Busan to Tsushima Ferry: Schedules, Fares, Taxes and Getting Around the Island

Tsushima is the closest part of Japan to Korea, and the crossing takes about as long as a train ride to the next city. Part of our Busan travel guide.

1. Three operators, and the fastest crossing is 1 hour 10 minutes

Three companies run passenger ferries from Busan to Tsushima: PanStar with the Tsushima Link, Daea Express Shipping with the SeaFlower, and Starline with the Nova. All three sail from Busan Port International Passenger Terminal📍Map, and all three keep their Busan offices on the third floor of that building.

PanStar is the quickest. It leaves Busan at 08:40 and reaches Hitakatsu at 09:50, so the crossing is 1 hour 10 minutes. Daea takes 1 hour 20 minutes to the same port and Starline takes 1 hour 30 minutes. All three are 40 knot high speed craft, so the gap between them is small.

Check your passport before you plan anything

This is a border crossing into Japan, and what you need depends on your nationality. Korean, most European, North American and Australian passport holders enter visa free for up to 90 days. Chinese nationals need a Japanese visa arranged in advance, so a spontaneous day trip from Busan is not possible on a Chinese passport. Check your own status before you book a ticket.

There is no flight from Busan

Tsushima has an airport, but nothing flies to Korea from it. The only departures are five a day to Fukuoka and four or five a day to Nagasaki, both about half an hour. The ferry is the only direct way to reach the island from Korea. You could route through Fukuoka and connect to a domestic flight, but that consumes a full day in each direction.

If you are comparing sea routes to Japan, we also cover the Busan to Fukuoka ferry and the Busan to Shimonoseki ferry. Both of those are overnight ships where you sleep on board, which makes them a different kind of trip.

2. Hitakatsu or Izuhara, decide this first

Two ports on Tsushima take ferries from Busan. Hitakatsu📍Map sits at the northern tip of the island and Izuhara📍Map sits in the south. They are on the same island, but the bus between them takes two and a half hours. Which one you sail into shapes the whole trip.

Hitakatsu is closer, Izuhara is larger

Hitakatsu is the nearest Japanese port to Korea, which is why the sailings concentrate there. All three operators call at it. Miuda Beach and the Korea Observatory are close by, and the convenience stores, restaurants and hotels sit within walking distance of the terminal. Day trips and one night trips almost always mean Hitakatsu.

Izuhara is the administrative centre of the island. The city hall, the hospital and the main shopping street are here, and the great majority of the island’s rooms are in this area. The crossing takes 2 hours 10 minutes to 2 hours 40 minutes and runs on fixed days of the week. If you plan two nights or more and want to see the south, this is the port to aim for.

What is waiting when you step off

Hitakatsu has separate international and domestic terminals. Ferries from Busan use the international one. The loop bus stops directly outside it, and the tourist information office in the same area sells the island bus pass. Everything you need for a short stay is within a few minutes on foot.

In Izuhara the shopping street is also walkable from the quay. The cross island bus stops in front of the Fureaidokoro Tsushima building, and the Tsushima Kotsu bus office is inside the Tiara Mall. Banks, the hospital and the largest supermarkets are all in this district.

You can also use one port each way, sailing into Hitakatsu, working south and leaving from Izuhara. That works, but you carry your luggage across the island, and if you rent a car the drop off charge applies. More on that below.

3. Every timetable in one place

The sailing times below are taken from each operator’s own website and are given in local time. Korea and Japan share a time zone, so nothing needs adjusting when you land.

PanStar Tsushima Link

Daea SeaFlower

Starline Nova

Starline does not sail to Izuhara. The Izuhara route on the company’s schedule page carries no registered sailings. If you book with this operator, Hitakatsu is the only destination available.

One naming point causes confusion. Starline was known for years as the Nina, and the booking domain still carries that name. The vessel now working this route is the Nova, and the company itself writes Starline Nova in its own footer. Timetables you find under the old name may not match what is sailing today.

4. What kind of ship you are boarding

All three are high speed craft. You sit in an assigned seat for an hour or two, in a cabin closer to an aircraft than to a cruise ship. There is no promenade deck and no cabin to sleep in.

