This is a question for folks that have traveled with kids and used IC cards for trains and such while in Japan.
Have you gotten your kids their own cards? Did they carry them themselves?
I have 3 kids, ages 9, 11, and 13. I was considering the logistics of getting them their own IC cards and letting them be “responsible” for them. It seems too complicated to have to keep them all myself and hand them out/collect them at every gate. It might also be fun for them to be able to buy drinks, etc from vending machines without a parent.
I was thinking they could put them in a lanyard and carry them. If I did carry them myself, perhaps I could personalize them for easier identification. Maybe it’s easier for them to use an IC-enabled phone, assuming it’s recent enough to support that.
Anyway, I’m interested in how other people dealt with this situation – giving kids their own IC cards while traveling in Japan.
8 comments
On the phone part, if they have iPhones 8 or newer, they have the tech necessary to do mobile suica.
If they have android phones, most of them not sold in Japan don’t have, or don’t have enabled, the NFC FeLiCa tech for the IC cards.
I was in Tokyo with my 8 and 10 yr olds in 2019.
I bought them their own IC cards. When your kids are done using them, they make great souvenirs!
u/Aerim pretty much covered the mobile part. I wouldn’t recommend going and buying a phone just for this though.
You could also get the “special” foreign only IC cards (ICOCA: Kansai One Pass, Suica: Welcome Suica, Pasmo: Pasmo Passport, etc). These are foreigner only cards which have the following caveats: Balance not refundable, expires after 28-30 days, costs $5.
You are suppose to get discounts within the area with each of these cards (you may need to bring the card literature with you).
Again, unlike a regular IC card, these “special” cards are not balance-refundable and don’t last the 10+ years between visits, which means if you leave a balance it is gone after the expiry and you would have to buy one again if you come back. However, on the flip side, look at how cool the pasmo one is: [https://www.pasmo.co.jp/visitors/en/buy/](https://www.pasmo.co.jp/visitors/en/buy/) (I wish I could buy for my daughter as she is a super Hello kitty fan). These are meant to be souvenirs when you return home.
My kids are young, they’re using the combo lanyard\card holder\plush airplane JAL gave them on the flight here to hold their kid’s Suica.
I personally do not think it is much easier to use the card on a phone vs as a card.
Yes, would be nice to link the card with your credit card for easy charging, but do you want to put a credit card in your kids phone ? Also, are you confident you can get a kid card to pay kid fare on the app (that is in Japanese) ?
So just go to the ticket office with the kids passport and get yourself some kid cards to have the kid fare.
There is stickers especially made to customize IC Cards, just google image this ICカードステッカー ,I can see links in there to Bic Camera, Gamers, Animate, so just go to Akihabara and check the electronic stores and manga/anime stores and you should be able to find some. show the Japanese text to staff so they can easily help you find it in the store.
I would either put the card in something like a lanyard or… do like some Japanese people and get an ICカードケース (IC card case).
I do recommend letting children to carry their own cards. It is much better to pay via a card then handling coins. Retractable lanyard with ID card holder is a good option, as you do not need to take the card out for payment. I think the more complicated things is making sure each card has enough money. You can do that via some mobile app if your device support FeliCa.
There is a Suica kids version, which charges child fare for children under 12, but cannot change to mobile Suica as u/Aerim mentioned. Unless you prefer to buy paper tickets for child fare each time, then letting each of your children to have their own Suica is a must.
You can have a real-name registered card, and Suica kids version is a name registered card. The owners’s katakana name is printed on the card, which is helpful for owner identification. Suica can only hold maximum 20,000 yen and can be reissued with a small fee (1020 yen) if the card is registered while retaining remaining balance, so do not worry if your children lost the card by accident.
P.S Unless you are using JR pass, then use smartEx to book Shinkansen (Not all Shinkansen lines are supported) with discount. You can book for maximum 6 people in one order. If you register the IC card for each person, you can board with IC card without needing to pick up paper tickets in advance. Less paper ticket to handle = less hassle.
My 10, 9 & 6 year olds all carry their own cards. They wear lanyards around their neck and are responsible for the cards during our trip. We did lose one once and had to replace it. Someone mentioned it was only ¥1020, but I recall it being much more expensive than that to replace.
Edit: Also like mentioned, you can get half price kids fare cards by using the machine with their passports. Someone will pop out of the wall and verify their ages. This will also print their names on the card.
Lanyard would be OK for the kids, although once in Japan, I’d probably get the kids a purpose-made IC card holder, which can be also a nice souvenirs for when you get home (bonus points if they are interested in anime and you land them Ghibli/Sailor Moon/whatever is the anime flavour of the season) one.
Handing them out at every gate does not make any sense, especially since you would need to keep of a track that a child’s fare IC card goes to that child.
Thus said, while drinks (or snacks, or ice cream) at the vending machines will not break your bank – the fact that you can pay with IC cards at a fair variety of stores can deplete funds quite quickly, so what they are allowed to do with IC cards should be addressed quite thoroughly.