How to buy a (physical) PASMO and Suica

Update 2024/09/01: Sales of personalized Suica and PASMO has resumed, but this means you are not supposed to share your card, and refunding the card requires the person with the registered name to be present. For travelers, this can be inconvenient and therefore not recommended.

Even though the official sites and notices in stations are all trying to convince you that there is no way you can buy a PASMO and Suica right now, scaring all visitors away, there are still many ways you can buy one now.

Suica for Tourists: Welcome Suica

This is the officially recommended way, even though they are sold in just a few locations. Also, they expire after 28 days and you cannot refund the unused charged money inside, so I personally do not recommend this. For those working and studying, this is basically useless. You can check out their official sites for where you can buy them: Welcome Suica

Regular Suica: buy a 1-day pass

Even though the official website mentioned that only children and monthly pass Suica are still sold, 1-day passes can also be issued on a new Suica. So if your trip has a day that justifies using a one-day pass (e.g. if you live in the west side like Nakano, a round-trip to Kasai Rinkai Park is already worth the cost of the Tokunai Pass!), go to a black ticket machine (that sells monthly pass), and choose the option that issues a new Suica. Check the following video but choose the new Suica option instead!

After the one-day pass expires, you can load stored value into the card and use it like a normal Suica. You can go to a station staff and request that the writing on the card be erased too.

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Probably the only way to buy a regular PASMO: One-day pass

Some might want a PASMO instead of a Suica (I like the looks of PASMO more, and some passes like Keio+Tokyo Metro one-day pass can only be encoded to a PASMO). The idea is the same as JR day-pass, but since PASMO are used by many operators, the interface will be different.

After the one-day pass expires, you can load stored value into the card and use it like a normal PASMO. You can go to a station staff and request that the writing on the card be erased too.

Operators that sells PASMO by buying a day-pass. Note that except for Tokyo Metro, I have not tried the actual purchase:

  • Tokyo Metro (I bought one through this method)
  • Tokyu
  • Yokohama Municipal Subway
  • Yurikamome
  • Keisei
  • Sotetsu (according this website you can buy a Sotetsu/Tokyu one day pass or Sotetsu round trip + Tokyu/Tokyo Metro one day pass encoded on a PASMO by approaching a station staff)

Operators that does not allow this:

  • Keio (station staff said explicitly that you cannot purchase a PASMO even if you want to buy one-day pass that is sold only on a PASMO, though it might be because of my broken Japanese?)
  • Odakyu

The actual steps should be similar to JR: go to a machine that sells one-day pass, choose the value ticket option, choose the pass you want to buy, and choose the new PASMO option. The procedure for Tokyo Metro is shown:

Other Options

If you have an iPhone (that are not too old), you can add a Suica or PASMO to your Apple Pay wallet. There should be plenty tutorials about this.

If you have a Japanese Android or feature phone, you can also add a mobile Suica or PASMO using the Osaifu-Keitai feature.

If you will be visiting non-Suica/PASMO region like Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Hokkaido, etc., their local IC cards are still sold normally through ticket vending machines. Just make sure they are one of the following to make sure it can be used nationwide

  • toica
  • ICOCA
  • manaca
  • SUGOCA
  • nimoca
  • Hayakaken
  • Kitaca

Note that the Chiba Monorail and Kanto Railway only supports Suica and PASMO.

You can no longer buy a TOICA in Tokyo station

According to the Official Website and Japanese forums, JR Central stations in Tokyo metropolitan area (e.g. Tokyo, Yokohama) no longer sells non-monthly pass TOICA.

PASMO PASSPORT no longer sold!

PASMO PASSPORT is no longer sold as of June 2024. Link (need internet archive): PASMO PASSPORT

JR East Travel Service Center no longer sells Regular Suica

Previously, this was the most straightforward way and was partly my motivation to write this article, as this approach was not well-known. Unfortunately, they now only sell Welcome Suica.

Link: JR East Travel Service Center.

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