The SeaFlower was built by the Dutch yard Damen in Guangzhou and launched in August 2012. She carries seven crew. The Tsushima Link is the older of the two published vessels and is longer but carries slightly fewer passengers. Forty knots works out to a little over 70 kilometres an hour.

Seat classes

Daea splits the cabin into standard and premium, with premium costing 10,000 won more each way. PanStar sells economy and a premium class with reclining seats, at 1,000 yen more each way. On a crossing this short most passengers find the standard seat sufficient.

If you are prone to seasickness

High speed craft react quickly to swell. You feel the motion more than you would on a large overnight ferry, and on windy days some passengers struggle. Take medication about half an hour before departure and sit towards the middle of the vessel, where the movement is least.

When conditions are genuinely bad the operator cancels. A sailing that goes ahead is safe, but a winter crossing in a strong northwesterly can still be rough. If you are travelling with young children or older relatives on a day like that, choose your seats with the motion in mind.

What is sold on board

All three operators run a duty free shop selling spirits, tobacco, cosmetics, drinks and snacks. PanStar adds two things the others do not advertise: it will hold duty free goods bought on the outbound leg until your return sailing, and it offers currency exchange on board, which the company describes as a first for a high speed vessel on this route.

Starline takes duty free orders for the return leg by phone, between 09:30 and 16:30 and up to 48 hours before departure. The selection includes mainland Japanese goods that are not sold on Tsushima itself.

5. Sailings are not identical every day

The tables above show the standard pattern. In practice sailings are added at weekends and dropped on individual dates. Getting this wrong costs a whole day, so check the operator’s calendar for your travel month before you book.

Daea adds sailings at weekends

The Saturday 07:50 departure leaves nearly two hours earlier than the weekday sailing. For a day trip that is the single most useful sailing in the timetable, because every minute saved at the start is a minute on the island. The Sunday 16:55 return from Hitakatsu works the same way at the other end of the day.

Starline drops sailings on individual dates

Open Starline’s schedule two weeks at a time and you will see gaps against sailings 646 and 545. The morning 620 and evening 575 run consistently. The two midday sailings are allocated according to demand. If your plan depends on arriving at midday and leaving at midday, confirm that both sailings exist on your date.

All three companies carry the same disclaimer: times and sailings may change according to weather. During the summer typhoon period and in winter northwesterlies, cancellations do happen.

6. What a ticket costs

Only one of the three publishes a complete tariff. Daea Express Shipping lists every passenger category on its own site, and the table below reproduces it. These are one way fares departing from Busan.

The discount conditions have edges

The student rate covers middle school through university and requires a student card or enrolment certificate at the point of purchase. Postgraduate students and anyone aged 30 or over are excluded, even with a valid card. Discounts do not stack, so a 65 year old student receives one 20 percent reduction, not two.

Large items have their own rule. Anything over 158cm in combined dimensions or over 20kg counts as special baggage, which in practice means bicycles and fishing gear. The published tariff lists this against the standard fare rather than any discounted category. Whether it can be carried, and what it costs, varies by operator, so confirm before booking.

Where to buy

You can book directly with the operator or through a travel platform. Booking direct gives you a specific sailing and seat and is easier to change. Platform products bundle the return leg at a lower headline price but often restrict date changes.

Platform listings are sold as same day return, one night or two nights. The same physical sailing costs a different amount depending on which product you select, so fix your return date first and then choose the matching product.

Coming back you pay in yen

Return fares are set in Japanese currency. On the Daea tariff a standard seat is 11,000 yen from Izuhara and 9,000 yen from Hitakatsu. PanStar sells the Hitakatsu departure at 9,500 yen on weekdays and 11,500 yen at weekends and in peak season, with the premium seat adding 1,000 yen each way.

Buying a return ticket in Korea settles both legs in won and removes the exchange calculation. The trade is flexibility, since changing the return date afterwards is harder.

7. Japan tripled its departure tax on 1 July 2026

The Japanese international tourist tax rose from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen on 1 July 2026. It applies to sea passengers exactly as it applies to air passengers, it is charged once when you leave Japan, and children under two are exempt.

The date that matters is when you paid

This catches people out. If you completed booking and payment by 30 June 2026, the old rate of 1,000 yen applies even when you sail in July or later. Tickets issued from 1 July carry the new rate regardless of sailing date. Ferry operators on the Korea to Japan routes published notices to this effect.

