Suica, Welcome Suica or ICOCA: Which Japan IC Card Actually Fits Your Trip

What distinguishes Welcome Suica from regular Suica? The standard physical Welcome Suica has no deposit and is valid for 28 days, including the purchase date. It is available at selected airports and stations, not only at airports. Regular Suica has a refundable ¥500 deposit and no 28-day limit. Check JR East’s official information for current purchasing locations and validity rules.

The challenge is that you must make this decision in a crowded arrivals hall with a long line behind you, and that most of the time it is an irreversible decision. The Welcome Suica does not allow you to retrieve any of your money that you have added to the card. The Regular Suica provides refunds only for the area where you purchased the card. The option of purchasing by phone is determined by hardware that you cannot change after you go through the airport gates and claim your luggage. Thus, your decision will be based on four simple questions; where is your airport?, what type of phone do you use?, what are your travel dates?, and what are your chances of returning? You have already started answering one of these questions before you even step onto the train for the first time.

The 28-Day Clock Starts When You Buy the Card, Not When You First Tap It

For the standard physical Welcome Suica, the purchase date counts as Day 1. Day 28 is the last valid day; the card becomes invalid on Day 29, even if you have not used it. For example, a card purchased on October 2 is valid through October 29 and invalid from October 30. Check the validity dates on the reference paper issued with your card.

This information comes from JR East’s website, where they have verified it as of September 20, 2026. Each issuer (JR East, JR West and PASMO) has the right to create its own rules and may update its policies at any time; please make sure to check the issuer’s website before purchasing.

Waiting to use your card does not postpone its expiry. If you buy it on October 2 but first use it on October 7, the expiry remains October 29. Five calendar days have elapsed before your first tap. Account for time spent travelling with a rail pass before you start using Welcome Suica.

One of the most confusing aspects of counting down to the expiration date for a Suica Card can be found in an August 2025 Reddit post, asking if a card would expire 4 weeks after being purchased at 1:00 pm that day. One response indicated that It would be 28 days, including the day of purchase, so “27 days after the purchase day.” This follows JR East’s language.

The standard physical Welcome Suica’s validity period is shown on its reference paper. Do not use the “GOOD THRU” date on the back to calculate expiry. The 28-day period begins on the purchase date, not on the first tap.

Is the date printed on the back your expiry date?

Do not fall for this lie! If you turn your card over, you’ll find that there is an expiration date below the words “GOOD THRU,” which is typically years away, and the JR East terms and conditions indicate that this is not the actual expiration date of your card. The GOOD THRU date indicates the period that your card is considered an issued card, which has nothing to do with the 28 days.

The expiration date for your card does not appear on your card at all; it comes on a separate piece of paper that you receive with the card upon receipt. This small slip of paper will become more valuable to you than you may realize.

The standard Suica Card does not have any such thing as a 28-day expiration window. The mobile version has a longer expiration period, and the newest no-deposit Suica Card for airports is also using the same type of expiration.

The Five Cards Actually on the Table in 2026

Currently, there are five different products available for visitors to Japan. While there are inconsistencies with their counts elsewhere due to two being newly offered in 2022 and one recently being discontinued.

All five of these products allow for unlocking the same travelling gates as well as buying a bottle of tea from the same convenience store because Japan’s regional cards have been able to be used at all across Japan for years. Therefore, the table doesn’t tell you what the cards do. You need to focus on the middle two columns to see the true pattern: If you pay a deposit you can keep your card longer than your travels, but if you do not pay a deposit your card will be limited to a period of time. None of these options provide you with both function. No amount of shopping at the airport will change that.

While the two no deposit cards plastic cards are near identical, they operate on the same 28-day purchase date timetable and do not require deposit nor will provide refund; TOURIST PASMO was launched in April 2026 by PASMO Co., and is now available at both Narita and Haneda International Airports in Japan; the only difference between the two is where to buy them — JR East offers a product from one side of the airport while Keikyu and Keisei’s offer is found at other airport terminals — so whichever one you purchase will depend on your landing location.

In contrast, the two digital products produced by JR East are not interchangeable and multiple guides will frequently refer to them as the same; however, a Suica that sits in Apple Wallet and the Welcome Suica Mobile App offer two separate products that function differently and will last differently.

The invalidated card is also worth considering. For many years it was the Tokyo tourist card known as PASMO PASSPORT, and it had the rule on when to use the card abolished by PASMO Co. in October 2024. A guide that was last updated in July 2026 still lists PASMO PASSPORT as an active card in its comparison chart, and it is this fact which leads many holidaymakers to arrive at the airport in search of a counter to obtain a product that was no longer valid at the time they purchased it.

ICOCA is the outlier worth keeping in view. JR West sells the card from ticket machines and Midori-no-madoguchi ticket offices, the ¥500 deposit sits inside the purchase price the same way, and — as JR West states on its own guide, checked 20 September 2026 — a credit card cannot be used to buy one. Everywhere else in the country it behaves like a Suica. Its only real difference is whose counter you must reach to get the deposit back.

