Not Enough Money On Your Suica? How To Pay The Rest Of Your Fare

If There's Not Enough Money Left on Your Suica Card

An IC card can be easily used without requiring much thought, which is why we often forget how much money is left on our card. Even if we buy a paper ticket, we sometimes make a mistake and buy one that doesn’t contain the correct fare.

“When I tried to go through a ticket gate, there wasn’t enough money left on my Suica card to do so...”
“The paper ticket I bought didn’t contain the correct fare...”

What should you do in these situations? First - don't worry! You can pay the remainder of the fare inside the station you want to get off at. In this article, we’ll show you how to do a fare adjustment for train tickets in Japan.

We recommend using a Suica card (a prepaid IC card) for smooth travels (available to reserve online). The Japan Rail Pass is also useful for those traveling long distances or making trips via Shinkansen.

How to Use a Fare Adjustment Machine

1. Find a Fare Adjustment Machine

Photo by Pixta

Look around and find the nearest fare adjustment machine inside the ticket gates. They usually have a Suica logo or a standard IC card logo on them, and can be found at every ticket gate in every station in Japan. The phrase Fare Adjustment in English is also written on the signs alongside the Japanese 'norikoshi' in big letters.

If you press the blue button on the top right-hand corner of the touch screen, you will be able to switch languages to English.

2. Insert Your Suica Card

Photo by Pixta

Insert your card into the fare adjustment machine with the Suica logo facing upwards. If you look at the card carefully, you will see an arrow pointing which end to insert into the machine on the card itself.

3. Insert the Remaining Balance

Photo by Pixta

Next, press the 'fare adjustment (add remaining balance)' button. The remaining amount of the fare will appear on the screen. Using cash, you can add your remaining balance to the machine. Credit cards cannot be used on most fare adjustment machines.

4. Go Through the Ticket Gate!

Once you’ve added the remaining amount of money to your Suica card, the card will then return from the machine with the remaining balance in it. Now you can use your Suica card as is to go through a ticket gate!

** You can also use the same machine to add the remaining value of a fare to a paper ticket.