What kind of seats are most likely to be filled? The quickest way to find out is to ask, “What kind of seats are most likely to be filled? On the flip side, if a seat is unpopular or is put on the back burner, there is a good chance it will be available. Recently, there have been an increasing number of situations in which passengers are able to obtain their preferred seats using a seat map display, but let’s put that aside for the moment and look at how a reserved seat management and sales system such as JR Group’s “MARUS” allocates vacant seats. The basic concept of “MARUS” is that “seats at the front and rear ends of the cabin and seats near the front and rear ends are placed on the back burner,” and “window-side seats have priority. The number of people who apply for a reserved seat and the number of seats available will determine how the seats are allocated. For example, if there are one person, the window seat has priority; if there are two people, they are assigned to sit side by side; and if there are four people, they are assigned to sit in two rows of two seats in a row. In a standard bullet train, there are seats for three passengers, so if there are three passengers, they will be given priority. And since “seats at and near the front and rear ends of the cabin will be put on sale later,” some rows at the front end will be put on sale later, and the sale will start from the rows behind those rows. Once the back end of the room is filled, the remaining empty seats at the front end will be allocated at the end of the room. The reason why seats near the front and rear ends have lower priority is that they are closer to the entry/exit platforms, toilets, and washrooms, which tend to be crowded whenever people enter or exit the car. In addition, as a general rule, seats near the center of the train tend to be less bumpy than those near the front and rear of the train. However, as more and more vehicles are equipped with power outlets and large tables at the front and rear ends of each row, the front rows may be more popular in such vehicles. I myself once deliberately requested a front row seat for three people on a Shinkansen train, saying that I wanted power outlets for all passengers. Anyway, as a general trend, window seats near the center of the car are most likely to be the best sellers. However, while window seats are generally preferred, some people prefer aisle seats, which are easier to get in and out of. This may be due to the fact that they may not want to ask the person sitting next to them every time they need to use the restroom. Because of this, seat B, which is sandwiched between window-side seat A and aisle-side seat C, is naturally the most unpopular among three-seaters on the Shinkansen. Therefore, seat B is always the last seat to be taken. The phrase “we could only get seat B” is synonymous with the phrase “the seats are almost full. This is all about the logic of the sales system, but this logic is based on the user’s preferences as well. Therefore, a similar tendency will probably emerge even when using the seat map display to freely select seats. It is not common to hear of people going out of their way to choose seat B as their preferred seat on the Shinkansen.
If it’s an unpopular seat, you might have a better chance of finding an open seat. In other words, when finding an available seat and taking a seat, if you choose an “aisle seat on the end row” or a “three-seat B seat,” there is a good chance that the seat will be vacant and you will be able to sit down without being asked to move. Of course, this depends on the situation at the time and cannot be guaranteed to be “always available. It is only a matter of relative comparison. However, it may be worth a try. If the train is empty, with only a few passengers per car, there is a good chance that you will have no problem sitting as you like without thinking about it.
© Source travel watch