IC cards in Japan – What they can do and how to get one.

This year, Japan announced it was bidding farewell to the beloved SUICA penguin, its successor is set to debut in November 2026. When I first arrived in Japan, everyone insisted I get an IC card. It was the golden ticket to effortless travel and a lighter coin purse. After landing in Saga and stumbling through my first days, our local District Representative guided me through the process. Suddenly, it felt like I had discovered a secret level in a video game. With my new IC card, I unlocked fresh abilities and skills, and daily life in Japan became smoother, with far fewer coins jingling in my bag.

It is often a fun joke that travelling to Japan will leave you with a ton of change. The country is cash-based, and you will find yourself collecting 1-yen coins and wondering if you’ll ever rid yourself of them. A tip for this situation is that convenience stores will take them, and even better if they have an automatic coin counter. Using your 1-yen coins to pay will lighten your purse, you can even overpay just to change them into slightly bigger coins. Just be sure to pick a quiet time to do so if your collection is particularly large to avoid holding up the line. I would recommend staying on top of the 1-yens and doing it in chunks or as you gain them.

So, what is an IC? What can it be used for and how do you get one?

Put simply the IC is a prepaid card that is used for contactless payments on transport, in convenience stores, online at certain retailers and at vending machines. The user can add as much as they want and there are machines that allow you to do this often at stations, just be aware that most of these machines take notes only. Convenience stores also offer this service, but again most of them only take cash when recharging an IC card. For tourists coming into the country there are some online IC apps that you can invest in, however I have never used them opting for the physical card because my prefecture is rural and places taking QR codes are limited.

There are different types of IC offered by different prefectures or by individual companies, some will have more uses than others so always check what each can do. The IC card I have is the SUGOCA this is primarily used around my prefecture and Kyushu. I have travelled with it in Tokyo and on many of my journeys, there have only been a handful of places where IC in general isn’t accepted, and I had to rely on contactless or cash. Be aware that even in prefectures where IC is accepted some railway routes may be privately owned and may not take IC so double check your planned routes to prevent any stress.

Before I came to Japan there was a shortage of chips being used in IC cards making it hard to get one during and shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To get an IC go to the nearest manned station and ask for one at the information desk or ticket office. You will be asked for the amount you want to put on the card to start and you can even customise your card with your details or the stations details in case you lose it. My IC has my surname and station details printed on it which makes me feel a little better should I ever loose it. It is important to note that some IC cards cannot be used in certain places, some buses may only accept the local IC or a specific bus only one. Some prefectures are slowly getting rid of IC altogether and opting to take on contactless payment like the west, Kumamoto is one of them. But, until the rest of Japan follows, things can vary prefecture to prefecture or even within sections of the same prefecture.

There are now many apps that let you track your IC balance and top up, but you will need a Japanese phone number to do so. When I first heard about IC I likened it to the Oyster card in London, but the IC is more than just a transportation card. The IC can help you cover the cost of purchases in some stores; it can be used at some vending machines and used on most buses.

For your travels around Japan, I recommend you make getting an IC card as one of the first things you do when you arrive. It will save you time and stress of waiting in a line at a ticket machine if you need a local train or the metro. Especially if you’re fumbling with working out which line and train you need to then see you only have five minutes to navigate, the ticket queues can often be long.

One tap and the IC will save you time and stress.