Two airports on opposite sides of the city, thirteen subway lines run by two companies that don't share a fare, and a rail pass whose maths changed in 2023. Six guides, every figure checked against the operator that publishes it — with the source on the page.
Six pages covering the arrival and the first week — the questions people actually land with. Each one carries its sources and the month it was last verified.
Most confusion in Tokyo comes from assuming one network. There are several, they do not share fares, and knowing which is which saves both money and a lot of standing at the wrong gate.
The larger of the two subway operators and the one you will use most. ¥180 for a short hop, ¥330 at the longest, with IC fares a couple of yen lower. Its lines interchange constantly, often without leaving the gates. Subway guide →
Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and Ōedo, operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government along with the buses and the Sakura Tram. Toei says plainly that its fare system is different from Tokyo Metro's — which is why one journey can cost two fares. Why that happens →
Surface railways threading through the city, the Yamanote loop foremost among them. Different company, different gates, a third fare system. The Narita Express is JR, and so is the airport monorail at Haneda. What a JR pass does and doesn't cover →
Odakyū, Keiō, Tōbu, Seibu, Tōkyū and the rest radiate out from the big terminals. Two of them are how you reach the airports: Keikyū from Haneda and Keisei from Narita. Several run through onto subway tracks, so a train can change company without you changing seat.
The numbers worth knowing before you arrive. Each one is sourced on the page it comes from — and if you spot one that has changed, tell us.
| Fare | Price |
|---|---|
| Narita Express — Narita ↔ Tokyo, return, ordinary reserved | ¥6,280 |
| N'EX TOKYO Round Trip Ticket — 14-day validity | ¥5,200 |
| Keisei Skyliner — one way, standard / discounted | ¥2,580 / ¥2,310 |
| AirportBus TYO-NRT — Narita ↔ Tokyo Station | ¥1,500 |
| Narita fixed-fare taxi — central wards, via Keiyo Road | ¥29,000 |
| Tokyo Monorail — Haneda ↔ Hamamatsuchō | ¥520 |
| Monorail through fare — Haneda ↔ Shinjuku or Shibuya | ¥780 |
| Monorail & Yamanote Discount Ticket — weekends and holidays | ¥590 |
| Tokyo Metro — single ride, shortest to longest band | ¥180–¥330 |
| Tokyo Subway Ticket — 24 / 48 / 72 hours | ¥1,000 / ¥1,500 / ¥2,000 |
| Common One-Day Ticket — Tokyo Metro + Toei | ¥1,100 |
| Tokyo Combination Ticket — adds JR in the 23 wards | ¥1,720 |
| Toei bus — flat fare, 23 wards | ¥210 |
| Suica / PASMO — refundable deposit | ¥500 |
| Japan Rail Pass — 7 days ordinary | ¥50,000 |
| JR TOKYO Wide Pass — 3 days | ¥16,000 |
Approximate US dollar equivalents appear on each guide, converted at ¥163 to US$1 as of 30 July 2026. Sources: JR East · Keisei · Tokyo Monorail · Keikyū · Tokyo Metro · Toei Transportation · Narita Airport · Haneda Airport · JAPAN RAIL PASS · AirportBus TYO-NRT.
Half the advice online about Suica cards is out of date. A chip shortage stopped sales of ordinary IC cards between 2023 and early 2025, and articles written during that window are still ranking and still telling people they cannot buy one. They can — JR East lists the standard prices with no restriction. The current position →
The Japan Rail Pass no longer covers the fast Shinkansen. Nozomi and Mizuho services were carved out in October 2023, non-reserved seats included. Riding one with a pass now costs an extra ¥4,960 each way between Tokyo and Kyoto. Any guide that skips this is describing a product that stopped existing three years ago. The catch, in full →
The Tokyo Subway Ticket costs more than the internet thinks. The widely-quoted ¥800 / ¥1,200 / ¥1,500 are old prices. It is now ¥1,000, ¥1,500 and ¥2,000 for 24, 48 and 72 hours — still good value, just not the value you were promised. Every pass compared →
One journey, two companies, two fares. Changing between Tokyo Metro and Toei — or between either and JR — is not a transfer, it is two journeys, and each charges its own minimum. It is the most common way visitors quietly overspend here. How to avoid it →
Two things travellers ask about alongside fares. These are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no cost to you, and none of it affects the transport advice anywhere on this site. How this works →
Every fare, journey time, ticket price and opening hour on these pages comes from the operator that publishes it — JR East, Keisei, Keikyū, Tokyo Monorail, Tokyo Metro, Toei Transportation, Narita Airport, Haneda Airport and the official Japan Rail Pass administration — checked when the page was written and re-checked on a monthly schedule. The source sits next to the fact.
Where a number is missing, that is deliberate. Several Japanese operators publish fares only through an interactive journey planner, and a few publish none in English at all — Keikyū's point-to-point fares, Toei's subway distance table, the Airport Limousine network and Haneda's flat-rate taxis all fall into this category. On those we link the operator's own search rather than reprint a figure we cannot source. English-language Tokyo transport content goes stale unusually fast, and copied numbers are exactly how that happens.
Found something out of date? Report it — corrections are the point.
Verified July 2026. Something outdated or incorrect? Report an error →