Why it went up

The Japanese government presented the increase as funding for tourism infrastructure, on the argument that visitor numbers have grown substantially since the rate was set and that airports and ports need investment to cope. Tripling the rate in one step drew comment across the regional travel trade when it was announced.

You never pay this at a counter. It is collected inside the ticket price by the carrier and remitted to the government, and it appears in the fees line of your booking.

Every fee, both directions

The 1,000 won charged in Busan is a Korean departure levy and is separate from the Japanese tax. Both countries collect their own. Fuel surcharges move with fuel prices, so no fixed figure holds. Agency pages quote 11,000 won to Hitakatsu and 20,000 won to Izuhara, but those figures do not appear on any operator tariff, so treat the checkout total as the authority.

8. So what does the trip actually cost

The headline fare understates the total, because fees attach to each leg and one of them tripled this year. Here is a Hitakatsu return assembled from the published Daea tariff.

The fees on their own

Strip out the fares and you are left with 7,000 won and 3,500 yen. For two people the yen side alone comes to 7,000 yen. Last year the same line was 3,000 yen, so a couple now pays 4,000 yen more for exactly the same journey. The shorter your trip, the larger a share of the total these fixed charges represent.

Discounted return bundles pull the fare portion down sharply, and platforms list same day returns in the 50,000 to 70,000 won range at quieter times. The fees are identical whichever product you buy. That is why the advertised price is never the amount you pay.

Compared with the other sea routes

The overnight services to Fukuoka and Shimonoseki trade time for a night’s accommodation, since you sleep on board. Tsushima is the opposite arrangement: you arrive within the hour, but the island offers a different kind of stay than a large Japanese city.

The 3,000 yen departure tax is the same on every route. Because the Tsushima round trip is so short, that fee weighs more heavily here than anywhere else. On a day trip the ferry and the fees are close to the entire cost of the journey.

Spending on the island

Getting around is covered below, but the headline is that a full day of bus travel costs 1,040 yen. Rooms in Hitakatsu and Izuhara are ordinary business hotel rates outside the peak weeks.

9. Getting to Busan Port International Passenger Terminal

The terminal is at 206 Chungjang daero in Dong gu, Busan. Busan Station is the closest transport hub by a wide margin. A pedestrian deck links the station directly to the terminal, so arriving by train puts you 5 to 7 minutes from the check in counters.

City buses that stop at the terminal

Those fares are the transport card rate. Paying cash costs 1,550 won on the 5-1 and 42, and 2,100 won on the 1004. Our guide to the Busan metro and transport cards explains how the cards and transfers work.

Coming from Seoul, the KTX to Busan is the simplest option because it leaves you on the right side of the deck with no transfer at all. If you fly into Gimhae, see getting from Gimhae Airport into the city. For a morning sailing, spending the previous night in Busan removes all the risk.

The hillside immediately behind the terminal is Choryang, one of the oldest quarters in the city and worth an hour if you come back on an afternoon sailing. It connects to Taejongdae and the rest of the coastal sights by metro.

10. Check in, immigration and baggage

The process mirrors an airport. Ticketing, baggage check, exit immigration, security, then boarding. PanStar asks passengers to reach the third floor counter 90 minutes before departure. On busy summer weekends, allow more.

How the flow runs

You collect your boarding pass and clear baggage at the third floor counter, present your passport at Korean exit immigration, pass security and wait in the departure hall. Boarding is on foot from the hall to the vessel. Budget close to an hour for the whole sequence.

Automated immigration gates are available to eligible travellers and are considerably faster than the staffed desks on a weekend morning.

Baggage allowance

On Starline the allowance is three pieces per person totalling 20kg or less. Two pieces travel free and the third is chargeable. Each piece must be 158cm or less in combined dimensions, and a backpack counts as a piece. Fishing equipment and bicycles, including folding bicycles, are declared separately.

Travelling with children

A child is 2 to under 12 on the date of travel and an infant is 7 days to under 2. Unaccompanied minors between 6 and under 12 must be registered with the reservation centre at least 24 hours before departure, and children under 6 cannot travel alone at all.

