Check-out is at 10. Your flight leaves at 9 tonight. In between sits a 23-kilo suitcase and a whole day of Tokyo you'd rather not spend dragging it up station stairs. Good news: this city is very good at holding your stuff, as long as you know which option fits which bag.
Budget¥300–¥1,000 per bag, per day
Time5 minutes if you plan it, 40 if you don't
Best forCheck-out days, day trips, Shinkansen travel
StartTokyo Sta. Yaesu side
The quick decision
Most people only need one rule. Small bag, short stop: a station locker. Big suitcase on a busy day: book something in advance. Moving to Osaka or Kyoto with a monster case: sort out your Shinkansen seat before anything else.
- Backpack or tote: the smallest locker size is plenty, and it's the size that's almost always free.
- Carry-on roller: medium lockers, but these go first in tourist stations.
- Full-size checked suitcase: large lockers are rare. Reserve one, or use a staffed counter.
- Two suitcases and a stroller: skip lockers entirely and use a staffed counter or ship it.
Station lockers: what they cost and how to pay
JR East's own guide lists its locker sizes at roughly ¥300 for SS, ¥500 for S, ¥700–800 for M and ¥900–1,000 for L, with the exact figure depending on the station and the locker model (as of Oct 2026). Lockers run from the first train to the last. The price is printed on the door, so read it before you load up.
Two kinds of machine are out there. Older banks take ¥100 coins and hand you a physical key. Newer touch-panel banks let you pay by tapping Suica or PASMO, and the same card becomes your key when you come back. Some newer JR East lockers no longer take cash at all, so keep a little balance on your IC card. Lose the key or forget which bank you used, and you'll need the operator's help to get your bag back, so snap a photo of the locker number and the nearest exit sign.
One habit that saves money: many lockers count by calendar day, not per 24 hours. Drop a bag at 11 pm and collect it at 8 am and you can pay twice. If you're collecting the next morning, a staffed counter or your hotel may work out cheaper.
Reserving a locker before you arrive
This is the move most visitors miss. JR East's Multi Cube system lets you pick a station, a size, a date and a time on your phone up to one month ahead. In JR East's August 2026 rundown for Kamakura, reservable lockers carried a ¥500 booking fee on top of the rental, and Multi Cube can add ¥100–200 to M and L sizes in peak periods (as of Oct 2026). For a big suitcase on a Saturday in a tourist station, that fee is worth paying. For a backpack on a Tuesday, don't bother.
At Tokyo Station specifically, the station's official site points you to the To Locca service and the Tokyo Station Navi app, which show which Suica lockers are free in real time. Check before you get off the train rather than after.
Staffed counters for big bags
When the large lockers are full, a person behind a counter is the answer. Tokyo Station has several, and which one you pick depends on which side of the ticket gates you're on.
Shinkansen Parcel Service & Baggage Storage
The long hours make this the safe pick for early departures and late returns. It sits outside the gates, so you can drop bags without paying a train fare. Head here first if you're coming from a hotel in Nihonbashi or Ginza.
Cloak Service in GRANSTA TOKYO
Useful if you're already through the gates and changing trains, say arriving on the Narita Express and heading out sightseeing before a later Shinkansen. Check same-day hours on the Tokyo Station City site, since they're shorter than the station's.
ecbo cloak at shops and 7-Eleven
ecbo cloak turns cafés, shops and post offices into luggage drops you book and pay for in advance. Its help page lists ¥500 a day for bags with a longest side under 45 cm and ¥800 for suitcases, with a flat ¥1,000 at some locations such as JR stations, and a 20 kg cap per item (as of Oct 2026). A few hundred 7-Eleven stores joined the network, which is handy away from the big terminals.
Our pick between the three? If you're at Tokyo Station with a full-size case, the Yaesu South counter. If you're out in a neighborhood like Asakusa or Shimokitazawa, ecbo cloak, because a local station has a fraction of the lockers a big terminal does and you can't reserve your way into a full bank.
Taking a big suitcase on the Shinkansen
This catches people every season. On the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu and Nishi-Kyushu Shinkansen (so Tokyo to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and on), any bag whose length, width and height add up to more than 160 cm needs a reserved "seat with an oversized baggage area." That's a back-row seat with space behind it. It costs the same as a normal reserved seat. Turn up without one and JR Central charges ¥1,000 and the conductor tells you where to put the bag (as of Oct 2026). Anything over 250 cm total can't come on board at all.
- Measure your case at home. Large checked suitcases often land close to the 160 cm line once you count the wheels and handle.
- Book the special seat when you buy the ticket. On busy days these back rows can be gone well before the rest of the train.
- The Kodama has far fewer of these seats than the Nozomi, so don't assume the slow train is the easy option.
- Strollers, instruments and sports gear don't count as oversized baggage.
When the bag should travel without you
Sometimes the smartest storage is none at all. Many Tokyo hotels will hold bags before check-in and after check-out, and plenty can arrange a courier to your next hotel or the airport for a fee. Ask at the front desk the evening before, since couriers usually need time. For airport runs, a limousine bus with an underfloor luggage hold beats hauling a case through transfer corridors at Shinjuku or Tokyo Station.
Words that work
- 荷物を預けたいです (nimotsu o azuketai desu) — I'd like to leave my luggage
- 大きいロッカーはありますか (ōkii rokkā wa arimasu ka) — Do you have a large locker?
- 何時まで開いていますか (nanji made aite imasu ka) — Until what time are you open?
The Japanese verb for leaving your bags, azukeru, also means to entrust. That's the feeling at a good luggage counter: someone takes responsibility for your things so you can go and enjoy the day. Say thank you when you pick them up. It's noticed.
— John Nanjo
More on moving around: our guide to getting around Tokyo by train and IC card, the day pass vs Suica break-even, and everything in Getting Around.
Sources: JR East (coin lockers & Multi Cube), JR East (Kamakura Station lockers), Tokyo Station City, JR Central (oversized baggage), ecbo cloak
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