No single one of the five cards is better than the others. Selecting which one is right for you is determined by four factors associated with your journey, all of which you already know.

Answer These Five Questions and Your Card Picks Itself

The sequence of the questions is important; if you answer the first question that leads you to an answer, your card will no longer be in the game; if you answer it later you have to figure out again what card you chose to remove.

1. Do you land in Kansai? If you arrive at Kansai International rather than Narita or Haneda, buy an ICOCA and stop reading the list. The no-deposit visitor cards are a Tokyo-airport product; JR West’s card is the one on sale where you are standing.
2. Is your stay longer than 28 days? If yes, a no-deposit card will die before you fly home with your balance inside it. Take the deposit card.
3. Will you be back in Japan within ten years? If yes, take the deposit card again — this time not to survive the trip but to survive the gap between trips.
4. Is the phone in your pocket an iPhone? If yes, the mobile route skips the airport counter entirely. If you carry an Android bought outside Japan, treat this as a no; the reason is hardware you cannot install your way around.
5. Did everyone in your group answer question 4 the same way? If not, route each traveller separately. Fares are calculated per card from tap-in to tap-out, so two people cannot share one, and a household can legitimately end up carrying two different products.

Your four possible answers

• Welcome Suica, for a short Tokyo-area trip with no return planned and no iPhone. TOURIST PASMO is the same trade on a different counter, so take whichever one you reach first.
• Mobile Suica, for a short trip with an iPhone in your pocket. You skip the queue and top up without cash, which is the biggest day-to-day difference between the two routes.
• ICOCA, if you land in Kansai. It works identically in Tokyo, so there is no second card to buy later.
• A regular Suica you keep, if you are staying more than four weeks or expect to be back. The deposit is the price of a card that is still alive next time.

These question sets are practical tools for this guide, based on the four items that will directly affect your answer, which include where you arrive, how long you remain, if you intend to come back, and what type of mobile phone you utilize. This guide does not include any recommendations from JR East, JR West or PASMO regarding routing options; none of those companies has published this specific way to route.

Two of the questions do more with less than others; one is that the mobile phone provides an answer automatically before your selection of preference has any impact. The other is that the airport where your flight arrives determines your routing option.

What Your Phone Decides Before You Do: FeliCa, iPhone and the Android Wall

The mobile route availability on your phone is solely determined by it, and this occurs before your preferences are even considered. An iPhone can store a transit card for Japan no matter where you buy it in the world, while an Android device bought outside of Japan cannot be used in the same way; and there is no setting, app or account change that will fix this situation.

The Apple side is more generous than most guides report. Apple sets a general floor of iPhone 8 or Apple Watch Series 3, then adds a separate line for Suica: an iPhone 7 will do. Guides printing “iPhone 8 and later” have copied the general rule and dropped the exception, which matters if your handset is a few years old.

The “everything you will read” explanation of Android devices is outdated. Previously, it was stated that such devices would not be supported as they did not have the required chip. However, on the newest Pixels sold outside of the USA, the chip is present and is now listed in the Google Wallet as enabling the Suica option.

Appearing is not working. Google still conditions Suica and PASMO on devices purchased in Japan, checked on 20 September 2026. On Reddit in August 2026, owners of international Pixel 11 models described the card appearing and then failing at the moment of issue; one comment put it as “For all global Pixel 11 models, you need to be in Japan to enable FeliCa, even if you bought the phone in Japan.” Those are individual reports, not policy. The policy is Google’s, and it has not moved.

There are two locks, and they aren’t the same. The first lock requires that a chip be present, as well as for the issuer to have agreed to allow its card on that device in the specific country where it will be used. It is the second lock that prevents visiting Android users from using their phones to unlock doors, not the first. Rooting an Android phone is not an advisable method of travel.

If you are on Android, what is the honest alternative?

The two locks are not interchangeable as far as reliability goes. A reliable lock is a physical card, while an unreliable one is the ability to tap a contactless credit card on a gate. The ability to tap a contactless card is available on many private rail and subway lines in Tokyo.

Check the limits of each card before making plans based upon them. According to GO TOKYO, it is not currently possible to tap a credit card on JR lines, Keisei Line or Tokyo Monorail, and only certain Tobu and Seibu lines can be tapped as of GO TOKYO’s last update on 1 September 2026. The majority of first-time visitors to Japan will use the JR Lines and the Tokyo Monorail, so it is wise to have a backup plan (such as a contactless card) in place prior to arrival.

That leaves the counter, which you will need to know about before arriving in Japan, so you can make plans to reach it.

Narita, Haneda or Kansai: Your Arrival Airport Narrows the Choice

When it comes to which card you can buy, it depends on the counter you can get to and the three main arrival airports don’t have the same shelves. Geography eliminates options before any preferences can be made regarding deposits and expiry dates.

At Narita, two different companies sell to you, in the same building. JR East has Travel Service Centers located at both Terminal 1 Station and Terminal 2·3 Station, with dedicated Welcome Suica vending machines in those locations as well; and JR East limits you to only one Welcome Suica on their page. Keisei has TOURIST PASMO from the Skyliner & Keisei Information Center at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2·3, but the only option available is for a denomination of ¥2,000. Therefore, depending on what amount you want on your opening balance, you decide whether to go to JR East or to Keisei for your card.

