Travellers to Japan have new card set

EAST Japan Railway Co will start selling a new kind of Suica prepaid e-money card for foreign visitors to Japan from September 1, the company announced on Friday. Named “Welcome Suica”, the new card, with images of cherry blossoms and the Hinomaru national flag on a white base, will be priced according to the amount of money it contains at the time it is sold from 1,000 to 10,000 yen ($9.05 to $90.50).

Unlike a regular Suica card, the money in a Welcome Suica card will be non-refundable. However, the card does not require a purchase deposit of 500 yen, which is necessary for a regular Suica card. The new card can be used both for transportation and shopping at commercial facilities, just like the regular one.

Sales of the new Suica card for foreign travellers are part of efforts to handle crowds of foreign passengers who wait for refunds for their cards at Haneda and Narita airports before they leave Japan.

“We want foreign travellers to take the cards back to their countries as a memento of having visited Japan,” a company official said.