At a Tokyo station gate, a line of people files through with barely a pause, each one touching a card or a phone to a small reader that answers with a soft chime. Sooner or later a visitor wonders which card that is and whether to carry one too. The card is Pasmo, a rechargeable smart card for Tokyo transit and small purchases, and it sits close beside Suica, its better-known cousin.
What is Pasmo?
Pasmo is a rechargeable, contactless smart card that works as electronic money, used mainly to pay for public transport in Tokyo. It was introduced on March 18, 2007. You load money onto the card, touch it to a reader at the gate when you enter and leave, and the fare comes out of the balance. There are no coins to sort and no fare chart to study before you step onto the platform.
Pasmo belongs to a wider family of IC cards in Japan. Most regions have their own cards with different names and characters, and the cards can be used throughout the country. A Tokyo card is therefore one piece of a nationwide system, not a local curiosity.
What the card pays for
Transit is the heart of it, but IC cards in general reach further. They can be used on trains, buses and boats, and also in vending machines, convenience stores, some taxis and other services. Pasmo itself works as a payment card for vending machines and stores. A drink from a machine on a station platform or a snack from a shop near the ticket gates can come out of the same balance as your fare.
That shared balance is the whole appeal. One card goes through the gate, pays for the bottle of tea, and keeps the running total in one place. When the balance runs low, you add more to the card and carry on.
Where Pasmo reaches
Pasmo is sold and used across the Tokyo area, with its roots in the Tokyo Metro, the Toei Subway and the private railways. Since 2007 it has been interchangeable with JR East’s Suica on nearly any railway, metro or bus in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In practice you do not need to ask which operator runs the train in front of you.
The card also reached beyond the capital’s core when it launched. It could be used on JR East lines in the Kanto, Niigata and Sendai areas, and on the Tokyo Monorail, the Saitama New Urban Transit (New Shuttle), Sendai Airport Transit and the Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit (Rinkai Line). JR Bus Kanto local buses in the Mito area were on the list too.
Pasmo on a phone
Mobile Pasmo, a version for mobile phones using Mobile FeliCa and Osaifu-Keitai functions, launched in March 2020. It does the same work as the plastic card, with the phone standing in for it at the reader. Travelers who prefer a card in the wallet and those who prefer the phone are both covered.
How long the credit lasts
Credit on a Pasmo card expires ten years after the last use of the card. Each time you touch it to a gate or a shop reader, the clock starts again. A card that comes out of a drawer after a long gap is still worth trying before you write it off.
For a visitor, the more practical point is the special version made for foreign travelers. TOURIST PASMO is an IC card for visitors that does not require a deposit, and information about it sits on the PASMO website. Most other IC cards ask for a 500 yen deposit at the time of purchase.
How does it differ from Suica?
For a rider in the Tokyo area, hardly at all: since 2007 Pasmo and Suica have been interchangeable on nearly any railway, metro or bus in the metropolitan area. The differences lie mostly in who sells the card and where each was born. Suica comes from JR East, which launched it on November 18, 2001, at 424 stations. Pasmo came later, with the Tokyo Metro, the Toei Subway and the private railways behind it.
| Card | Launch date | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Pasmo | March 18, 2007 | Ten years after last use |
| Suica | November 18, 2001 | Ten years after last use |
What Suica covers
Suica is a prepaid, rechargeable, contactless card used as a fare card on train lines and other public transport in Japan. It can be used across the country as part of the Nationwide Mutual Usage Service, including virtually any train, tramway or bus system in the Greater Tokyo Area. A child version charges half fares, and the card can hold a commuter pass for one, three or six months along a set route between two designated stations.
Pasmo, for its part, was described at launch through its Tokyo roots and the list of lines that accepted it. Both cards act as electronic money, so the daily experience is much the same whichever one is in your pocket.
Spending in shops
Suica is widely used as electronic money at stores and kiosks, especially convenience stores, chain restaurants and shops within train stations. Chains that support it include FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, Lawson, Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera, Doutor Coffee, CoCo Ichibanya and MOS Burger. Many shops at airports accept it, and so do taxis throughout Japan.
Pasmo is likewise a payment card for vending machines and stores. The cards are interchangeable on transit in the Tokyo area, which is a different thing from being accepted at every counter. Look for the card’s logo at the register when you are not sure.
The visitor versions
Each system has a card aimed at foreign visitors. Welcome Suica and TOURIST PASMO are IC cards for foreign visitors that require no deposit. Welcome Suica can only be used for 28 days from the date of purchase, after which it expires permanently. That limit is a feature of Welcome Suica specifically, and it is not the same as the ten-year expiry of a regular Suica.
Welcome Suica also comes in a mobile form, Welcome Suica Mobile, and information about both is on the JR East website. For TOURIST PASMO, the PASMO website for visitors is the place that carries the details.
Where can you get one?
Pasmo cards are sold at Tokyo Metro stations, Toei Subway stations and stations of the private railways in the Tokyo area. Those are the stations where the card was born, and they are where the system sells it. A visitor staying in the center of the city is likely to pass one of those stations without going far out of the way.
Buying a Pasmo
The retail locations are the stations of the operators behind Pasmo. Information about regular PASMO for visitors, and about TOURIST PASMO, is on the PASMO website. That is where to read the details for the version aimed at foreign travelers, the one that needs no deposit.
If you take a card that does carry a deposit, the amount for most IC cards is 500 yen, paid at the time of purchase. The no-deposit visitor cards skip that step.
Buying a Suica instead
Suica cards are available at ticket vending machines or customer service windows at all JR East train stations. Since Pasmo and Suica work together on nearly any railway, metro or bus in the Tokyo area, a traveler who finds a JR East station first has a real alternative.
Pasmo and Suica sit side by side in the same gates, so the choice between them rarely changes how a day of sightseeing runs. What changes is the card’s life span. Welcome Suica expires permanently after 28 days, while credit on a regular Pasmo or Suica lasts until ten years after the last use.
A phone instead of a card
Mobile Pasmo, launched in March 2020, uses Mobile FeliCa and Osaifu-Keitai functions. Welcome Suica Mobile is the phone version of the visitor card from JR East. Details for each sit on the respective operator’s website.
A card gathers its use across trains, buses and boats, and also vending machines, convenience stores and some taxis. A phone version does the same work through the handset, so you can pick whichever you would rather have in your hand at the gate.
Good to know before you go
The money on a card is yen, and every touch at a gate or a register takes some of it, so the balance is worth a glance now and then. The same card can pay a fare in Tokyo and, through the nationwide system of IC cards, in other regions that have their own cards under different names. When you leave Japan with credit left over, remember the clock on a regular card keeps running from the last time you used it.
Sources
- Japan National Tourism Organization, IC cards, Suica, Pasmo, ICOCA, how to use (https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/ic-card/), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Pasmo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasmo), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, Suica (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica), checked October 11, 2026
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