The same applies to Haneda, just a different geographical layout for the airport. JR East’s Welcome Suica counter and vending machine are located at Terminal 3, located at the Tokyo Monorail station (the same train you’ll use to get to the city). Keikyu has traveller ticket machines located at the gates of the Terminal 1·2 station and the Keikyu Tourist Information Center at Terminal 3. The machines in Terminal 3 give you six options for amounts from ¥1,000 to ¥10,000, and those machines accept credit cards (as opposed to cash-only machines located at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2).

After a long flight and being empty of yen, the fact that you can use a credit card to purchase your card is definitely a bigger benefit than what it looks like. This is also where the near-identical tourist cards stop being interchangeable in practice.

The last few years have left one question lingering, ‘Is any of this stock available?’ The answer is yes, there will be stock available again. The shortage of chips that halted the sales of no-name Suica and PASMO cards has now ended, with unrestricted sales beginning in March 2025. Most importantly, regular Suica cards are now available again for purchase via the JR East vending machine network. JR East’s website indicates that several City Travel Service Centre locations still have their Welcome Suica product offerings discontinued; thus, it makes sense for visitors to purchase their Welcome Suica cards directly at the Airport as opposed to assuming they will have the opportunity to buy them later at some other station.

If you land at Kansai, the shelf looks different

At Kansai International Airport, there is no Welcome Suica or TOURIST PASMO products available. These products are sold exclusively through Tokyo airports, so travellers arriving in Osaka often waste time trying to locate the non-existent Welcome Suica counter.

According to JR West’s website, Kansai-Airport Station has a designated ticket office labelled Midori-no-madoguchi, which is open from 05:30 to 23:00, in addition to having Green Ticket Machines and Ordinary Ticket Machines. Staff is available at the ticket office for questions from foreign visitors, according to the arrival guide of the station (last checked on 20 September 2026). Moreover, an Ordinary Ticket Machine also sells ICOCA cards, which means passengers will not have to wait for the ticket counter to open if they arrive before or shortly after the counter opens, and may therefore purchase their cards immediately. Visitors are advised to follow the blue JR West signs located along the concourse rather than the red Nankai signs.

Before proceeding to an ICOCA vending machine, there are certain points to keep in mind. JR West specifies that you cannot use a credit card when purchasing an ICOCA. Therefore, be sure to have yen on hand when purchasing your ICOCA. Also, only visitors to Japan on Temporary Visitor status and who have a valid passport from outside Japan are eligible to purchase an ICOCA at the train station. For each visitor, one ICOCA can be purchased at a cost of ¥2,000, including a ¥500 deposit. The ordinary ICOCA vending machines will perform the same function as the visitor-design ICOCA.

It is important for you to understand that this information is being published by a travel agency. The travel agency markets trips, transfer services and add-ons; however, there is no way for you to purchase anything from them regarding your ICOCA card. Each of the ICOCA cards were available for purchase in the airport at the exact amount you chose to load onto the card without the added cost of the travel agency that would send you a voucher to redeem upon arriving in Japan. You have the choice of purchasing an ICOCA card at an airport when you arrive in Japan, or you may add funds to the card via your smartphone before leaving home.

Welcome Suica Mobile: 180 Days, No Queue, iPhone Only

The claim that the app is valid for 6 months is generally accurate; however, the claim does not state when the 6 months begins.

When does the validity period actually begin? According to JR East’s rules for the app dated September 20, 2026, the period begins on the date of your first added value. Therefore, you can’t start using the app until you actually add value, which usually happens when you arrive in Japan and make your first purchase. In other words, the validity period counts down before you add value to your card. Once the 180-day validity period expires, the value on the card also expires and cannot be refunded.

You receive a true, all-in-one solution for your Suica membership. The app permits you to create a secret keyword instead of filling out an account application form and all top-up transactions are processed through the credit card you already have in Apple Pay, eliminating cash and the need to purchase tickets through a ticket machine. The app since March 2026 also allows Green Car reservations on local trains, allows you to reserve first class on both JR East trains and limited express trains, and allows you to board non-reserved Shinkansen trains without needing to purchase a printed validation coupon as you did in the past.

However, this is only one way of getting a Suica card onto an iPhone. The comment from the destination specialist on the Tripadvisor Japan forum indicates that you can easily put a Suica card onto an iPhone by adding it as an Apple Pay account.

The app’s harsh and generalised ratings have given the App Store rating a score of 2.7 out of 5, based on 99 reviews (verified 20 Sept 2026) with the most widely spoken critical review titled ‘Useless. You might risk losing your money, steer clear of!’. The 180-day limit relates to the Suica, which this App allows you to issue, rather than Suica as a whole, therefore by downloading this App, you also agree to a restriction you would not otherwise have had.

