A new innovation is on the way for long-distance buses as a Japanese operator plans to roll out lie-flat seats for overnight coach travel this spring.
Kochi Ekimae Kanko, a tour bus operator, will launch the service next month between Kochi, on the southern island of Shikoku and Tokyo. It’s a 13-hour trip, and the company is marketing it as a “mobile capsule hotel” to travelers who’d like to avoid paying for a hotel night in addition to fares.
The company calls the service ‘Sommeil Profond,’ French for ‘deep sleep.’ They expect it to appeal to younger traveler headed to one-day concerts or conferences.
The bus can accommodate 24 sleepers using a mechanism that converts to seats for daytime travel. New regulations, issued last November by Japan’s Ministry for Land, Infrastructure, Trans port and Tourism, require passengers to wear seatbelts while sleeping and to have plates or rails on all sides to avoid slipping out of bed.
