As we previously reported, the sale of new SUICA Cards by JR Japan Railway has been stopped for quite a while now, which has caused a significant inconvenience among visitors and residents alike.
Japanese media is now reporting that as per JR, a solution has been found and that SUICA’s will soon return to the outlets for purchase starting March 1, 2025 (replacements and reissues due to loss or damage were always possible) – just in time for the Sakura season.
According to JR, a worldwide semiconductor shortage (specifically the ones used for the technology use by SUICA in Japan) has forced them to stop the production of said cards – but this might change very soon.
Essential Japan reports that the non-personalized SUICA cards which don’t require registration will be available again from March 1st forward.
After a lengthy pause due to a nationwide shortage, the popular Suica and PASMO cards are making a comeback.
Sales of “unnamed” versions of these essential travel cards will resume on Saturday, March 1st, 2025.
Sales of all travel cards had previously been suspended in 2023 due to a shortage of available IC chips, an issue that also also affected other IC travel cards used in Japan such as ICOCA.
JR East which issues Suica cards and the private train companies that issue PASMO cards chose to temporarily halt sales while finalizing a robust procurement plan to deal with these shortages.
Sales of tourist friendly cards such as the Welcome Suica, a temporary card that is valid for 28 days did continue for a period, but as the IC chip shortage worsened even sales of these cards were suspended at times during the last 2 years.
The sales suspension first showed signs of lifting in September 2024, with the MySuica (a Suica card featuring the holders name) returning to sale, though unrestricted sales of regular or “unnamed” Suica cards remained suspended. …
I have always registered my Suica because it’s just safer in case you ever lose your card and I really had to replace it at least three times over the years because either I dropped it somewhere or misplaced it otherwise. It’s always a relatively cheap option, although it requires two trips to a JR ticket office, once to lodge a notice that you lost it and then to pick up a replacement the next day.
Either way, the cards will soon be back on sale, including through ticket machines.
I previously covered the sale of the Visitors SUICA at Narita Airport:
Reminder For Japan Visitors To Purchase Special Visitors SUICA Cards At The Airport
JR provided this strange gap solution of selling WELCOME SUICA at the airports – without deposits, and they would only last for 28 days, after which they deactivate. It never made much sense to me as the technology is the same so they’d waste the precious resources on a one-time-use card that most people will just throw away.
Then, in the fall of 2024, JR has started to also sell regular SUICA cards again but only in a limited capacity at some stations in Tokyo as well as the airports Narita and Haneda.
the Tokyo Shimbun reports [in Japanese] that JR East is expected to soon resume their sales of regular SUICA cards after receiving a sufficient amount of IC chips required. If you have ever wondered why and how the payment system is so fast and can pick up the cards even through wallets, that’s why the chips required are so hard to obtain. It’s a special technology and not something random that can be found easily.
There hasn’t been a firm date yet but according to JR it’s expected in mid-late fall of 2024. Fingers crossed!
Conclusion
Since early 2023, SUICA Cards have not been universally available for new issuance under the JR Network in Japan, which has created problems as the card is extremely popular in daily life.
While there were stopgap measures, especially for tourists, JR has now obtained a new shipment of semiconductor chips to restart production and will, from March 1st, resume the sale of regular (green) SUICA cards systemwide.
Despite the cards being back, If you have a card in your possession, hold onto it for dear life and also make sure it’s registered under your name in case you ever lose it.