Three rules in the terms that catch people out

The balances do not transfer between the app and the card. The rules forbid the issuance of transfers to or from the Issuer, i.e. physical Welcome Suica cannot be transferred to the app nor can the app be paid from the app to the Issuer. You will finish up with whatever method you had at the outset.

You must have your own name on the Apple Pay card. JR East specifies credit cards with other people’s names cannot be loaded, therefore this effectively precludes the traditional arrangement of one partner paying for everything except for the one card. Furthermore, anyone under the age of 13 is unable to use the Apple Pay function as Apple Pay does not allow their use.

Loading could be impossible prior to your arrival in Japan. The country you are currently standing in may legally restrict charging to a Suica card and the rules dictate a fallback that will not allow you to issue a card until you have entered Japan. In contrast, a March 2025 App Store reviewer described the opposite scenario: “Loading is only possible once you have arrived in Japan.”

The only rule that favours You and not many people have it in print. If the Suica is no longer available, and it was due to the loss of a phone, theft or breakage, then the terms will sent you to the Support Centre, and you will get refunded by the remaining balance on Suica Pocket. The only way to get a refund from the app is via this route, and the app deals with this situation that many travellers are concerned about.

If you want to use it as an English interface, have the ability to book your seat where you bought your ticket from, and avoid queues when you reach your destination, you should use it. If you just wanted a Suica in your iPhone, then you can choose not to. In both cases, you have now been introduced to both ways this system takes money from a user, either by losing its balance or charging a fee based on the amount left.

Deposits, Handling Fees and the Money You Never See Again

The deposit is typically the area where most people misinterpret the information, and this misinterpretation has no effect until the last day of use. In March of 2026, a Reddit user asked whether the ICOCA deposit could be used for a snack at the airport; another user quickly clarified that, “the deposit is not available to you until you return the card.” They added, “If you purchase an ICOCA by using a machine with 2000 yen, you will receive a card that contains 1500 yen on it.” The remaining 500 yen is not a secret balance. It represents the fee you must pay to possess the card, which is returned once you surrender the card to the organization.

JR East outlined its math for its own card on September 20, 2026. If you return a Suica card, you receive back your deposit of 500 yen and any balances that were left, with a deduction of 220 yen fees taken from the remaining balance. However, the fee is not deducted from the deposit amount; this is the one positive aspect of the incentive design.

Watch the second row twice. If any of the balances are less than 220 yen, the fees will take whatever amount is there, so if someone returned a card with a balance of 180 yen, that card will have the same 500 yen amount credited to it as would a card returned without any balance on it. Since the balance must be used up, it is a good idea to use it before your departure as opposed to at the airport.

Whose counter takes the card back?

Refunds fail here. According to JR East, Suica cards issued by them can only be returned at their stations, whereas cards issued by other companies (e.g., Tokyo Monorail) cannot be returned to JR East — you must return to the issuer.

Where you purchase your card plays a big part in the return process. For example, the Tokyo Monorail (the train many passengers take from Haneda) issues their own Suica cards under its name, and those cannot be refunded by JR East. The most important thing to ask the attendant when purchasing a Suica card is whose Suica it is, because that will determine which ticketing window at which city will provide your ¥500 refund when you return your card.

This same scenario exists west of Tokyo. An ICOCA card must be returned to JR West, and there is nothing you can do at a ticket office in Tokyo to change that; thus, this becomes an issue if you are on your way to or from Osaka but are flying into Narita.

THIS DOES NOT APPLY FOR WELCOME SUICA, TOURIST PASMO OR THE APP because there is no deposit to refund and no cash refund available on cards after their time expires. The funds that are available on those cards after they expire remain with their original issuer.

A single piece of information this guide can’t provide is the refund handling cost for ICOCA, which JR West makes available on its English-language website, but is only mentioned on the Japanese PDFs of the same information. The refund handling cost is presumably the same as the one provided for the JR East fare card (which is also presumably set at ¥220). However, this should be treated as an assumption rather than a confirmation – and I recommend asking at the Midori-no-madoguchi counter when returning the card.

When you first load money onto your card, you should treat it like a real decision rather than a random act at the machine.

How Much to Load, and Why ¥20,000 on Day One Is a Mistake

Each of these cards has a maximum stored value of ¥20,000; JR East, JR West and PASMO cards are capped at that amount. For some types of travelers, this maximum value represents a goal. It is intended to be loaded only once, then never thought of again, and will be used for the entire vacation. The maximum value is not a guideline, but rather, it is simply the maximum amount you can lose.

To determine the cost of your travels, begin by considering what it actually costs to travel over a day. As an example, on 20 September 2026, the Tokyo Metro published its fare schedule broken down by distance band, which establishes that to travel up to six kilometres using an IC card will cost ¥178; and up to 12 kilometres will be ¥324. Thus, the total for four trips in one day will be between roughly ¥710 and ¥1,300, respectively. JR line and private rail line fares are mutually exclusive pricing systems; so rather than focus on the exact total you will spend, think of it as defining the expected amount.

