Busta Shinjuku in Tokyo, which opened in 2016 amid a surge in the number of inbound visitors to Japan, is a success story in spreading the growth of express bus services across the nation.

Officially known as the Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal, located outside JR Shinjuku Station’s south exit, the facility integrates 19 bus stops that had previously dotted an area outside the station’s west exit. 

That improved the convenience of transfers between trains and buses. Busta Shinjuku now serves as a major gateway of eastern Japan with links to about 300 cities across the country. 

Transport ministry officials said that, as of the end of May, similar projects were under construction at seven sites, including in Sapporo and Niigata, and feasibility studies were in progress at 15 other sites, including in Sendai and Saitama’s Omiya district.

Those are all part of the “Busta” (bus terminal) program of the central government. 

“We can expect growth in the number of bus passengers if bus terminals continue to be developed around Japan,” a transport ministry official said. “And that will naturally result in more bus services being operated.” 

There are a total of at least 22 plans for new bus terminals offering mid- and long-distance bus service, including projects of smaller scales. 

Officials are hoping that availability of new bus terminals could create new demand for express bus services.

However, a shortage of drivers, is emerging as a roadblock to that rosy scenario. 

KOBE TERMINAL HURRYING TO CLIMB ABOARD

On a recent day, a crane was heard booming on a fenced-off land plot in a downtown area near Kobe Sannomiya Station in Kobe, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture. 

A high-rise building with 32 floors above the ground, which will house a bus terminal in its first through third floors, will be completed as early as sometime around fiscal 2027 on this plot of land, where a ward government office building and other edifices previously stood. 

The new building will also house, among other things, a commercial facility, a library, a hall and a hotel. 

The complex is designed to accommodate stranded people in its hall and elsewhere in the event of a major disaster. The bus terminal will also serve as a base for alternative transportation when railroad services are disrupted. 

“Bus stops are geographically distributed now,” said an official of the Kobe city government, which is in charge of the development project. “We hope our plan will help improve the convenience of transfers and also eliminate traffic congestion caused by buses being stopped on the street.” 

Kobe’s project is one of the many plans of the kind being worked out across Japan. 

Some bus terminals are being developed independently by businesses and local governments. 

For example, Keio Dentetsu Bus Co. operates Bus Terminal Tokyo Yaesu, which opened last September on basement levels outside the east exit of JR Tokyo Station, commonly known as the Yaesu exit. 

The prefectural and municipal governments of Osaka are floating a plan to develop a new bus terminal outside JR Shin-Osaka Station with a view to a future extension of the Chuo Shinkansen maglev train line, which is currently under construction along a stretch from Tokyo to Nagoya. 

Those projects are aimed at integrating bus stops that are currently distributed geographically around a train station and also at improving functions of the terminals, including installing a commercial facility so the complex can be used as a base for tourism. 

A growing number of express bus services are being operated in Japan, partly because expressway networks are expanding and also because more people are visiting the country from abroad. 

Central government figures show that some 14,000 express bus services were in operation per day in the pre-pandemic fiscal year of 2018, up 30 percent from a decade earlier. 

That has resulted in bus stops and passenger waiting rooms being flooded beyond capacity. Buses waiting in line have also begun to cause traffic congestion. 

Ryuichi Narisada, a bus industry expert who presides over an express bus marketing research institute, said a change in the tourism style partly accounts for the current rush to build new bus terminals. 

Groups riding tour buses, who would make the rounds of famous sightseeing spots alone, previously accounted for the majority of tourists. The spread of private tours, however, has since diversified their destinations. 

People have accordingly faced inconvenience in transferring to trains and to other buses and complained about their experiences on social media and elsewhere. 

Officials of major tourist destinations are therefore hoping that improved convenience, such as integration of bus stops in one location, could help attract more visitors. 

POOL OF DRIVERS AGING, SHRINKING

A shortage of bus drivers, however, is a conundrum that is shadowing the prospect of a need for more bus services in the future.

A record number of more than 30 bus operators from across Japan set up booths at a job fair held in Osaka in late May. The event was visited by about 150 would-be bus drivers, who listened to recruitment officers’ pitches, including on work conditions.

“Bus drivers are aging and many of them are approaching retirement age,” said an official with West Japan JR Bus Co., which had a booth at the venue. “The pool of them is only shrinking.”

The company, which is based in Osaka’s Abeno Ward, operates, for the most part, express buses. Slightly more than 10 percent of West Japan JR Bus’s workforce of drivers, or 50 to 60 of them, have left the company during the past several years, due partly to cutbacks in bus services during the novel coronavirus pandemic, the official said.

Drivers of express and other buses have not dropped sharply in number yet. Central government figures show their numbers have been hovering, largely unchanged, between 70,000 and 90,000 since fiscal 1990.

The average age of bus drivers at companies with 10 or more workers, however, rose seven years from 46.2 in 2006 to 53.4 in 2022.

The mean annual income of bus drivers was about 20 percent lower than the corresponding figure averaged across all industries in 2021.

“There is this preconceived negative image of a low-paying job that does not justify the heavy responsibility it involves,” a recruitment officer with a bus operator lamented.

A mass exit of bus drivers reaching retirement age could further aggravate the labor shortage in the years to come.

There are, in addition, an increasing number of operators of express buses.

Central government figures show that express bus operators grew in number from only five in fiscal 1965, when statistics were first available, to 371 in fiscal 2018, due partly to a succession of new market entries under deregulation measures.

The competition to hire drivers only intensified, as companies increased the number of their bus services amid a surge of inbound travelers.

That has resulted, in some cases, even in lost opportunities.

An official with Shinkikanko Co., an operator of night buses based in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, said the company has been unable to restore the bus services it cut during the COVID-19 pandemic because of a shortage of drivers, even though passenger numbers have rebounded considerably from a pandemic-related dip.

“We need to acquire drivers first before ever being able to increase the number of our services,” the official said.

To cope with the situation, employers are moving to recruit not only those who have experience in driving buses but also new graduates and women.

Ritz MC Inc., a recruitment consultancy based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, organized the Osaka job fair to recruit new drivers. 

“Employers should foster an atmosphere that encourages novices to develop a desire to be bus drivers and have corresponding communication skills,” said Mie Nakashima, president of Ritz MC, who also heads the Woman Bus Driver Association. “They also have to impose strict educational programs to ensure safe driving.”