How to Bring a Large Suitcase on the Shinkansen | Reserving a Seat with an Oversized Baggage Area and Where to Put Your Luggage

Overview

You can bring luggage such as suitcases on the Shinkansen at no extra charge. However, on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, if you bring large luggage ("oversized baggage"), you need to reserve a seat that comes with space for your luggage before boarding.

• Lines covered: Tokaido Shinkansen (Tokyo–Shin-Osaka), Sanyo Shinkansen (Shin-Osaka–Hakata), Kyushu Shinkansen (Hakata–Kagoshima-Chuo), Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen
• On JR East Shinkansen lines such as the Tohoku Shinkansen, you do not need this reservation. Use any free space in the luggage areas on board (some trains have no luggage area).
• On JR trains other than the Shinkansen (conventional lines), you do not need to reserve for oversized baggage.

On any Shinkansen, each person can bring up to 2 pieces of luggage, each weighing no more than 30 kg, with the three dimensions (length, width and height) adding up to no more than 250 cm, and no longer than 200 cm. Personal items such as umbrellas and handbags do not count toward this number.

Conditions

Luggage size and where to put it

On the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, the total of your luggage's length, width and height decides where it goes and whether you need a reservation.

• The overhead racks on the Tokaido Shinkansen are about 42 cm deep, and luggage whose three dimensions add up to 160 cm or less (for example, 30 × 50 × 80 cm) will generally fit. In Ordinary Cars, luggage of up to 120 cm in total (for example, 25 × 40 × 55 cm) will generally fit at your feet.
• If your luggage is too heavy to lift onto the rack, you can ask the train crew for help. However, at some times, such as when passengers are getting on and off, they may not be able to help.
• Strollers, musical instruments, sports equipment and wheelchairs do not need to be reserved as oversized baggage, even if their three dimensions add up to more than 160 cm. However, only passengers who have reserved a seat with an oversized baggage area can use the space behind the seat. If you want to use it, reserve a seat with an oversized baggage area.

Luggage areas in the deck (no reservation needed)

On 16-car trains of the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen, the decks (the areas near the car doors) of Cars 3, 5, 7, 9, 13 and 15 have luggage areas that you can use without a reservation (currently operating on a trial basis). Only items of 160 cm or less in total can go there, and oversized baggage cannot be placed there. They are shared with other passengers, so if there is no free space, use the overhead rack or another place.

In these luggage areas, you can put a cable around your luggage and lock it. To lock it, touch your own transit IC card (such as Suica) to the reader; to unlock it, touch the same card. If another passenger is using the cable, you cannot use it. Some IC cards and smartphones cannot be used. Collect your luggage in plenty of time before you reach your stop.

Booking

Reserving a seat with an oversized baggage area

In some reserved-seat cars, the seats in the very last row are "seats with an oversized baggage area". If you reserve one, you can put your luggage in the space behind that seat. The price is the same as a regular reserved seat (Ordinary Car or Green Car), and there is no extra charge. Non-reserved cars and some reserved-seat cars do not have these seats.

1. Measure the length, width and height of your luggage and check whether the total is more than 160 cm.
2. When you buy your ticket, reserve a seat with an oversized baggage area. When booking online or at a reserved-seat ticket machine at the station, select "seat with an oversized baggage area" and choose a seat from the seat map. At a station ticket office, tell the staff that you will bring oversized baggage.
3. Once on board, put your luggage in the space behind the seat you reserved.

• If you use a JAPAN RAIL PASS, tell the staff at a JR station ticket office, or reserve through "JAPAN RAIL PASS Reservation".
• As with other reserved seats, you can reserve from 1 month before the day of travel. Some trains get crowded, so reserve early. If the train is full, reserve an earlier or later train.
• The space behind the seats is shared by the passengers who reserved seats in that row. Because of the luggage, you may not be able to recline your seat.
• You can reserve these seats even without oversized baggage, but because there are only a limited number of them, passengers are asked to leave them for those who need them.

Good to know

If you did not reserve, or your plans change

• You cannot bring oversized baggage onto a train on which you have not reserved a seat with an oversized baggage area. If you break this rule and bring it on board without a reservation, you pay a fee of ¥1,000 (tax included) and put your luggage in a place designated by the train crew.
• Paying the fee does not mean you can board. Do not board a train whose seats with an oversized baggage area are fully booked; instead, reserve a seat with an oversized baggage area on a different train.
• If your plans change, change your reservation before boarding the train.
• If you miss the train you reserved, depending on your ticket, you may be able to ride in a non-reserved car of a later train. However, you cannot bring oversized baggage into non-reserved cars. To take a later train with oversized baggage, buy a new limited express ticket for a seat with an oversized baggage area on that train.