Compare your estimated amount to the amount actually given by travelers. A post in 2024 on Reddit asked for the amount of money to be placed on an IC card before going out into the world, one traveler finished their twelve-day journey after placing ¥11,000 on their card; they arrived at the airport with approximately ¥50 remaining on their card. Another traveler spent approximately ¥10,000 during their two-week holiday, while a third traveler used ¥8,000 during a twenty-one day trip. Therefore, all three travelers spent substantially less than the maximum stored value of ¥20,000. By loading ¥20,000 on the first day of your vacation, you are not purchasing the convenience of your trip, but are instead prepaying for a trip you have not yet started.

There are three significant issues that arise at the top of the pricing range that are completely different issues. An unspent balance remaining on either Welcome Suica, TOURIST PASMO, or the app will not be refunded, it will be lost. The amount remaining on both Suica and ICOCA is refunded, however, it can only be refunded at the issuing company’s window and all handling fees will be deducted from the amount refunded. Last, all physical cards will state “a lost Suica cannot be reissued” on the card itself.

The statement “a lost Suica cannot be reissued” is significant. In the same thread, a traveller loaded ¥5,000 on their Suica card and lost it an hour later after being “braindead after the long flight”; they now refuse to carry more than ¥2,000 on the Suica card.

A loading rule that survives contact with a vending machine

Ideally, you should load ¥2,000 to ¥3,000 onto the Suica card when you are at the airport, and continue to add funds as necessary. JR East provides ATM-like vending machines in each station that will accept ¥500, ¥1,000, ¥2,000, ¥3,000, ¥5,000 and ¥10,000 denominations and you are not restricted on how many times you are able to reload funds to the Suica card; furthermore, each station has at least one if not more vending machines to do so. The penalty for not loading enough funds is only around sixty seconds to the screen; however, the penalty for loading too many funds can range from a handling fee to losing the entire balance.

You should also expect that you will use the card more often than you initially planned to because, after approximately two days of use, the Suica card is no longer just a train ticket. Other users have mentioned using the card to make purchases from convenience stores, restaurants, vending machines, coin lockers and frequently, from “arcade claw machines.” This is exactly how the Suica card is designed to operate, and thus, the figure you derive based solely on train fares will be significantly lower than what you will actually spend.

The majority of this material applies to one group only. If you have taken out a Deposit Card earlier and are going to return in the future, the balance does not face the same issues as it would have flown home with you; it will still be there waiting to be used on subsequent visits. Add funds based on what is easiest for you to do. The strict criteria mentioned above apply to those with a Deposit Card and an expiry date – this, of course, applies primarily to first time visitors.

Topping up your card is straightforward up until you attempt to do so using a foreign card.

Topping Up: Cash Machines, Konbini and the Foreign-Visa Problem

When using plastic, you don’t have to worry about the well-known foreign card issue because you were never allowed to use any card to begin with. JR East clearly defines that Suica cards can’t be reloaded using a credit card and instead must use cash in Japanese yen at an ATM. While this limitation seems like a disadvantage, the inability to use credit cards for Suica reloads also means that users are immune to many issues that arise from credit card usage.

You will find cash reload machines available for use almost everywhere and they are easy to use. You can use various types of reload machines (ticket machines, multi-function machines and fare adjustment machines) to add cash to your Suica card in ¥500, ¥1,000, ¥2,000, ¥3,000, ¥5,000 and ¥10,000 increments. Convenience store cash registers and 7-11 ATMs can also be used for Suica cash reloads, and cash reloads can be completed 24 hours a day, which isn’t the case with all other reload methods.

Things get complicated when using phones as reload methods and this is not due to your own bank but because of the Visa network restricting foreign issued Visa cards from adding funds to Suica via Apple Pay(since August 2022). Visa lifted the restriction on Suica after the iOS 17.2 update in December 2023 but this restriction wasn’t removed everywhere else.

Author Joel Breckinridge Bassett has been tracking the development of Apple Pay in Japan for nearly 10 years, currently maintaining a troubleshooting page which was last updated on July 27, 2026. This page indicates that some foreign-issued Visa cards are still blocked by the company for use with the Suica recharge feature in Wallet, particularly if you are physically located outside of Japan with your iPhone. When you arrive in Japan, you may find that there are some cards that can only be used on the first attempt upon arrival. Additionally, no foreign-issued Visa cards are accepted for direct recharges via Apple Watch, but rather must be routed through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.

However, there is one important exception noted on the troubleshooting page that will affect the ability of many visitors to use this service: currently, Visa does not allow any foreign-issued Visa card to be used for recharge of the ICOCA and PASMO cards using Apple Pay. Therefore, if you are traveling to Kansai, and wish to load an ICOCA on your iPhone using your Visa card, this is the combination to test prior to your arrival in Japan.

Why your top-up fails at three in the morning

It is also important to note that Mobile Suica does not operate on a 24-hour basis. Recharge of Mobile Suica via the Wallet app or Suica app occurs between 04:00-02:00 (Japan time), which results in a 2-hour maintenance period when it is not functioning overnight. Due to jet lag, many first-time visitors may find themselves facing a Non-working app at the incorrect time.

