The rush of travelers returning from domestic and overseas trips during the Golden Week holiday period peaked on Tuesday, with vacationers crowding trains, airports and expressways bound for Tokyo and other cities.
Japan Railway companies said reserved seats on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines were almost fully booked throughout the day. The occupancy rates for nonreserved seats on many of the trains exceeded 100 percent.
Nearly all seats were sold on domestic flights bound for Tokyo's Haneda airport, Japan Airlines Co. and All Nippon Airways Co. said. More than 90 percent of those on international flights headed to Haneda and Narita airport near Tokyo were also taken.
Traffic jams were seen on many expressways heading toward Tokyo, with traffic backed up for 19 kilometers (12 miles) on the Chuo Expressway, 17 kilometers on the Kanetsu Expressway and 20 kilometers on the Tohoku Expressway, according to the Japan Road Traffic Information Center.