Japan's Golden Week holidays started Saturday, with train stations and airports across the country crowded with people heading to resorts or returning to hometowns.
It is almost a year since the country downgraded the threat level of COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal influenza and significantly relaxed health measures that had discouraged people from going out.
Over 2.6 million people were booked for domestic flights between Saturday and May 6, almost the same level as the holiday period last year, and 490,000 for international flights, up about 20 percent, airlines said April 19.
As for shinkansen bullet train and other rail services, a total of 2.96 million seats had been reserved for Friday through May 6, up 16 percent from a year earlier, according to an announcement by six Japan Railway operators on April 11. The figure represents a 7 percent increase compared with 2018, before the coronavirus pandemic.
Congestion is expected to peak on May 3 and 6, the railway companies said.
