Service Productivity & Innovation for Growth (SPRING) of Japan Productivity Center revealed the fourth survey results of Japan Customer Satisfaction Index 2026. In the city hotel category, ‘Imperial Hotel’ was chosen as the top for 18 years in a row, and ‘Dormy Inn’ was the top in the budget hotel category for seven years in a row.
In the domestic long-range transportation category, ‘Skymark’ was the top for the first time in the past two years. In the paid express train category, ‘Odakyu’ was the top for two consecutive years.
This survey quantifies nine metrics—including customer satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and "emotional impact" (the extent to which a service evokes a positive emotional response)—based on users' actual experience with a service, with each metric scored on a 100-point scale.The latest survey covered 75 companies and brands across seven industry sectors, such as hotels, transportation, and insurance.
Ranking of hotels
Among city hotels, the Imperial Hotel ranked first in customer satisfaction with a score of 81.6. Hotel Okura followed in second place with 80.2 points, and Hotel Nikko came in third with 79.3 points. The top three brands also ranked in the same order for ‘likelihood to recommend,’ a measure of a guest's willingness to suggest the hotel to others, and the ‘impression index,’ which reflects the sense of wonder or pleasant surprise experienced during a stay. The Imperial Hotel led in all three categories, scoring 79.2 for likelihood to recommend and 66.1 for the delight index.
Among budget hotels, Dormy Inn ranked first in customer satisfaction with 80.7 points. Toyoko Inn took second place with 79.3 points, followed by Daiwa Roynet Hotel in third with 79.2 points.
In terms of the likelihood to recommend, however, Daiwa Roynet Hotel took the top spot with 75.2 points, followed by Richmond Hotel with 74.7 points and Dormy Inn with 74.3 points. For the impression index, Dormy Inn ranked first with 62.2 points, Richmond Hotel came in second with 60.0 points, and Super Hotel placed third with 58.1 points.
Ranking of transportations
In the category of long-distance domestic transportation, covering both domestic air travel and the Shinkansen, Skymark ranked first with a score of 77.5. Solaseed Air came in second with 76.0 points, followed by JAL in third with 75.5 points. These same three carriers also occupied the top spots within the domestic air travel subcategory.
Regarding the likelihood of recommendation, JAL ranked first with 71.0 points, followed by StarFlyer with 70.3 points and Solaseed Air with 69.6 points. In terms of the ‘impression index,’ StarFlyer led with 51.3 points, followed by Skymark with 50.5 points and Solaseed Air with 49.8 points.
In the Shinkansen subcategory, the Tohoku Shinkansen and the Hokuriku Shinkansen tied for first place in customer satisfaction, both scoring 73.8 points. The Kyushu Shinkansen ranked third with 73.5 points. Meanwhile, the Kyushu Shinkansen took the top spot for both the likelihood of recommendation and the ‘impression index,’ with scores of 68.0 and 48.5, respectively.
Ranking of paid express trains
In the survey covering premium limited-express train services, Odakyu Electric Railway ranked first in customer satisfaction with 81.0 points. Kinki Nippon Railway (Kintetsu) followed in second with 79.0 points, and Tobu Railway placed third with 74.7 points. Odakyu Electric Railway also led in the likelihood of recommendation (72.3 points) and the impression index (55.7 points), securing the top position across all three metrics.
For the likelihood of recommendation, Kintetsu ranked second with 71.1 points, and Tobu ranked third with 69.1 points. In the impression index, Tobu took second place with 55.3 points, while Kintetsu placed third with 54.2 points.