Travelers have had the harsh experience of learning how Mobile Suica works, so they pass their experience along. On a Tokyo forum on Tripadvisor, an experienced traveler in Wellington used a Wise Visa card issued by NZ with no issues, but they also said, “The system is shut down from about 2am to 4am Japan time—weekends are fine.” Another traveler from London posted that they received “Payment not completed” on both Lloyds Visa Debit and Lloyds Mastercard. A US traveler posted they were able to use their Apple Card the entire trip.

There is no reason to panic if you have made multiple attempts without success, but your banking app may indicate multiple pending charges; these are temporary authorizations that the Mobile Suica system processes when maintenance is performed overnight. Banks may not reflect this in your account immediately.

The process is simple. For Wallet to work, you must be using your Location Services, be sure to attempt to use it in the time frame of 04:00 to 02:00 Tokyo time, have a back-up Mastercard or Amex for your Visa, and remember that a ¥1,000 note (one-thousand) will always work in a ticket vending machine.

If the card you purchased includes a small piece of slip of paper, be sure to keep it safe. For visitors, this slip is necessary for something that the card does not possess.

The Reference Paper You Must Not Throw Away

The reference paper is the source of truth on whether or not your card remains viable; it is not printed on your card and is provided separately along with your card, and both organizations refer to this document as a reference paper.

For the JR East version of the card, the reference paper contains four pieces of information: (1) If the card is an adult or child card, (2) The period of validity for the Welcome Suica Card, (3) The amount of money that has been loaded onto the card when purchased and (4) The name and dates of all of the passes that have been registered to the card. In addition, JR East notes that this information is not printed on the Welcome Suica card itself and instructs cardholders to carry this reference paper with them and present it to staff when requested.

PASMO is equally blunt about its own. Using TOURIST PASMO, it says, “please make sure you have your reference paper”, which lists the expiration date at the top, the age category, the value on the card and details of any discount tickets bought with it. Two companies, two products, one identical instruction that most guides do not mention at all.

The end result is a common occurrence that many people experience, but no one likes it. You enter a train station in Tokyo, the gate closes in front of you, and an attendant asks how long your card has been valid. In order to answer this question, you must consult a reference paper that you left in the bin at the airport, since the date printed on the back of the card is not the expiration date. Therefore, without the reference paper, you have no way of knowing the date on which the card was purchased.

Lost it already? You can print another one

People should know this because it makes a minor catastrophe into a quick two-minute job. As of September 20, 2026, according to JR East’s official website, you can have your Welcome Suica reference slip reprinted. Simply insert your Welcome Suica card into an automatic ticket machine or multifunctional ticket machine within the Suica service area, push the reprint button, and the slip will pop back out. If you cannot do this, you can ask a station employee to help you.

The automatic ticket machines are set to Japanese, so be sure to change the machine’s language option first and look for the reprint option rather than the top-up option option. There are no fees associated with the card, and they do not need to be loaded for the reprint function to work.

PASMO does not provide a comparable reprint option on the TOURIST PASMO, therefore making the reference slip more valuable for that reason versus less valuable. The PASMO shield statements state that there is no possibility of reissuing a lost TOURIST PASMO and also that any TOURIST PASMO that is used improperly will be rendered void and seized, therefore, there are several reasons for you to have physical documentation for the card.

There is also a simpler method that combines the above methods into one. When you are given the reference slip, take a picture of it with your mobile device and store the reference slip somewhere other than in your back pocket. The recommendations are a suggestion from this guide rather than from the issuer, however, it allows for that information to survive even if your wallet is stolen.

The reference slip contains information about when the Welcome Suica card will expire. However, it does not provide you with information about the geographical location where the card can no longer be used, therefore, this a bigger problem for many users.

Where One Tap Stops Working: Area Boundaries and the Shinkansen

The cards are sold based on the premise that they will be usable throughout Japan, and this premise has been met in large part by these cards. It does not mean you can take a trip anywhere within the country for the price of one tap on your card. There will be two points at which you will not be able to use these cards, and the points at which you cannot do this will vary from region to region.

The first way the cards cannot be used is at the borders of different areas. JR East has divided the Suica coverage areas into regions, which are: Tokyo metropolitan area (including Greater Tokyo), Sendai, Niigata, Aomori, Morioka, Akita, and parts of Hokkaido, Tokai, West Japan, and Kyushu. JR East has stated on its website for the Suica card, as of September 20, 2026, that it is not possible to travel by Suica card from one area to another. The example they provided was travel from Tokyo to Sendai. It is also stated on the Welcome Suica pages for the reverse direction: you must begin and end your trip in the same area.

The resolution of this problem is not particularly complex if you are aware of it ahead of time. If you cross the boundary from one area to another, you will need to “exit” the ticket gate and “re-enter” through another ticket gate, or buy a paper ticket for your entire trip before starting. If you make this mistake by accident, you are likely to pay more because of it.

