Shanghai → to Tokyo

Only slightly. The seasonal median is around $350 round-trip and this fare is 13% under it. We do not call a drop notable until 20%, so this is an ordinary price for the route rather than a reason to hurry.

Across 12 months of cached-fare history, Oct comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Tokyo are Mar–May · Oct–Nov — when those overlap, that's your window.

We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 12 months of cached fares, Oct comes out lowest on this route. Our guide Why flight prices change covers what does move a fare.

Yes — the current board includes nonstop fares (Spring Airlines). The outbound leg runs around 3 hours.

No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on 17 October). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.