More Korean budget airlines are offering service to Japan’s airports, including Kansai International (KIX). This could mean cheaper airfares to and from Japan if you are willing to go through Korea. The airport in Seoul is really nice so that should not be a big problem if you are willing to have a long layover.
- Air Busan will be flying between Busan and Fukuoka starting in March. Air Busan is affiliated with Asiana which flies internationally out of Korea so this could be a great way to get Asiana flights out of Korea more cheaply.
- Jeju Air has been flying between Seoul Incheon Airport and Kansai International Airport or Kita-Kyushu Airport, and recently added new flights between KIX and Seoul Gimpo Airport.
- Jin Air which flies between Korea and Thailand is looking to add flights to Japan which means it could be cheaper to get from Japan to Thailand, or to fly through Thailand on the way back to you own country.
The trick though is that if you are buying airline tickets in Japan, you often have to specifically ask for prices from carriers that are not the main Japanese or American carriers. Often when you buy tickets and mention that you don’t mind Korean, Singaporean, Chinese, or European carriers your agent will say, “Oh, I see,” and start searching those as well.
Some of the cheapest fares to the United States I’ve seen have been on Air China. We’ll have to see if the new budget airlines flying to Japan will lead to better ways to transfer through other countries in Asia and get to further destinations more inexpensively.
This could also be a useful way to get from Japan to a country that has less expensive fuel surcharges. Fuel surcharges in Japan can get out of hand depending on the time of year so this could be a good way to fly over to a nearby country with lower fuel surcharges in order to buy the tickets for the longer leg of your flight.
If you are outside of Japan and flying in, it may be worth it to look into flying to Korea or Singapore first for a few days (not a bad idea) and then heading into Japan. It may be cheaper, it may be more expensive, but if you can hit an extra country or two without incurring much more financial damage, it may be worth it!