International Railroad Discussion > American credit cards on JR

When I go to Japan (twice a year), I buy my Shinkansen ticket ahead of time on the JR website. It never accepts my American credit card. It takes my debt card, but not my standard, Chase bank credit card, which works everywhere else. Any idea why? 

I was in Japan in 11/2025 and I discovered that it is not necessary to buy the tickets in advance to he Shinkansen trains if you do not intend to take the reserved cars. There are too many trains a day and you will always have a free seat on the non-reserved cars. I used to buy the tickes a day before or at the same day in the stations. The advantage of the non-reserved cars is the fact that you can take any train at any time at the day you choose. So, it is more convenient when we are visiting the cities because we can not to be worried about the train time. I always paid in cash in the ticket machines or use the Suica card.

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Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Thank you, Pedro. But I've had to stand too many times in non-reserved cars, including most of the way from Osaka to Tokyo once. Not fun, jammed in a crowd all that time. The Japanese are very polite, but offering a seat to an elderly westerner wasn't something anyone offered. 

So I do pay the extra for a reserved seat. My son now lives in Kanazawa. 

symph1 Wrote:
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> It takes my debit card, but not my standard, Chase bank
> credit card, which works everywhere else. Any idea why?

Did some research and here are some anecdotes:

One claims the credit card requires 3DS security protocol (fraud prevention) to work. People say American Express and Discover worked OK.

If yours worked before April 2025, but not afterwards, Japan has implemented PIN in lieu of signatures, even for credit, notices which I've seen in various stores last year. This is also related to fraud prevention. I suspect you've had this problem before April 2025?

I usually buy a Rail Pass of some sort (JR Rail Pass, Tokyo Area Pass) if I know I'm riding a Shinkansen during my visit, and I haven't had any issues buying the passes using U.S. issued credit cards.

Since your debit card is already PIN "protected," JR allows ticket purchases with that?

Also, credit/debit card companies charge the vendor a fee for the use of a credit card, but not for the use of a debit card.  Many vendors in the US are now adding that fee to your credit card bill.  Gerry

cchan006 Wrote:

> If yours worked before April 2025, but not
> afterwards, Japan has implemented PIN in lieu of
> signatures, even for credit, notices which I've
> seen in various stores last year. This is also
> related to fraud prevention. I suspect you've had
> this problem before April 2025?
>
Yup

My card is chip-enabled. It also has a PIN if I wanted to use it for a cash at an ATM (which I never do). My debt card also has a PIN for use at an ATM, but the PIN is never needed other than an ATM. 

Re JR, the credit card works perfectly well at JR ticket offices in Narita, Ueno, and Tokyo Stations. But not on line. 

GPutz Wrote:
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> Also, credit/debit card companies charge the
> vendor a fee for the use of a credit card, but not
> for the use of a debit card.  Many vendors in the
> US are now adding that fee to your credit card
> bill.  Gerry

In case of international travel (Japan), many cards charge foreign transaction fees. Figure I mention that, since that's more relevant in this thread.

symph1 Wrote:
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> Yup
>
> My card is chip-enabled. It also has a PIN if I
> wanted to use it for a cash at an ATM (which I
> never do). My debt card also has a PIN for use at
> an ATM, but the PIN is never needed other than an
> ATM. 

I suspect the Japanese implementation of PIN is a little different, even if it's the same PIN, if it's needed for credit transaction (physical stores) instead of cash advance.

> Re JR, the credit card works perfectly well at JR
> ticket offices in Narita, Ueno, and Tokyo
> Stations. But not on line.

Yeah, the anecdotes I've collected are for "foreigners" visiting Japan trying to buy JR tickets online, which seems consistent with your situation.

I just remembered a similar situation years ago when I was rushing to buy a sleeping berth on the Sunrise Limited while onboard a Shinkansen using "Shinkansen WiFi." I was targeting last minute cancellations to extend my travel plans. The reservation failed (and someone else got it) because my transaction transitioned to Visa's authentication process which tried to phone me the codes - well, my home number is in the U.S., not onboard the Shinkansen going "byun byun" near Himeji. :-)

Anyway, so I suspect the issue is related to "fraud prevention."

pedrop Wrote:
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> The advantage of the non-reserved cars is the fact
> that you can take any train at any time at the day
> you choose.

Glad you mentioned this. JNR and its privator sector descendends, the JR Groups (namely JR Central, JR East, JR West, JR Kyushu) have kept unreserved seatings on their Shinkansen trains... but it is being scaled down, and on some trains, seats are all reserved seating now.

Slower, lower demand trains (Hikari and Kodama, for example) will continue to have unreserved seating, 5 out of 16 cars for Hikari, and 10 out of 16 cars for Kodama.

Nozomi used to have 3 unreserved seat cars (out of 16), and last year, JR Central reduced it to 2 cars. Anyway, I won't go into details on how JR East or JR West implement theirs, as that's information worth several reports and I'm already rambling too much. During busy holiday travel seasons, JR Central (announced in advance) will make ALL Nozomi trains reserved seating only

Even some non-HSR limited express trains have given up unreserved seating, from Azusa, Hitachi, and Narita Express. This trend is most prevalent around Tokyo (JR East), but it's spreading to other areas in Japan (JR West).

I will give up the "peace of mind" of reserved seating and opt for unreserved seating, especially for seat-of-the-pants train travel I do in Japan, from chasing train-with-train, last minute detraining for "sudden" tourist ideas, food tourism based on info I find using Shinkansen WiFi, and so forth. There are tactics to deal with all-reserved seating trains that I employ, which I've mentioned in past reports. I'll continue to discuss those in the future, hoping that you and other TO members can benefit.

love to hear your food favorites sometime