Hi there!
An IC card is basically a prepaid card or recharge card to pay for local public transportation in a convenient way.
You’ll put money on this card ahead of time so all you have to do for trains and buses is swipe to pay.
The more rural you get in Japan, the more buses and trains you might encounter that do not accept IC cards.
But in general, if you are traveling within big cities, then having an IC card makes taking local trains and local buses EASY!
Because you don’t have to bother with buying a train ticket ahead of time or figuring out how much the bus fare is that you need to pay in cash!
There are many different types of IC cards.
In Tokyo, the suica card and pasmo card are among the most popular.
In Kyoto and Osaka, the icoca card is the most common.
For local travel in Hokkaido, you’ll hear most about the kitaca card in reference to IC cards.
For local travel in Okinawa, you’ll hear most about the okica card when talking about IC cards!
In general, if you see that IC cards are accepted, all IC cards are accepted. The exception to this that I’ve seen is Okinawa.
When I went in 2019, the main city of Naha in Okinawa did not accept any other IC cards from Tokyo, Kyoto, or other parts of mainland Japan.
You’ll likely be able to buy an IC card at the first local train station you go to in Japan.
When is an IC card not enough?
Reserved trains will still also need separate tickets on top of the normal train fare.
The easiest thing to do in that case I think is to just find a nearby train station worker that can help you buy the additional ticket!
But it’s also common to buy the train tickets using the ticket machine on your own.
These are typically “limited express” type trains, and not “local” trains.
An example of this type of situation in which you need an additional ticket is going by train from Tokyo to the Chureito Pagoda for famous Mt Fuji views. You can swipe in and out at the ticket gate as you usually would, and then you can actually buy the added-fare ticket at the platform before you board the limited express train.
This might sound confusing, but don’t stress too much about it. You’ll probably figure it out! And if you do make some mistakes along the way… all a part of the Japan adventure. 😉 See some tips for your first trip to Japan though!
More below on how to buy (and use!) an IC card!
🗾
Where to buy an IC card
The easiest place to buy an IC card in Japan is at a train station.
For purposes of traveling locally around Japan, it really doesn’t matter much whether you get a suica or pasmo or icoca.
It will be dictated more by the first city you’re in (Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka… or another major city!), the first train station you go to, and whether they are selling a suica, pasmo, or icoca… or another type of IC card!
But generally speaking, you are able to buy an IC card at the same ticket machine that you buy the train tickets.
Instead of buying a train ticket though, you’ll look for the option to buy an IC card.
At all train stations in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, you can expect there to be an option to switch the language to English.
Everyone you’re traveling with will need an individual card because everyone needs to individually pay for their own train fare or bus fare.
While it’s possible to pre-order an IC card ahead of time and buy it before you go to Japan, that is really not necessary, even if you are the over-planning type.
The card does NOT save you money
You’ll pay the regular train fare or bus fare, and this in no way will save you money.
It’s just highly convenient.
As a recharge cash card, it doesn’t cost you any extra money either. (Well, except to buy the card itself.)
But for individual trips, it won’t cost anything extra.
If you’ll be taking a lot of local trains and buses for travel within cities, you’ll want to highly consider getting one of these cards.
They can make your life MUCH easier!
One of the biggest advantages for the train is that you won’t have to buy individual train tickets.
And when you don’t have to buy train tickets, it means it can save you time too!
For buses, you don’t have to be concerned about always having exact change. (Although generally speaking, you can expect buses to have a coin exchange machine at the front of the bus.)
Now…
How to buy train tickets WITHOUT an IC card
To show you why you need an IC card (okay, why you should REALLY consider it!), let’s talk about how to buy local train tickets.
First you’ll go over to the area to buy train tickets.
Then, you need to figure out how much you need to pay.
In order to figure out how much you need to pay, you’ll have to find the train station you’re going to on the map.
Then once you’ve figured it out, you go through the process to buy the train ticket at the ticket machine.
Well you might not actually need to figure it out on the map. Because you may also be able to figure that out by using the machine. But then you will need to go through the process of finding the exact train station at the machine. And then it will come up on the machine how much it is. But the point is… hassle! 😜
You can bypass all of this if you have an IC card! Which, in the end, WILL save time… and brain power! 😜
You can go straight to the ticket gate and swipe through!
You’ll tap both on entry and exit.
Enter…
Go down to the train…
Exit the train station!
When you swipe out after the train ride, it’ll show you how much the train fare cost, and how much money you have left on the card.
If you have a train ticket, you’ll insert the ticket in the slot, also both at entry and exit.
On entry, the ticket will come out again and you need to grab it.
On exit, you insert the same ticket, but no ticket will come out – you’re done.
If you want to keep train tickets as a souvenir to take home with you, you can go over to the train station worker at manned ticket gates and explain that you’d like to keep it. They will stamp or put a hole in the ticket indicating that it’s used up, and then you can keep it!
You can also see about how to take a local bus in Kyoto (and how to figure out the bus fare), which is similar to most local buses in Japan. If you’re riding a local bus that accepts IC cards, then you don’t have to go through the process of figuring out how much cash you need to pull out! You can just swipe!
SUICA card vs PASMO card vs ICOCA card
Nowadays, these are all basically the same thing.
These are all called “IC cards” and can be used in the same way.
So when you are on mainland Japan and see that IC cards can be accepted, you can use a suica, pasmo, or icoca card… or other type of IC card!
It used to be that the cards were region-specific and you could only use the cards in a certain area.
But now there’s generally no such restriction.
You’ll see SUICA and PASMO more so in Tokyo, while you’ll see more of ICOCA in Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima.
There are also more types of IC cards too.
If you’re in Tokyo first and you buy the suica card, you can use it in Kyoto and Osaka too wherever IC cards are accepted.
If you are in Kyoto before Tokyo, you can get an ICOCA card in Kyoto.
Then when you are in Tokyo, you can use the icoca card wherever suica cards are accepted.
These cards are used all across Japan, so it’s also not just limited to the major cities.
If you visit rural areas of Japan, you may find that IC cards are not used or accepted.
But in general, you’ll find it to be convenient to travel locally in big cities of Japan with an IC card!
Use IC cards for more than just transportation
Some convenience stores accept IC cards, and some vending machines do too.
You may even be able to pay for coin lockers at train stations (luggage storage) with an IC card.
If you see an icon for one IC card, you can expect that you can use other types of IC cards too.
See an example: How coin lockers in Tokyo work for luggage storage.
How much do IC cards cost?
You can expect an IC card to cost around 500 yen (US$5).
The card can be a perfect souvenir!
How to recharge an IC card and put cash on it
You can add more money to your card at the same place that you buy train tickets.
There may be separate “recharge stations” for IC cards next to ticket machines too.
You may also see these recharge stations within the paid/gated area of train stations too, in case you realize after you’ve gone through the gates that the card is low on money.
You would find these stations right near the ticket gates.
IC card vs JR pass?
There’s really no comparison between an IC card and a JR pass, as you buy them for different reasons.
The JR pass is first and foremost to save you money on long-distance train travel on the shinkansen bullet trains.
You can use the JR pass on JR lines for travel around cities too, for example to get around Tokyo or to get around Kyoto.
But sometimes the best way to get around locally once in a city may not be to take a JR train or a JR bus.
And in those cases, you can just use your IC card to swipe through to pay.
And here are tips to figure out if the JR pass is worth it if you’re still deciding on that.
HAPPY TRAVELING JAPAN WITH YOUR IC CARD!
I think the pictures are from 2019. As of the end of 2022, you will see nearly every Japanese person wearing a mask on the train and bus. As they say when traveling anywhere in the world, do as the locals do!