11. Entering Japan, where airport advice does not apply

Entry conditions depend on your passport, not on the fact that you arrived by sea. Visa free nationals get the same 90 days they would at Narita. Everyone else needs the visa arranged before travel.

Visit Japan Web is optional

The service pre registers your immigration and customs declarations, and since January 2024 both are combined into a single code. Registering speeds things up, but you can still enter using paper forms. Guides that describe it as mandatory are wrong.

What you cannot bring in

Japan enforces its rules on meat and meat products strictly. Sausage, jerky and ready meals containing meat are all prohibited, and fruit, vegetables and seeds are subject to quarantine. Travellers on short trips often pack food for the crossing and then have to surrender it on arrival.

Penalties are possible, so check what is left in your bag before you disembark. The same restriction applies in reverse when you carry Japanese meat products back into Korea.

Money and connectivity

Tsushima still runs substantially on cash. Larger shops and hotels in both port towns take cards, but small restaurants and the buses are easier with notes and coins. Bus fares and the day pass are paid directly to the driver, so carry change.

Your phone drops the Korean network partway across and picks up a Japanese one as you approach the island. Even on a one day visit you will want data for bus times and maps.

12. The island bus day pass costs 1,040 yen

Getting around after you land is where the money is actually decided. Tsushima is long from north to south and the distances are real. Tsushima Kotsu sells a one day pass for 1,040 yen that covers every route on the island for that calendar day.

One long ride and the pass has already paid

A single north to south fare is 3,400 yen and the pass is less than a third of that. Even for shorter hops, two rides usually beat the pass. If there is any chance you will use a bus, buy the pass first.

The official Tsushima Kotsu timetable repeats this advice in four separate places. Most travel writing about the island mentions that a pass exists without giving the price or the comparison, which is why so many visitors work it out only after paying full fare on the first ride.

Ordinary fares are distance based

You take a numbered ticket when boarding and pay on the way out, with the fare rising by distance. From Izuhara that means 610 yen to Tarugahama Iriguchi, 1,680 yen to Nii and 3,270 yen to Oura. With the pass you skip the calculation entirely and simply show it to the driver.

Where to buy it

The simplest method is buying from the driver as you board. It is also sold at the Hitakatsu bus centre, the Hitakatsu tourist information office and the Tsushima Kotsu office in Izuhara, which is inside the Tiara Mall.

Timetables are issued for fixed periods. The current sheet is marked valid from 1 April to 30 September 2026. If you travel later than that, download the replacement from the Tsushima Busan office site before you go.

13. Where the Hitakatsu loop bus goes

If you land at Hitakatsu, the Waniura loop is the route that matters. It circles the northern tip of the island from the Hitakatsu bus centre and passes most of the places visitors actually want.

You do not need a car in the north

The destination column of the official timetable names Toyo Battery and the Korea Observatory, Miuda Beach and campsite, and the Hitakatsu international terminal. All of them are reachable by bus. The common claim that Tsushima requires a rental car is not true of the northern end of the island.

The limitation is frequency. With two or three services in each direction per day, missing one means waiting hours. Plan the observatory visit around a specific return departure rather than assuming you can walk back.

Which stops the loop serves

The route calls at Hitakatsu bus centre, the high school, Oura, Waniura, Ochido, Izumi, Nagisa no Yu, Nishidomari, Furusato, the international terminal, the domestic terminal and Kamitsushima hospital. A full circuit takes a little over 40 minutes.

Buses run the loop in both directions from the same stops, so check the destination sign before boarding. A stop that looks close by road can be most of a circuit away in the wrong direction.

An autumn route runs to the maple valley

Three services a day run from Hitakatsu through the Shushi maple road to Oshika. The colour arrives in November, and the timetable itself notes that a return trip is cheaper with the day pass. Departure times change with each timetable period.

14. Crossing between Hitakatsu and Izuhara

If your plan includes both ports, settle the transfer before you book anything else. The two towns are two and a half hours apart by bus.

The limited express is the direct service

This runs separately from the ordinary route buses, as a seasonal service. It operates four days a week, Friday through Monday, once in each direction. On other days you take the ordinary cross island service with changes, which takes longer.

