Coin lockers that open with your Suica, and what to do when they're full

Somewhere between the platform and a three o'clock check-in there is a suitcase you would rather not be holding. Japanese stations settled this problem decades ago, and the answer is a wall of steel doors most visitors walk past twice before they notice it.

The card at the gate is also the key

At newer banks there is no keyhole. You pick an empty door on the touch panel, choose the electronic-money option, and tap the same Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA you used at the ticket gate. That card is now the key — the door opens for it and nothing else — and the fee comes off the balance when you collect, not when you deposit.

Sizes, and the midnight problem

Doors come in three rough heights: a small one takes a daypack for around 400 yen, a medium takes a soft weekend bag for 500 to 600, and the tall ones at the end of the row swallow a carry-on for 700 to 800. Most banks hold luggage for three days, and the meter turns over at midnight rather than on a rolling twenty-four hours, so an overnight stash costs two days. Past the limit nothing is thrown away — staff move the bag to the station office and you pay what has accrued.

終電をまたいで預けると、料金は二日分になる。

When every door is taken

Lockers in sight of the ticket gates fill first, often before ten in the morning. Walk to the far end of the concourse, or cross to the side of the station most people don't arrive on — Yaesu rather than Marunouchi at Tokyo, the Hankyu end rather than the JR end at Umeda. Failing that, larger stations keep a staffed counter marked 手荷物一時預かり (tenimotsu ichiji azukari), temporary baggage check, which costs more per bag but has space when the walls do not.

The point was never the locker. It is the six hours you spend without the suitcase.