Japanese railway operators say the number of travelers who used high-speed trains during the spring holiday period was more than double the number seen last year due to the lifting of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Japan Railway group companies say more than 9 million people traveled on Shinkansen bullet trains and limited express trains from April 28 to Sunday.

The figure is 2.45 times the number recorded for last year's spring holiday period. The figure is also 75 percent of the number logged in 2018, one year before the onset of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, NHK analyzed data provided by mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo to see how many people crossed prefectural borders during the 10-day period until Sunday.

The data were collected from mobile phone base stations without identifying users.

On a nationwide average, the number of such people increased by 34 percent over last year when a coronavirus state of emergency was in place for Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures.

The number of people who crossed prefectural borders this year was 82 percent of the number for the 2019 holiday period when the coronavirus had not yet spread in Japan.