Your IC card is also a locker key: the rules that follow

Tap a Suica against a station coin locker and nothing prints, nothing jingles. The door clicks shut, and the card in your hand — the same one that opened the ticket gate — is now the only key to that box.

How the tap-to-lock lockers work

Newer coin lockers (koin rokkā, コインロッカー) at big stations have one touch panel for a whole bank rather than a slot on each door. You pick an empty box on the screen, load your bag, shut the door, then tap your IC card on the reader; the fee comes off the stored balance and the lock engages. Small boxes tend to run around ¥400, the tall ones nearer ¥700, and the panel shows which sizes are free before you walk over.

The card is the key, and only that card

Whatever you tapped is what opens it. A different Suica, a phone wallet, or a travel companion's Pasmo will not, so this is the wrong card to hand over, swap, or return at the airport before the bag comes out. If the panel offers a printed slip, take it — it carries the locker number and a code the station office needs if the card goes missing.

Days, not hours

Charges run by calendar day rather than by the clock, so a bag left from late evening until the next morning is usually billed twice, with the second day settled when you tap to open. Keep enough balance on the card for that. Most lockers hold luggage for three days; after that staff clear the box and the contents move to a station office.

ロッカーの料金は日ごとの計算で、日付をまたぐと翌朝に追加分がかかる。

When every box is taken

At Tokyo, Kyoto and Shinjuku the banks fill by mid-morning on weekends. The search screens list nearby banks with space, and manned baggage rooms near the ticket gates take oversized cases for a flat fee — more than a locker, without the size guesswork.