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Welcome Suica: The Rules That Catch Visitors Out

Last verified: 2026-08-01 5 min read By Wheels Down Japan editorial Reviewed: Wheels Down Japan editorial

Welcome Suica is JR East’s IC card for temporary visitors. Most guides describe it as “a Suica you don’t have to return” and stop there. The two things that actually change your trip are barely mentioned anywhere, and both are on JR East’s own page.

The clock starts when you buy it, not when you use it

JR East states it plainly: the card can be used for 28 days beginning with the date of purchase.

Not from the first tap. From the purchase.

This matters more than it sounds. A card bought at the airport on arrival gives you 28 days of travel. A card bought at the start of a longer stay, or picked up early “to have it ready”, is quietly burning days while it sits in your bag. If your trip is close to four weeks, buy it when you start moving, not when you first see a machine.

You will find plenty of pages — including ones that look authoritative — saying the 28 days run from first use. They are wrong. Check JR East’s page rather than a summary of it.

It will not carry you between regions in one journey

This is the rule that strands people, and it is a genuine restriction rather than a technicality.

JR East’s coverage is not one continuous network. It is a set of separate IC areas: the Tokyo metropolitan area, and separately Sendai, Niigata, Aomori, Morioka and Akita, plus parts of Hokkaido, Tokai, West Japan and Kyushu. Within any one of them, the card works normally.

Between them, it does not. In JR East’s words, travel begun in one area must end in that area. Their own example is that you cannot use it to travel from the Tokyo metropolitan area to the Sendai area. To cross from one area into another you have to leave the ticket gate and re-enter.

The practical consequence: if your plan is Tokyo one week and Tohoku the next, the card handles local travel at both ends but not the journey between them. That journey is a separate ticket — and if it is a Shinkansen or limited express, it was always going to be.

If you are also weighing a rail pass, this is the point where the two decisions meet. Our JR Pass price-change guide covers that side.

What the card is genuinely good at

Within an area, it removes a real friction: you stop buying tickets.

  • Trains, subways and buses. Tap in and out on trains; tap the sensor on and off on buses. Fares come off the balance automatically.
  • The Tokyo Monorail from Haneda. Covered, so the card works from the moment you land on that side.
  • Shopping. Convenience stores, restaurants, vending machines, and purchases onboard trains.
  • Coin lockers. This one is underrated. The card acts as the key as well as the payment — you tap to lock, keep the receipt, and tap again to open. No code to lose. Note that you cannot part-pay a locker with cash alongside the card.

Some day passes can also be loaded onto the card rather than carried separately.

What it does not cover

  • Limited express trains and Green Cars. The card pays the basic fare, not the surcharge. Buy the express or Green ticket in advance.
  • Stores in PiTaPa areas. The card works on transport across the mutual-use network, but not for shopping in that particular area’s stores.
  • Travel beyond an area boundary. If you ride out past the edge, you settle up at a fare adjustment machine.

What about PASMO?

Two things to know, because most comparisons online are out of date.

PASMO PASSPORT no longer exists. PASMO published a notice titled “Abolition of the Rules for Using PASMO PASSPORT” in October 2024. Any guide still comparing Welcome Suica against PASMO PASSPORT is describing a product that has been withdrawn.

The current visitor card is TOURIST PASMO, and its headline terms match Welcome Suica closely: PASMO states it is valid for 28 days from the date of purchase — the same clock, started the same way. PASMO also states plainly that value added to a TOURIST PASMO will not be refunded, which is worth knowing before you top up heavily near the end of a trip.

For practical purposes the two cards overlap heavily. Both work across the nationwide mutual-use network, so the choice is usually just which one you can buy where you are standing. Two small differences worth noting: PASMO points out that only PASMO and Suica cards work on the Kanto Railway and the Chiba Monorail, and that PiTaPa does not participate in nationwide mutual-use e-money — so shopping with any of these cards in PiTaPa territory does not work.

Where to get one

JR East sells Welcome Suica at its Travel Service Centers, including at the airports. There is also a mobile version, and a long-term six-month card — but that long-term one is sold to travel agents in bulk only and is explicitly not available at ticket offices or Travel Service Centers, so it is not something you can walk up and buy.

How to decide

  1. Short trip inside one region? The card is straightforwardly useful. Buy it when you arrive.
  2. Long trip crossing regions? Still useful for local travel at each end, but do not expect it to handle the intercity legs. Plan those separately.
  3. Trip close to four weeks? Watch the purchase date. Twenty-eight days from purchase is the constraint, and it is not extendable.
  4. Mostly long-distance rail? The card is not the main decision. The pass is.

Official sources

Coverage areas, sales locations and card conditions are set by the operator and change. Confirm the current terms on JR East’s pages before you rely on them.

Spotted an error? Email [email protected].

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