If you’re traveling in Japan, one of the most useful things you can get yourself is a Suica card. Originally introduced as a prepaid card for using East Japan Railway Company/JR East trains, Suica has grown to be Japan’s most prevalent electronics payment method, accepted at a huge variety of vending machines, shops, and restaurants.
Being able to make those purchases with a simple tap of your Suica card will save you a ton of time and hassle, and let you and your travel companions get back to sightseeing instead of fiddling with yen bills and coins that you might not be accustomed to.
Getting a Suica card used to be a snap, as you could purchase them from the ticket machines at just about any JR East station. Unfortunately, that changed last year, when the global semiconductor shortage led JR East to suspend general sales of Suica cards indefinitely.
It’s now been more than a full year since then, but there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel, as JR East says it expects to reinstate unrestricted Suica card sales this coming fall.
It hasn’t been entirely impossible to get a Suica card during the general sales suspension, but only for those in certain special situations. Suica card sales have continued as regularly for children and people with disabilities. More expensive Suica card rail passes, which include travel along a set route between two designated stations, have also remained available. For inbound overseas travelers, a special foreign tourist Suica, Welcome Suica, has also remained available, but can only be used for a period of 28 days, and could could only be purchased at Narita and Haneda Airports and select major Toyko-area train stations.
But come this fall, JR East is projecting being able to offer Suica cards without restrictions, and also says it will be able to expand the availability of Welcome Suica cards to a greater number of its Ekitabi Concierge in-station tourism service counters.
Meanwhile, general sales of Pasmo, east Japan’s other major prepaid card for train, shopping, and restaurant payments, remain suspended. It’s good to know that at least one option is coming back in full force, though.
Sources: Tokyo Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitely
-- New Welcome to Kanto Pasmo IC Card is the most kawaii way to ride trains on a trip to Japan
-- Tourists can (finally) make shinkansen reservations from overseas with new app
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2024/08/08/general-sales-of-japans-most-convenient-prepaid-train-shopping-card-to-finally-resume-soon/
5 Comments
Login to comment
WA4TKG
I still have my PassMo from over ten years ago….just don’t have any ¥ on it right now, being that I’m in Okinawa
sakurasuki
Japan the land of rising sun where semiconductor is heart Japanese product, having difficulty in providing IC chips to Japanese public?
Jonathan Prin
Suica card will function 10 years after last use, if I remmeber well (Pasmo I don't know).
I have a few Suica cards when going there with "tourists" friends or family.
falseflagsteve
Always use my ICOCA card, always available for sale boys and girls.
smithinjapan
Guys, NONE of these cards has been a snap in any way in Japan. When Apple Pay came to Japan (like five years late) you could only set it up through a Suica card. My local Osaka 7-11s were all advertising it, so I asked them for a Suica card. They kind of scratched their heads and talked to each other before letting me know you can only purchase them in the Kanto Area. So, I went to JR, which surely would sell them. Nope, JR here only sells ICOCA. So I asked them where I could get one. They said you had to go to Kanto or have someone there send you one (I did the latter).
But, for tourists traveling with a Suica card to other parts of Japan you were unable to top up the charge until very recently (and only on 7-11 vending machines), and ticket selling machines don't allow you to charge via smartphone. So I often met tourists who were panicked because they couldn't use their cards. And if you've been here long enough to remember, you couldn't even use Suica or ICOCA cards on anything besides JR trains in those areas, meaning you needed separate cards for different train lines and the subways.