- With the cooperation of JR East, Shinkansen trains wrapped with the mascot Tunku Tunku and other Expo designs start running on Wednesday 16 September 2026. The wraps are planned to stay on until around mid-September 2027.
- Two trainsets are wrapped: one 10-car E5 series on the Tohoku and Hokkaido Shinkansen (Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, running as Hayabusa, Hayate, Yamabiko and Nasuno services) and one 12-car E7 series on the Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen (Tokyo to Niigata and Tokyo to Tsuruga, mainly as Kagayaki, Hakutaka, Asama, Toki and Tanigawa services).
- The release does not mention a launch ceremony or related events, nor which daily services the wrapped sets will work.
Our take
These trains never come to Yokohama. They are JR East Shinkansen sets, not the JR Central Tokaido Shinkansen that serves the city, so you cannot ride a wrapped train to the Expo. Instead, people heading to Tokyo from Tohoku, Hokkaido, Niigata and Hokuriku see the Expo on board or on the platforms at Tokyo Station. Six months before opening, that puts the Expo in front of a wide swathe of eastern Japan.
One E5 set and one E7 set. Both lines run many trains a day, so which service the wrapped set works changes daily and never appears in the timetable. Riding it on purpose is hard; spotting it at Tokyo or Omiya is luck.
The wraps stay until mid-September 2027, just before the Expo closes on 26 September. For visitors from eastern Japan, the design seen on the way in and the mascot met at the venue form one thread across the whole season.
Tips for visitors
- Coming from eastern Japan, get off at Tokyo Station, take a local line to Yokohama Station, then the Sotetsu Line. Shin-Yokohama is a Tokaido Shinkansen station, so these trains do not stop there. The full picture is in the access guide.
- For where to stay if you arrive in Tokyo late, see where to stay for the Expo.
- If you spot one, follow the station’s rules for photography on the platform. The mascot on the wrap is introduced in our Tunku Tunku profile.
Our take
The wrapped trains run on JR East's Tohoku-Hokkaido and Joetsu-Hokuriku Shinkansen lines, not the Tokaido Shinkansen. They never come to Yokohama, so this is a way for people travelling to Tokyo from eastern Japan to see the Expo on board or at Tokyo Station.