How do you say "Excuse me, could we swap seats?" in Japanese?

Name: You Booked Two Shinkansen Tickets. Japan Gave You Two Seats in Different Rows.
Uploaded: 2026-08-17T14:02:34Z
Duration: 36 s
Description: Learn to say すみません、席、代わってもらえませんか？ (sumimasen, seki, kawatte moraemasen ka?) — Excuse me, could we swap seats?. A 30-second Japanese lesson for travelers from Kōfuku.

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You Booked Two Shinkansen Tickets. Japan Gave You Two Seats in Different Rows.

To say Excuse me, could we swap seats? in Japanese, say すみません、席、代わってもらえませんか？ (sumimasen, seki, kawatte moraemasen ka?).

You booked two Shinkansen tickets together. Japan gave you two seats nowhere near each other.

すみません、席、代わってもらえませんか？ sumimasen, seki, kawatte moraemasen ka? Excuse me, could we swap seats?

Beginner mini-dialogue #learnjapanese #japantravel #shinkansen #japanesephrases #beginnerjapanese

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Kanji in this phrase

席: せき
代わって: かわって

Why this phrase

A Shinkansen reserved car. Kofuku plays the traveller whose seat is rows away from their friend; Hana plays the stranger sitting next to them. One takeaway: 「すみません、席、代わってもらえませんか？」 asks a stranger to swap seats. The すみません is NOT optional and the negative もらえませんか is the softener that makes it a request rather than a demand, so keep both exactly as written. Hana answers 「いいですよ」 and that's the exchange. Do NOT also teach the refusal, the seat numbering, or 通路側, that's a second takeaway, and do not claim passengers always say yes. Kofuku stays in plain desu masu. Keep the spoken split near 50/50 English and Japanese for the beginner tier, and keep it under 40 seconds.