Prices here are the yen figures, with today's conversion beside them. When we last checked, on September 4, 2026, ¥157 bought a US dollar and ¥212 a pound.
The short answer
Takkyubin is a courier service that collects your suitcase from one hotel desk and delivers it to the next while you make the journey with your hands free. Reckon on ¥1,650 (about $10) and up between Tokyo and Kyoto. Hand it over the day before. Before you leave home, add up the length, the width and the height of your case: that total sets the price of the shipment, and it also decides whether the case can go on the bullet train without a formality.
How luggage forwarding works in Japan, and what sets the price
Yamato, the black-cat courier that runs takkyubin, does not charge by weight or by volume. It charges by the sum of length, width and height. A case of 75 by 50 by 30 centimeters, which is roughly 30 by 20 by 12 inches, therefore counts as 155 cm and falls in the band marked 160.
Yamato vans on a Tokyo street in July 2025. The black cat carrying her kitten is the company’s mark, and the nickname of the service: kuroneko, the black cat.
The railway adds up exactly the same three dimensions to decide whether a bag comes aboard the shinkansen, which is the one piece of luck in this system: you measure once at home, and you have both answers at the same time.
| Length + width + height | What that is | On the shinkansen | For shipping |
|---|---|---|---|
| up to 160 cm (63 in) | an ordinary checked suitcase, say 75 × 50 × 30 cm (30 × 20 × 12 in) | goes on board with nothing to reserve, overhead or at your feet | accepted |
| 161 to 200 cm (63 to 79 in) | a big suitcase, or two straps around a sports bag | a reserved space is required and free; ¥1,000 (about $6) on board if you skip it | accepted |
| 201 to 250 cm (79 to 98 in) | a very large container, a trunk | a reserved space is required and free; ¥1,000 (about $6) on board if you skip it | refused by Yamato, which stops at 200 cm (79 in) |
| over 250 cm (98 in) | out of gauge | not allowed on board | refused |
Rail thresholds last checked August 27, 2026 on the Oversized Baggage page at JR Central, which apply on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen. Shipping limits from the TA-Q-BIN page at Yamato, which takes up to 200 cm (79 in) and 30 kg (66 lb). The rule is written in centimeters, and the inch figures are rounded to the unit: two neighboring bands can therefore print the same inch. A bag within an inch of a line has to be measured in centimeters. Skis, snowboards, surfboards and dismantled bicycles in their bag are exempt from the reservation rule.
Weight counts for the shipment, never for the train. It stops at 30 kg, or 66 pounds.
On the bullet train, the space is booked in advance
Above 160 cm, or 63 inches, your case no longer fits the rack above the seats. It goes in a closed space behind the last row of the carriage, and that space belongs to the five seats of that row: you get it by booking one of them.
Those five seats sell at the price of an ordinary reserved seat. There’s no baggage surcharge. What costs money is boarding without having booked one, because an agent then charges ¥1,000 (about $6) on board and moves the case to a place of their choosing.
The obligation applies only on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi-Kyushu lines, which is to say the Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka axis. On the northern and eastern lines, from the Tohoku to the Hokuriku by way of the Joetsu, there’s nothing to book and nothing bookable: the space is open, first come first served, and some trains have none at all. The case then stays at your feet.
Skis, snowboards, surfboards and dismantled bicycles in their bags escape the obligation everywhere, whatever their size.
What the shipment costs, city pair by city pair
You hand the case in at one hotel desk. It waits for you at the next.
The 63-inch line gets paid for here too, and it is the same line the railway uses: between Tokyo and Kyoto, a case that crosses it goes from ¥2,630 (about $17) to ¥3,730 (about $24).
| Route | 100 cm (39 in) | 120 cm (47 in) | 140 cm (55 in) | 160 cm (63 in) | 180 cm (71 in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo to Kyoto or Osaka Kanto to Kansai | ¥1,650 about $10 | ¥1,970 about $13 | ¥2,310 about $15 | ¥2,630 about $17 | ¥3,730 about $24 |
| Kyoto to Osaka or Nara within Kansai | ¥1,530 about $10 | ¥1,850 about $12 | ¥2,190 about $14 | ¥2,510 about $16 | ¥3,060 about $19 |
| Kyoto to Hiroshima Kansai to Chugoku | ¥1,530 about $10 | ¥1,850 about $12 | ¥2,190 about $14 | ¥2,510 about $16 | ¥3,060 about $19 |
| Tokyo to Sapporo Kanto to Hokkaido | ¥2,050 about $13 | ¥2,370 about $15 | ¥2,710 about $17 | ¥3,030 about $19 | ¥4,350 about $28 |
One parcel, tax included, last checked August 27, 2026 on the official price list from Yamato. A size here is Yamato's own: the three dimensions added up, rounded up to the next step. It runs on to 200 cm (79 in), the largest it takes. Dropping the parcel off yourself at a convenience store or a depot takes ¥100 (under $1) off the price.
Delivery time is counted in days. This table gives the price and never the arrival date, which Yamato works out on its own rates and times page, region by region, because the delay depends on the pair of regions you’re shipping between and not at all on the size of the case.
From the airport, as soon as you land
The same courier keeps counters in the airports. Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka and New Chitose all have one. You drop the case as you come out of customs and find it waiting at the hotel, which leaves your hands free on the airport train and spares you the one journey where a suitcase is most in the way. It runs the other way for the trip home. Same 30 kg limit.
Where you hand it in, and where you pick it up
The hotel desk is the simplest drop-off point. The staff fill in the form. That settles the address written in Japanese. Konbini, the convenience stores on every other corner, take parcels too, though some refuse anything above 180 cm of combined dimensions.
The case travels without you. Documents, medication and your power bank stay in your cabin bag, because the case travels on its own schedule and you have no way of reaching it between the two hotel desks. The service insures the contents up to ¥300,000 (about $1,908).
What you can do today
- Measure your case at home before you leave, and write down the total of the three dimensions. That number is what decides, not the capacity in liters printed by the maker.
- If you go past 63 inches, book your bullet train seat when you book the ticket. The seat with the baggage space costs no more, but it sells like the others.
- The day you change city without going back to the hotel is the day it earns its keep. That’s also the day a suitcase costs you most to keep: a locker, a left-luggage counter, or an afternoon of dragging it between two trains.
- Send it the day before the journey, not that morning, and keep a night’s things with you. Yamato’s own calculator gives the arrival date along with the price.