A great deal of online material still says the service ends on 31 January 2026. It has been extended to 28 December 2026, and the official timetable states the extension explicitly.

The stops are fixed

In Izuhara it uses the stop at the Fureaidokoro Tsushima building. In Hitakatsu it uses the stop in front of the international terminal. Both are shared with the ordinary route buses. Intermediate calls are Tarugahama Iriguchi, Nii and Oura.

Sectional fares from Izuhara run 610 yen to Tarugahama Iriguchi, 1,680 yen to Nii and 3,270 yen to Oura. The 1,040 yen day pass is valid on this service too, so it is cheaper than any single sector.

15. Rental cars, taxis and bicycles

To reach the south freely a car is the practical answer. You must carry an International Driving Permit, issued in your home country before departure. It cannot be obtained on the island.

Driving on the island

Japan drives on the left. Tsushima is mountainous with narrow sections and long curves, and there is very little street lighting once you leave the towns. Traffic is light, which helps, but the roads demand attention.

Fuel stations are concentrated in Hitakatsu and Izuhara with a few in between. Some close on Sundays and in the evening, so refill when the tank drops below half rather than waiting.

Taxis have to be called

Every taxi on Tsushima works by telephone booking. You do not hail one on the street. Separate companies operate in Izuhara, Mitsushima, Toyotama, Mine, Saka, Kamiagata and Hitakatsu.

Fares rise steeply with distance. Izuhara to Hitakatsu runs 25,000 to 30,000 yen, which makes taxis useful for short hops and impractical for crossing the island.

Bicycles are rented through the tourism and products association. They work well around Hitakatsu where the ground is flat, but most of the island is hill country and long distances on two wheels are hard going.

16. Day trip, one night or two, and how the sailings decide

Build the itinerary backwards from the ferry times. With only a few sailings a day there is no room to stretch or shorten the plan once you are there.

Day trip

Take the PanStar morning sailing, land at 09:50 and leave on the 16:40, and you have about 6 hours 50 minutes on the island. Immigration at both ends consumes some of that, so treat six hours as the usable figure. The loop bus to the Korea Observatory and Miuda Beach plus lunch in Hitakatsu fills it comfortably.

On a Saturday the Daea 07:50 departure is the better choice, since it lands almost two hours earlier.

One night

Same sailings, one extra night. You get an afternoon and a full morning, which makes this the most comfortable short format. Stay in Hitakatsu, where several hotels are within walking distance of the terminal.

Two nights or more

This is the version that reaches Izuhara. Land at Hitakatsu, spend the first day in the north, take the limited express south on day two and sleep in Izuhara, then sail home from there. The limited express only runs Friday to Monday, so the days of the week have to line up.

With a rental car, returning to your starting port avoids the 10,000 yen relocation charge. Basing in Hitakatsu and driving south for a day works, since the Eboshidake viewpoint and Watatsumi Shrine sit in the middle of the island and are an easy return trip.

17. Where to stay on Tsushima

Accommodation clusters in the two port towns. There are guesthouses and campsites in between, but many of them are difficult to reach without a car. Without your own transport, stay in Hitakatsu or Izuhara.

Hitakatsu

Several business hotels sit within a short walk of the terminal, and at least one chain property is close enough that the loop bus timetable lists it as a landmark. Room counts are small, so summer weekends and Korean public holidays fill early.

Some visitors check what is available here before travelling even on a day trip, in case a cancellation strands them overnight. In winter that does occasionally happen.

Izuhara

This is where most of the island’s rooms are, from business hotels to ryokan style properties, with restaurants and shops on the doorstep. If you intend to explore the south, basing here keeps the daily distances down.

The constraint is the sailing schedule, since direct services from Busan to Izuhara run on set days. Many visitors arrive at Hitakatsu and come south by bus instead, and that bus runs four days a week. Confirm the connection before booking the room.

What to check when booking

Room supply is small enough that the gap between peak and off peak is wide. Summer holidays and long weekends fill months ahead, while a winter weekday often has availability on the day. A few properties have hot spring baths, which draws visitors in the colder months.

Some smaller guesthouses still take cash only. The payment methods are listed on the booking page, so check before you arrive with cards alone.

