Suica and PASMO: Choose, Top Up and Use a Transit IC Card

For ordinary journeys on participating networks, both brands are widely interoperable. The differences that matter to visitors are the particular card or app, its validity and its purchase or refund process. A standard PASMO, TOURIST PASMO and mobile PASMO are different products.

Visitor-product conditions were checked on 26 October 2026. Check current sales points before making a special trip. A product’s presence at an airport does not mean it is sold at every terminal, machine or counter.

Regular Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO are additional options, with their own device, wallet and account requirements. Do not assume every Android phone can use them: PASMO’s English guidance says Android devices bought outside Japan are generally incompatible with Mobile PASMO, whose support is in Japanese. Confirm the specific product before depending on your phone alone.

For a child, check the appropriate child card and proof-of-age requirements. Welcome Suica Mobile’s age requirement is not a child-fare solution. For ordinary rail travel, prepare a suitable card or ticket for each traveler.

1. Check that the route accepts your card and that you have enough balance.
2. Tap the selected card or mobile transit card at the entrance reader and confirm the gate accepts it.
3. Follow the route’s transfer signs. If a designated transfer requires gate taps, use the same card. If a train runs through onto another railway, an operator-name change does not by itself mean you must get off and tap out.
4. At your final exit, use the same card again. Keep it separate from other cards to avoid presenting two payment methods to the reader.
5. If the gate rejects it, step aside and ask staff or use the indicated charging/adjustment machine. Explain where you entered before trying a different card.

A phone and a watch can hold different cards, even when both belong to you. Select the same transit card for the whole journey. A bank card stored in the same wallet is a different payment method.

For a designated subway interchange, see outside-gate transfers. For bus payment, follow the route’s boarding instructions: some buses require one tap, others require entry and exit taps. Our bus guide explains the Tokyo and Kyoto examples.

The stored-value limit is ¥20,000. Charging amounts vary by machine or provider; ¥1,000 increments are not a universal rule. Physical Welcome Suica top-ups use yen cash, not a credit card. Check JR East’s charging instructions or the PASMO product instructions for the card you hold.

Add a modest amount first, especially for a visitor card whose unused balance is not normally refunded. Before your final day, check the remaining balance and the product’s expiry date.

Look for the relevant transit-IC or nationwide-interoperability logo. PASMO’s coverage explanation explicitly distinguishes participating networks from every railway and bus in Japan.

• Local trains and subways: use the card on supported journeys within the applicable IC area. Interoperability in several regions does not authorize an ordinary tap-only journey between all those regions. Check the complete route before a long interregional trip.
• Buses: acceptance and tapping rules depend on the operator and route. An airport or highway coach may require a separately purchased ticket.
• Reserved airport trains and other special services: a stored-value card alone does not replace a required express or seat ticket. Skyliner needs its express ticket, and N’EX needs the appropriate booking and ticket arrangement.
• Shinkansen: follow the purchased product’s boarding instructions. Linking an IC card to a paid reservation is different from paying the whole trip from the card’s stored balance. See our Shinkansen guide.
• Shopping, vending machines, lockers and taxis: use it only where the particular payment point displays an accepted logo. Acceptance by one shop or vehicle does not establish acceptance at another.

Refund rules belong to the product. TOURIST PASMO and Welcome Suica Mobile do not offer ordinary refunds of unused value. Physical Welcome Suica also has no ordinary unused-balance refund; malfunction procedures are separate. Standard cards and regular mobile products follow their issuer’s return, fee and account rules. Check before loading a large balance, and do not assume any station can refund another issuer’s card.

A Tokyo Subway Ticket and a stored-value IC card serve different purposes. The pass covers specified Tokyo Metro and Toei travel for its stated validity period; the IC card pays the fares of the supported journeys you actually make. Add up the covered journeys at their applicable fares and compare them with the pass price. A fixed number such as four rides per day does not prove a saving, and JR, airport or private-railway travel may fall outside the pass.

Use our Tokyo Subway Ticket guide for that calculation and station-navigation guide for gate and transfer signs. Once your card works, plan from your actual hotel entrance and destination instead of choosing journeys to justify a ticket purchase.