JAPAN TODAY



 

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.