A 12-Year-Old Can Still Ride at the Child Fare: How Trains and Buses Work in Japan

Once you start living in Japan, you’ll use trains and buses more often — commuting to work or school, or going to a government office or hospital. How you pay the fare, and children’s fares, work differently from how they do in Ukraine in some ways.

Below is a summary, as of September 2026, based on JR East’s Passenger Transportation Rules and its guidance pages, the guidance of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei Bus), and the 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA). Fares and rules differ by railway and bus operator; what follows uses JR East and Toei Bus as examples.

How Adults, Children, Toddlers, and Infants Are Classified

Article 73 of JR East’s Passenger Transportation Rules divides fares into four age categories.

Category	Age (JR East)	Fare
Adult	12 and older	Adult fare
Child (kodomo)	6 and older, under 12	Half the adult fare
Toddler (yoji)	1 and older, under 6	Free, in principle
Infant (nyuji)	Under 1	Free

There are exceptions at the boundaries, though. According to JR East’s guidance, even a 12-year-old counts as a "child" if they are still an elementary-school student, and even a 6-year-old counts as a "toddler" if they have not yet entered elementary school. Toei Bus similarly defines an adult as "age 12 or older (junior-high-school student or older)" and a child as "ages 6–11 (including a 12-year-old elementary-school student)."

As for "elementary school" here, JR East notes it means "an elementary school established under Japan’s School Education Act." If you’re wondering about the fare for a 12-year-old who does not attend a Japanese elementary school, check with the railway operator you’ll be using. The arrangement for attending a Japanese school while also taking six Ukrainian-curriculum subjects is covered in our article on that system.

The Child Fare Is Half the Adult Fare

Per Article 74 of the Passenger Transportation Rules, the child fare is the adult fare halved, with any fraction under ¥10 dropped. JR East’s guidance states that child tickets, limited-express tickets, and reserved-seat tickets are half the adult price, while Green-car tickets and sleeper tickets are the same price as for adults.

When Toddlers Are Not Free

Toddlers and infants are free in principle, but the child fare applies in the following cases.

• More than two toddlers accompanied by one adult or child (starting from the third toddler)
• A toddler or infant traveling alone using a reserved seat, a Green seat (excluding non-reserved Green cars), a sleeper berth, or the like
• A toddler traveling alone

On Toei Bus, too, up to two toddlers accompanied by an adult or a child ride free; the child fare applies from the third toddler on, and also when a toddler rides alone.

Transit IC Card Deposits and Refunds

On many railways and buses in Japan, you can preload money onto a transit IC card such as Suica or PASMO and pay the fare by tapping it at the ticket gate or a card reader. The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA) points out that this saves the trouble of buying a ticket, and that the fare can sometimes be cheaper than paying cash.

Taking JR East’s Suica as an example, the system works as follows.

• The first time you buy one, you pay a ¥500 deposit. The purchase price of the card (from ¥1,000 to ¥10,000) includes this ¥500.
• When you return the card, your remaining charged balance, minus a ¥220 handling fee, plus the ¥500 deposit, is refunded. If the balance is ¥220 or less, only the ¥500 deposit is refunded.
• For a named "My Suica," you register your name, date of birth, sex, and so on when you buy it. If lost, it can be reissued using the registered information.
• Refunding a named card, or a Suica commuter pass, requires an official identity document (such as a driver’s license).
• A Suica issued by JR East can only be refunded at a JR East station. A card from another company, such as PASMO, is refunded at the counter of the company that issued it.

IC Cards for Children

A child’s Suica is available only as a named card; there is no anonymous version for children. You buy it at a station counter or similar, and at that time you need something that can confirm the child’s identity, such as a My Number card. A child’s Suica can be used until the March 31 following the day the child turns 12 (the day before their birthday), after which you go through the procedure to switch to an adult card. According to JR East, you can hold only one of the following at a time: a child’s My Suica, a child’s Suica commuter pass, or a child’s PASMO.

On Toei Bus, the fare can differ between cash and an IC card. On typical routes within Tokyo’s 23 wards, the adult fare is ¥210 either way, but the child fare is ¥110 in cash and ¥105 by IC card.

The Period When Anonymous Cards Could Not Be Bought

Between 2023 and 2025, Suica and PASMO cards were temporarily unavailable for purchase. According to announcements by JR East, the PASMO Council, and others, the sequence of events was as follows.

Time	What happened
June 8, 2023	A global semiconductor shortage made IC chips hard to obtain, and new sales of anonymous Suica and PASMO cards were temporarily suspended
August 2, 2023	New sales of named cards were also temporarily suspended (commuter passes, children’s cards, cards for people with disabilities, reissuance after loss, and the like continued)
September 1, 2024	With the semiconductor supply recovered, sales of named cards resumed
March 1, 2025	With a stable outlook for continued card procurement secured, sales of anonymous cards resumed

Even while sales were suspended, Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO on smartphones remained usable. Note also that "Welcome Suica" is sold as a card for foreign visitors making a short trip to Japan.

How to Ride a Train

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) explains how to ride a train in this order:

• Check the route map for your destination
• Buy a ticket to your destination and insert it into the ticket gate; with an IC card, tap the reader
• Follow the station signs to the platform for your train
• On the platform, wait behind the white line or the yellow tactile paving
• At your destination station, insert your ticket into the ticket gate to exit; with an IC card, tapping it deducts the fare

To ride a shinkansen or a limited-express train, you need a limited-express ticket in addition to your basic fare ticket. A reserved seat requires a reserved-seat ticket, and a Green car requires a Green ticket. If you commute the same route every day for work or school, a commuter pass (for one, three, or six months, and so on), which lets you ride as many times as you like within that section, is cheaper than ordinary tickets.

Boarding a Bus at the Front or the Back

How you board a local bus differs depending on whether the fare is flat or changes with distance. Taking Toei Bus as an example:

Area	How to ride
Within Tokyo’s 23 wards (flat fare)	Board through the front door and pay when you board. Tap an IC card at the reader. When your stop is announced, press the stop button and get off through the back door.
Tama area (distance-based fare)	Board through the back door and take a numbered ticket. When your stop is announced, press the stop button; when you get off through the front door, pay the fare into the fare box. With an IC card, you don’t take a numbered ticket — tap the reader when boarding, and tap the fare box’s reader when getting off.

The only banknote Toei Bus’s fare box accepts is the ¥1,000 bill. If you’re paying for several people at once, tell the driver the number of adults and children before paying, whether in cash or by IC card. On buses where you take a numbered ticket, check the fare matching your ticket number on the display above the driver’s seat when you get off. Intercity highway buses generally require you to buy your ticket before boarding.

Guidance Available in Ukrainian

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA) does have a Ukrainian-language edition, and its Chapter 12, "Everyday Rules and Customs," section on "Public Transportation," explains IC cards and how to ride trains and buses. JR East’s website for foreign travelers, as of September 2026, is available in Japanese, English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Korean, French, German, Spanish, Indonesian, and Thai; there is no Ukrainian version.

Traffic rules for riding a bicycle are covered in our article on the blue tickets introduced from April 2026.