Which IC card to buy, where to get one, and the handful of rules that catch people out — the 28-day expiry, the refund that isn't, and the top-up that won't take your credit card.
Between 2023 and early 2025 a global IC chip shortage forced JR East and PASMO to suspend sales of unregistered cards, and for a long stretch a visitor arriving in Tokyo genuinely could not walk up to a machine and buy a plain Suica. That period is over.
JR East's own Suica page now lists the standard card denominations with no purchase restriction attached, and Welcome Suica has a published, growing list of sales points at both airports and the major city stations. There is no rationing notice on the operator's page.
An unusual amount of English-language advice on this topic is out of date. Articles written during the suspension are still ranking, still confidently telling people they cannot buy a card, and still recommending elaborate workarounds nobody needs any more. This is the single most-wrong fact about Tokyo transport on the English-speaking internet. If in doubt, check JR East's Suica page for a restriction banner before believing anyone — us included.
Suica is issued by JR East. PASMO is issued by the private railways and subway operators. That is the whole difference, and it stopped mattering to passengers years ago. Both work on every train, subway and bus across the Tokyo area, both work on the other's network, and both are accepted as electronic money at convenience stores, vending machines, restaurants and coin lockers. Both start with a ¥500 deposit and cap at ¥20,000.
Buy whichever the machine in front of you sells. The one place the distinction reappears is discount tickets: some passes can only be loaded onto a PASMO and some only onto a Welcome Suica, which we flag where it applies.
| Suica / PASMO | Welcome Suica | |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | ¥500, refundable | None |
| Sold in | ¥1,000–¥10,000 (deposit included) | ¥1,000–¥10,000 |
| Validity | 10 years of inactivity | 28 days, including day of purchase |
| Refund of unused balance | Yes, minus ¥220 | None, ever |
| Deposit returned | Always, in full | N/A |
| Where to refund | JR East stations (JR East cards) | Nowhere |
| Maximum balance | ¥20,000 | ¥20,000 |
| Purchase limit | — | One per person, in principle |
Sources: JR East — Suica and JR East — Welcome Suica, purchasing and using.
Take the normal Suica or PASMO unless you have a specific reason not to. The ¥500 deposit is fully refundable and the card keeps working for a decade, so if you ever come back you already have one. The refund fee of ¥220 only bites if you cash out with a balance, and you can simply spend the balance down in a convenience store instead.
Welcome Suica makes sense if you are here for well under four weeks, want to skip the deposit, and are confident you will run the balance close to zero — or if you want one of the passes that can only be loaded onto it. Just go in knowing that whatever is left on day 28 is gone.
Welcome Suica is designed for short-stay visitors and it does one thing very well — no deposit, no paperwork, tap and go. But it has two rules that are easy to walk past and expensive to discover late.
1. There are no refunds. At all. JR East's wording is unambiguous: no refunds are available regardless of the validity period or the remaining balance. Not at a station, not at the airport, not on the last day. Whatever is left on the card when you fly home stays on the card. Plan to spend it down — it works at convenience stores, vending machines and coin lockers, so the last ¥800 is easy enough to use up on the way to the airport.
2. The date printed on the back is not the expiry date. The card is valid for 28 days including the day you buy it, and becomes invalid on day 29. There is a "GOOD THRU" date embossed on the back that is something else entirely, and JR East flags the confusion explicitly. Count 28 days from purchase, not from the card.
You are given a paper reference paper when you buy, showing the validity period, the balance and any pass loaded onto the card — none of which is printed on the card itself. Keep it: staff may ask for it. If you lose it, you can reprint it at ticket machines within the Suica area or ask at a station office.
A handful of JR East day passes can be registered onto the card rather than issued separately: the NONBIRI Holiday Suica Pass, the Tokyo Metropolitan District Pass (Tokunai Pass), the Yokohama-Minatomirai Pass, and the Tokyo 1-Day Ticket. If one of those fits your plans, that is a genuine reason to choose Welcome Suica over a plain card.
The easiest place to get a card is the airport, before you have to work anything else out. Both Narita stations and Haneda Terminal 3 have staffed centres and dedicated machines.
