ahead again, but more slowly. From January to September, 2,522,797⁴ US visitors arrived, 5.2%⁴ more than in the same months of 2025; August and September are early estimates. March 2026, with 375,948² US arrivals, was the busiest month on record for American visitors to Japan.² Growth has slowed since spring: 13.8%⁴ in January and 14.8%⁴ in February, but 0.8%⁴ in April and 1.5%⁴ in the August estimate, and the September estimate of 217,500² is 3.2%⁴ below September 2025's 224,793², the first month of 2026 below the year before.

Where Americans stay after the flight

Hotels and inns in Japan recorded 17.2 million¹⁸ guest-nights by US residents in 2025, 11.2%⁴ of all foreign guest-nights. Tokyo alone had 8.4 million¹⁸, or 48.8%⁴; with Kyoto and Osaka the three account for 73.2%⁴.¹⁸ For most American travelers, then, the fares that matter are the ones into Tokyo and Osaka.

Outside the big three, Kanagawa (760,280¹⁸), Okinawa (728,840¹⁸), Chiba (656,300¹⁸) and Hokkaido (496,260¹⁸) lead, and Hiroshima, with 240,370¹⁸, comes next; at the other end, Tottori recorded 4,930¹⁸ US guest-nights.¹⁸ Americans stay in many places that have no direct flight from the US, so for most of them the Tokyo or Osaka fare is only the first leg.

What these numbers mean for your trip

For a family of four, the calendar alone is worth real money: four tickets at December's $1,377¹ average come to $5,508⁴, four at February's $918¹ average to $3,672⁴. Of any ticket, about $110.11⁴ per person is government taxes and airport charges that no sale can remove, $440.44⁴ for the family.

Geography sets the rest. The Tokyo average from Dallas is $640⁴ above the one from Los Angeles ($951¹), and Seattle ($1,027¹) and San Francisco ($1,045¹) are also far below Dallas and Atlanta, so pricing a separate domestic flight to the West Coast is worth a check. Travelers in Hawaii have the cheapest start of all.¹

The cheapest combination on this page stacks the patterns¹: a January or February departure, on a Tuesday, with one stop, into Narita rather than Haneda, booked four to six months ahead. None of these choices is free: a stop adds hours, and most flights now land at Haneda, which takes 53.2%⁴ of the traffic, not at Narita. Demand is still rising, though more slowly: US arrivals are 5.2%⁴ ahead of 2025 so far this year.² For a spring or early-summer trip, the numbers point to booking months ahead: March and June are among the busiest months for American arrivals, and last-minute fares on every route with a figure run above the route average, by as much as 54%¹ from Minneapolis-St. Paul.^{1 2}

How Japan compares with other destinations

Measured the same way, on current fares, Japan's $1,089¹ sits in the middle of long-haul trips from the US. Australia and Israel ($1,300¹ each) and New Zealand ($1,198¹) cost more; Europe's big destinations cost less, from Greece at $1,026¹ to Spain at $802¹. South Korea, next door, averages $1,184¹, $95⁴ more than Japan.¹

Within East and Southeast Asia, Japan is in the middle of the destinations shown.¹ China ($1,265¹) and South Korea cost more; the Philippines ($1,085¹), Vietnam ($1,083¹) and Singapore ($1,081¹) are within a few dollars of Japan, and Taiwan ($1,021¹) and Thailand ($1,048¹) cost a little less. Mexico, at $522¹, costs less than half as much as Japan.¹

Conclusions

1. Where you start and when you go can each double the price. Dallas ($1,591¹) costs 2.04⁴ times Honolulu ($779¹), and a December trip from Dallas ($2,085¹) costs 1.90⁴ times a January one ($1,098¹); the two effects stack.
2. The cheap season is the empty season. February has the lowest average fare ($918¹) and, in 2024, the fewest passengers (648,466³); December and June, the priciest months, are holiday and peak-arrival months, and June 2025 brought the most Americans (345,150²).
3. Americans fill seats that resort traffic left empty. US arrivals in Japan are 1.92⁴ times their 2019 level, yet total US-Japan passengers in 2025 were below 2019, as traffic through Hawaii and Guam has shrunk; Honolulu lost 36.2%⁴ of its Japan traffic.
4. Haneda is now the main door to Japan. With 5.40 million³ US-Japan passengers in 2025, against 3.89 million³ at Narita, most passengers now use Haneda, even though Narita ($1,037¹) is among the cheapest airports to fly into and Haneda is not.
5. A fixed $110.11⁴ per ticket is not negotiable. US and Japanese taxes and airport charges are about 10.1%⁴ of the average fare, and Japan's share tripled in July 2026.
6. Leisure now drives the route. Tourists were 94.3%⁴ of US arrivals in 2025 and business visitors fewer than in 2019; fares are dearest in December and June and cheapest in January and February, the pattern of holiday travel.^{17 1}