18. When to go

Tsushima sits at roughly the same latitude as Busan and the weather is similar. Being an island, it feels the wind more, and the wind is what determines whether the ferry sails. When choosing dates, cancellation risk matters more than temperature.

Summer adds services

During Japanese school holidays, 18 July to 31 August, the Hitakatsu loop bus runs additional services at 15:10 towards Oura and 11:00 towards Nishidomari. If Miuda Beach is the point of the trip, this is the easiest period to move around.

It is also typhoon season. An August cancellation pushes your return back a day, so avoid scheduling anything important for the evening you are due home.

Autumn and winter

From mid October the typhoon risk falls away and the air clears. The days when Busan is visible from the Korea Observatory cluster in this period. November brings colour to the Shushi valley, served by three buses a day from Hitakatsu.

Winter northwesterlies produce the most cancellations of the year. In exchange, tickets and rooms are easy to find, and the island is at its quietest.

19. Looking back at Korea from Tsushima

The Korea Observatory stands at Waniura on the northern tip. On a clear day you can see across to Busan, roughly 50 kilometres away, and on some nights the city lights are visible. The loop bus timetable lists it as a destination alongside the Toyo Battery, so it is reachable without a car.

Several sites connect the island to Korean history

Izuhara holds a monument commemorating the marriage of Princess Deokhye, the last princess of the Joseon dynasty. A memorial to Choe Ik hyeon, the scholar and militia leader who died here in 1907, stands in the same area. Tsushima was also the first stop for the Joseon diplomatic missions to Japan, and material about them is kept in the town.

PanStar leads with both monuments in its own description of the island, which tells you how the operator reads the interests of its passengers.

What Izuhara has beyond that

Old castle grounds and samurai residence walls survive around the harbour, and the Nakarai Tosui memorial house is in the same district. Nakarai Tosui produced the first Japanese translation of the Korean tale of Chunhyang.

The Izuhara port festival takes place in summer and includes a re enactment of the Joseon mission procession, which draws Korean participants. Other events through the year include a flowering ash festival and a border marathon.

The natural sights

Eboshidake viewpoint rises 176 metres above the northern shore of Aso Bay and is the only place on the island with a full 360 degree view. It is open at all hours and free. Watatsumi Shrine sits below it and the two are usually visited together.

Miuda Beach is on Japan’s list of 100 selected coastlines and is served by the Hitakatsu loop, so it fits into a day trip.

The visitor numbers

Korean visitors have returned in force. 356,316 Koreans visited Tsushima in 2024, the highest figure on record and 37.1 percent up on the previous year. The route collapsed entirely in 2020 and reopened between Busan and Hitakatsu in February 2023.

The island’s population is under 30,000. More than ten times that number of Korean visitors arrive in a year, which is why Korean signage is common in Hitakatsu shops and restaurants. English is less widely spoken, so a translation app earns its place.

20. Cancellations, booking and the last checks

High speed craft are sensitive to sea state, and all three operators carry the same warning that sailings may change with the weather. Cancellations occur in the summer typhoon period and during winter northwesterlies. If the return sailing is cancelled on a day trip, you are staying the night.

Building in the margin

In winter, leave the following morning clear. In summer, start watching the typhoon forecast two days out. Operators notify passengers once a cancellation is confirmed, but the earlier you see it coming, the more options you have.

Before you pay

Who to call

Operators contact you on the number left at booking if a sailing is cancelled or retimed. If you want to confirm on the day, calling directly is faster. The Tsushima Kotsu line handles the island route buses and charter services, including timetable changes.

Coming home

Return sailings land in Busan in the late afternoon or early evening, and immigration adds time on top. Leave the evening loose. The pedestrian deck puts you at Busan Station within minutes, so a same day onward train is realistic if the timetable allows.

Finally, none of these numbers are permanent. Operators publish sailing calendars monthly and the island bus timetable is reissued twice a year. The figures here come from the operators’ own pages and the official Tsushima Kotsu timetable. Check them once more before you travel.

Frequently asked questions

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Images: Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: hyolee2 (CC BY-SA 3.0), Olegushka (CC0), Saigen Jiro (CC0), Bruno Plus (CC BY-SA 4.0), Choi2451 (CC BY-SA 3.0).