In the system, an accident has occurred with a card called “In Progress.” Tapping on the card will execute the first trip but completing the trip requires exiting at a location outside of the area covered by your Suica card. To complete the trip, you must pay for an entire fare in cash when reaching your destination. You may not use the card again until a station agent clears it and this must occur at a station belonging to the last railway company used, which will not necessarily be the station where the incident took place.

The shinkansen is not a tap

A Suica card is for local travel only, while bullet trains do not qualify as a local fare. As noted in the Welcome Suica area of this website, all limited express trains, express trains, and Green Car services must have separate tickets purchased in advance and are not covered under an IC card beyond the base fare.

The only exception in the system is through a mobile device. The Welcome Suica Mobile App allows you to travel on non-reserved seats on the Tohoku, Hokkaido, Akita, Yamagata, Joetsu, and Hokuriku shinkansen as an IC user using Touch de Go! Shinkansen. This option is not available for plastic card users.

Determining whether a rail pass is better value for a specific route versus paying individual journey fares requires additional calculations, thus making it best suited for inclusion in a guide on rail passes rather than a guide on IC Cards.

There was a situation no one expected that outright breaks the promise made nationally. On Nov 16, 2024, five bus/rail train companies in Kumamoto Prefecture were the very first to completely remove their acceptance of any type of nationwide IC cards. This happened because the five bus/train companies did not want to incur the costs of replacing their existing reader equipment. According to The Mainichi, approximately 5,650,000 rides (approximately 24% of all rides) during the previous calendar year were purchased using these cards.

The paper highlighted the experience of a passenger stuck at a bus stop. A 67-year-old female traveler traveling home to Hachioji after her trip was attempting to use her IC card and ended up paying with cash because she did not know. “I had charged up (my nationwide IC card), but I had no choice (of how to pay), it’s just a local circumstance,” she stated.

Consider this experience as an important lesson rather than a footnote associated with Kumamoto. Each operator makes the commercial decision on whether to accept and the various conditions under which to allow acceptance of IC cards can always change. The further one travels outside the major metropolitan areas or the larger distances from the major metropolitan areas, the more important it is to confirm whether or not IC cards are accepted before assuming that they will be accepted. This does not mean that carrying some cash is a sign of poor planning.

The last issue that is relevant to your trip is how to get back the funds that you originally loaded onto your card before you return from your trip.

Spending the Last Yen: The Departure-Day Endgame

The last day is arithmetic, and whoever you hold holds the same answer to the question, but for different reasons.

With a Welcome Suica, a TOURIST PASMO, or the mobile app, the last amount of money on your card is the issuer’s, regardless of its validity status or remaining balance. JR East has made it clear that they do not offer refunds, regardless of whether the card has been used or has a current balance; Visa states that there are no refunds on value added; and the listing for the mobile app states that users should use their remaining balance before using the card at the airport, station, or other places. Three different cards, three different messages.

With a Suica or ICOCA you can receive back your money, but there is a cost for doing so. If you return a card that had a balance of ¥1000, you will get back a total of ¥1280 (your deposit and whichever amount was remaining), but if you bought your actual desires with that same ¥1,000 and returned an empty card, you will receive back the full amount of your purchase and a ¥500 refund. The total handling fee of ¥220 gets you back the same amount of cash, whether returning a card with money left over or not.

As such, plans for our future travel are identical for everyone. Plan to arrive at the airport with the card as empty as possible and consider the refund counter a last resort, and not part of your travel plans.

How to actually land on zero

Avoid topping-up large amounts (¥10,000 or more) two days before travelling and instead, do quick ¥1,000 transactions at the machines. Because there are a large number of machines and kiosks, the amount of time wasted from running short while waiting for a screen is far less than the potential financial loss by overshooting on a no-deposit card.

Let the gate take care of the last leg of your trip. A Reddit traveller describes their experience running for the gate in 2024 as follows: “don’t top-up at the airport; when you get there you will just lose money if you do not pay the short difference at a fare adjustment machine near the airport exit (the fare adjustment machine charges you for what you actually owe); this is best practice, not a specific rule.”

Once at the destination, spend the remaining balance on items you would have purchased regardless, as vending machines accept IC cards and there is no fee for cash change. Reviewers have recommended using the airport vending machines to “keep hydrated on the return flight from Japan”.

Please be aware of two points before you start planning your trips around JR East: (1) Pay for your coin locker in full before using the Welcome Suica to cover, so lockers aren’t a good place to leave a balance. (2) While some tills will allow you to pay for part of your items with cash, and the remainder with an IC card, this is not a requirement published by JR East. Treat any split payment as a courtesy, not a right.

An iPhone Card provides a level of precision unavailable to the plastic card community. A traveller described the experience of finding out how much his last meal at the airport would cost and putting an exact amount into his Card for that meal — leaving the airport with an empty balance. Adding funds to the second iPhone Card is one distinct advantage that this payment option offers when you arrive at your next destination.

This information presumes that the Card you are using is working. Occasionally, a Card may not operate as intended; on other occasions, there may not be a Card available to you.