Sold at these locations since 27 March 2025. In principle only one Welcome Suica is sold per person. A child card requires the child's passport or other ID at purchase, and a family member may buy it on their behalf. Source: JR East — Welcome Suica.
Ordinary Suica cards are sold from ticket machines at JR East stations, and PASMO from machines at subway and private railway stations. Toei quotes the entry price as ¥1,000 — a ¥500 deposit plus ¥500 of stored value — which is the standard minimum across operators.
Coming in on a train that needs a reserved seat? An IC card is not enough for the Narita Express or the Skyliner — both are fully reserved and need a seat ticket. Buy the card at the airport anyway; it starts earning its keep the moment you reach the city. Narita options → · Haneda options →
Top-ups are made at station ticket machines, multifunction machines and fare adjustment machines showing the IC symbol, in fixed increments of ¥500, ¥1,000, ¥2,000, ¥3,000, ¥5,000 or ¥10,000. There is no limit on how many times you can top up; the balance simply cannot exceed ¥20,000.
Cash only, and yen only. Station machines will not top up a physical IC card with a credit card. This surprises visitors from cities where transit cards are card-loadable, and it is the reason to keep some cash on you even in a country moving steadily toward contactless. A Welcome Suica can also be topped up at Seven Bank ATMs, which are in every 7-Eleven — useful when the station machines have a queue.
Hand the card in at a JR East station and you get the remaining balance minus a ¥220 handling fee, plus the ¥500 deposit in full. JR East gives worked examples: with ¥1,000 on the card you receive ¥1,280; with ¥100 on it you lose the ¥100 and still get the ¥500 back; with ¥0 you get the ¥500 back.
Which means the arithmetic is simple: if your balance is above ¥220, cashing out is worth it. If it is below, spend it in a convenience store and hand in an empty card for the deposit.
One catch — a Suica issued by JR East can only be returned at a JR East station. Cards issued by other companies, including Tokyo Monorail, have to go back to whoever issued them.
JR East publishes a Welcome Suica Mobile app for iOS that issues and tops up a Suica using a credit card registered in Apple Pay — which neatly solves the cash-only problem above. It works anywhere the IC logo appears, nationwide, and it can be used to board non-reserved Shinkansen seats within the JR East area.
Two practical notes from JR East's own guidance: the app requires location services switched on and will not work without them, and some countries restrict issuing or topping up before you arrive — if it refuses at home, try again once you have landed.
PASMO functions can be added to compatible smartphones as Mobile PASMO, with some services excluded. Toei confirms both Mobile PASMO and Mobile Suica work across all of its services.
Tokyo Metro operates a Tap to Ride service that lets you through its gates with a contactless credit, debit or prepaid card, or a phone wallet holding one. It is genuinely convenient — but it is one operator's system, not a city-wide one. An IC card still covers JR, Toei, Tokyo Metro, the private railways and the buses on a single tap, and pays for your coffee afterwards.
You cannot ride between IC areas. Suica works in the Tokyo area and also in Sendai, Niigata, Aomori, Morioka, Akita and parts of Hokkaido, Tōkai, West Japan and Kyushu — but a journey has to start and finish inside the same area. JR East's example is the obvious one: you cannot tap in at a Tokyo-area station and out at a Sendai-area station. Crossing between regions means buying a ticket. If you are travelling long distance, this is the rule that catches you.
Limited express and Green Car travel needs a separate ticket. An IC card covers the basic fare. Riding a limited express, a Shinkansen, or a Green Car on a local train needs the appropriate supplementary ticket on top.
Ten years of inactivity kills the card. An unused Suica becomes invalid after ten years. If that happens you can transfer any remaining balance to a new card or claim a refund — the balance minus the handling fee, plus the ¥500 deposit. Lost cards cannot be reissued: an unregistered card is bearer money, so treat it like cash.
Where the card really earns its keep. Tokyo's rail network is run by several companies with separate fare systems, and a single journey can cross two or three of them. Working out the right paper ticket for a JR-to-Toei-to-Metro trip is genuinely fiddly. Tapping in and out hands that problem to the gate. How the networks divide up →
Verified July 2026. Something outdated or incorrect? Report an error →