Do I need a JRail pass?

Hi! We are visiting Japan in November. We arrive to Kansai Airport, Osaka and we depart from Narita Airport, Tokyo. We will stay in 2 night in Osaka, 3 in Kyoto, 1 in Nagoya and 6 in Tokyo. As I understand if you have the JRail pass it doesn't mean that you will have access to all transportation, you still have to buy an IC card and pay for all the non-rail transportation. So, my questions are: do I really need a JRail pass? With the JRail pass will I have free rail journeys, even with the bullet train? For now, we need transport outside the cities: Osaka to Kyoto to Nagoya to Tokyo. Inside the cities the JRail pass will not help, right? thank you!

Personally, in your situation I don't think a rail pass is warranted unless you are planning some long distance and expensive day trips from Tokyo you've not mentioned in your first post. (Like a day trip to Matsushima)

You're just using the shinkansen from Kyoto to Nagoya and then Nagoya to Tokyo. You might be better off buying the ticket as Kyoto to Tokyo and then doing Nagoya as a stop over but I am not overly good at explaining how that works and I'm not 100% sure of the math to make sure it is cheaper, but no matter what a rail pass is not worth it with your itinerary as listed.

Enjoy your trip!

Depending on where you are staying in Osaka, this special ticket from Kansai Airport might be worth it.
https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/icoca-haruka/

It's a ticket for the JR Haruka from KIX to various JR Stations as well as an ICOCA IC Card. The ICOCA Card will work in Nagoya and Tokyo as well.

A JR Pass, when necessary, is valid on all JR trains. JR ==Japan Railroad. So if you are in Kyoto and want to use the Keihan line, a JR Pass will not help. The same is true if you plan to the Keio train line in Tokyo. Both are private lines and not part of the JR Network.

But you are not doing enough JR trains with your current itinerary to cover the 29,100 yen cost of the pass.

Taking a shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto is next to never worth it. It is only 9-10minutes longer to take a Special Rapid which costs under 600 yen.

Jr Pass is only valid on jr lines and not in Nozomi (the fastest and most frequent Shinkansen between Shin Osaka and Tokyo.). So in your case as rkold said above jr pass is not going to pay off unless you are not mentioning daytrips to places like Hiroshima, Sendai, Kanazawa or the like.

Traveling without a pass is totally possible and gives you more flexibility to choose rail companies and to ride the Nozomi.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Do not get the national rail pass from JR as from your basic schedule it will not save you money and will cost roughly twice (Y29,100) as much as the Osaka-Tokyo trip (probably around 14,000 yen).

The JR passes can be used in cities with JR lines, but some places other train operators provide services.

You should price out your trip - Hyperdia.com is a good way to check costs. I was figuring out passes for a trip yesterday and the choice was essentially between a 14-day and a 21-day pass. For the first week the inconvenience of a rail pass and the use of other train companies means we will not bother with a pass covering the full three weeks. The savings getting a 14 day pass were the same (over 30,000 yen in this case).