If Your Card Is Sold Out, Broken or Expired Mid-Trip

There are three problems associated with these cards that are unique to each type, but they all have one thing in common: panic. The supply issue of “sold out,” the calendar issue of “expired,” and the procedural issue of “broken,” and the respective documented solutions, are problems that people rarely print out.

We will address the supply issue because it’s old news. The chip shortage that caused the shelves to be empty has passed, and the normal sales of Suica began in March 2025, which means the once-generic assertion that visitors may purchase only an initial Welcome Suica is now a thing of the past. The most updated sales information from JR East that I received on 20 September 2026, still shows that the Welcome Suica is temporarily unavailable to purchase at eight different Travel Service Centers, including Kashiwa, Kawasaki, Tachikawa, Ōmiya, Funabashi, Fukushima, and Niigata. However, it is still available at the large airports and stations in the Tokyo area.

When you find yourself in front of a counter without any products available, make a plan of action and utilize a smaller list of alternatives instead of searching for another Welcome Suica. You may obtain a regular Suica from the vending machine with the same functionality and a ¥500 deposit that is refunded to you. You can also obtain an equivalent TOURIST PASMO card from either Keikyu or Keisei without incurring any deposit. Lastly, if you have an Apple iPhone, then there’s no need to go to a counter to purchase your card.

The expiration date is essentially a “take it or lose it” situation — you cannot do anything with a Welcome Suica card once it expires, which occurs on Day 29 when the purchase date is counted as Day 1. The balance of the card is not refundable at the expiration date, and JR East does not allow individual customers to purchase more than one Welcome Suica card. Therefore, if you want to replace your expired Welcome Suica card, you cannot expect to do so with an identical card (the same design, serial number, and so forth). If you plan to stay in Japan for more than four weeks, then it has always been the case that the correct choice of card to use (the one you will want to continue using) is the deposit card. This is true even after 29 days.

A long-term Welcome Suica card for three to six months is available for travel agents (in bulk) from JR East, but not for individual customers from ticket offices, such as Travel Service Centre. If you receive a long-term Welcome Suica card from a tour operator, that is where it was acquired.

If the card itself stops working

Before concluding that your card has malfunctioned, make sure to check the same three items that JR East uses to determine whether the issue is with the card itself. It is possible that there is something in the card holder blocking the reader, or that the card did not fully process at the last station you used your card. It is also possible that you exited through a station that is not within the Suica area and therefore require adjustments to your card’s usage. Any station attendant that is within the Suica area can assist you with all three potential issues that could cause your card to malfunction.

In the event that your card actually fails, assuming an official malfunction, the only way to return your money is with the official refund process. The detailed information needed for a refund is located on the back of your card. To verify your balance by using the 17-digit card number (which starts with “JE”), the staff needs to scan the back of the card. It is important to note that JR East cannot issue you a refund unless you can provide proof of the 17-digit card number from the back of your card; therefore, treat the back of your card like you would your boarding pass when flying.

Most people are surprised at how soon they receive their refund after applying. After applying, you will receive your refund certificate; however, you will not receive any money until the next day after applying (after the day you applied), and you have 14 days from the day your card no longer works to collect your refund at a JR East ticket office located within the Suica area. This timeframe is an important reason to start the refund process immediately after your card stops working. Do not wait until you are headed to the airport.

The other issuers are terser. PASMO says only that if a TOURIST PASMO stops working you should talk to station staff, and warns that a card being used improperly will be voided and confiscated. On the mobile side, a lost or broken phone that cannot be reissued routes you to the Suica support centre, which returns the balance through a Suica Pocket.

One thing remains consistent among all three card issuers concerning lost cards: if you simply lose your card, you cannot reissue any of these cards.

Checklist Antes de Sair de Casa

How well your trip turns out depends on four facts, and at least three of them have nothing to do with what’s the best card for you: 1) What airport you land in, 2) What phone you have, 3) If you’re going to stay longer than 28 days, and 4) Whether you will return or not. It is best to get these four facts settled before you go to the airport, as they can all be very difficult to answer when you’re at the arrivals side of the airport and there’s a long line of people behind you to buy their tickets. If you can get all of these four facts correct, then it shouldn’t take you more than two minutes to buy your card from a machine on the way to the train. But if you get any of these four facts wrong, then you’ll end up with a balance that no one will refund, or deposit that you’ll have to pick up at the wrong ticket office on the opposite side of the country.

Frequently asked questions

Do children need their own IC card?

A child’s own card is required. JR East and PASMO produce separate cards for child passengers that are good until March 31st in the year that the child turns 12. When purchasing the child’s card from JR East, you will be required to provide the child’s passport for verification purposes.

Will my Suica still work if my iPhone battery dies?

A Suica in Apple Wallet may still open a gate on a flat battery, within limits. Apple says Express Mode power reserve lasts up to five hours, covers only some cards, and is unavailable if you switch the phone off yourself. JR East warns you pay cash if the device dies inside the gates.

Can two of us share one card?

When using a train, you cannot share your card with another person. The gate will log your entry according to the card you used to travel, and it will not be accepted again until the trip ends at the exit, thus preventing the second passenger from using that card. You need a separate card for each passenger, including children.