Seiriken: the numbered slip that sets your fare on a Japanese bus

On most Japanese buses outside the flat-fare city centres, you board at the rear door and pay at the front as you leave. The slip of paper you take in between decides what you owe.

Take the slip at the door

Just inside the rear door, a small machine feeds out a seiriken (整理券), a numbered ticket on thin paper. The number marks the fare zone where you boarded, nothing more. If the bus has an IC reader, tap it instead and leave the paper. A recorded voice often says seiriken o otori kudasai, please take a ticket.

整理券をお取りください。

Read the board above the driver

A grid of numbered squares sits above the windscreen, each showing a price in yen. Find your number; the figure beneath it climbs as the bus crosses zones, and it is your fare at the stop you press the button for. On some routes the first stop issues no ticket, and the board lists that fare under 券なし (ken nashi, no ticket).

Make change before your stop

The fare box beside the driver takes exact coins and gives nothing back. A separate slot on the same box breaks a 1,000-yen note or a 500-yen coin into smaller coins; larger notes are usually refused. Change your money while the bus is stopped at a light, then drop the slip and the coins in together as you step off.

Central Tokyo reverses the order. There you board at the front and pay a flat fare before sitting down, with no slip at all.