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I've travelled on ferries between Korea and Japan probably more than anyone else using our site so far, but there's one thing I never thought about until now:

Do any of the ferries commonly take private cars between the countries, and if so do any charge only per car and not per person?

(Use case: If there are ferries taking cars that only charge per-car then I might challenge myself to hitchhike to Japan from Korea!)

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    Been trying, but it's really hard to find English sites. Many are just passenger ferries as well.
    – Mark Mayo
    Sep 27, 2012 at 19:05

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It is indeed difficult to find information about this if you can't read Japanese or Korean. Most ferries are passengers only.

I ended up asking a friend in Japan:

There is at least one car ferry between Busan (Korea) and Fukuoka (Japan) run by KoreaFerry. The information I got says that the cheapest room category is included in the car price, but for the driver only.

This means that at least for this ferry, additional car passengers have to pay extra.

Whether that additional fee is the same as the single passenger fare I don't know.

Also this doesn't mean there are no other companies out there with different conditions but I pretty much doubt that.

The question to ask would be 'Are there any ferries in the world that charge per car including all passengers?'

Edit: My second source in Fukuoka came back to me: There is another ferry between Busan and Shimonoseki operated by 'Pukwan'. Again it seems you have to pay by passenger. Also for the ferry from Busan to Fukuoka you have to buy a return ticket for your car. There are no one-way tickets available. This shouldn't concern any hitch-hikers though.

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  • I expected as much. All the normal ferries I know of are overnight so provide sleeping space and the sleeping space must be paid per person as well as the space for the car. The only exceptions are the high-speed hydrofoils which of course don't take cars at all.
    – hippietrail
    Dec 18, 2012 at 0:34
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    Are there any ferries in the world that charge per car including all passengers? Of course there are! Especially for short crossings. I hitchhiked with a family in Turkey crossing the Dardanelles and they didn't have to pay extra because I was with them.
    – hippietrail
    Dec 18, 2012 at 0:35

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