Child Fare for Transportation

When you are travelling with your kids, you might wonder what are the Child Fare for the transportation? what are the ages for that?

Child Fare for Transportation
1.Child Fare is for 6 years old to 12 years old
2.Child Fare is usually half of adult fare
3.Infant and Baby Fare are generally free
4.Buying Child Transportation IC Card

１．What are the ages for Child Fare?

Child Fare is for 6 years old to 12 years old. Child Fare is for elementary school children. In Japan, school year starts in April and ends in March and they go from grade 1 to grade 6. So, if a child will be 7 years old between April and March of the school year, Child Fare applies. For the same reason, if the child will be 13 years old between April and March of the school year, he/she will be considered an adult.

So until March 31, 2024,
If your child is born between April 2 of 2018 to April 1 of 2019: Child Fare
If your child is born between April 2 of 2011 to April 1 of 2012 and up: Adult Fare
Please see footnote for the date detail

2. Child Fare is usually about half of adult fare

Unless otherwise noted, Children fare is about half of adult fare.

• If the train fare is 200 yen for adults, Child Fare is 100 yen.
• For JR, If half fare is less than 10 yen, it will be rounded down. For example, if adult fare is 270 yen, it will not be 135 yen but 130 yen.
• For Tokyo Metro and most of private lines (Keikyu, Odakyu, Tokyu, Hankyu, Kintetsu and etc) if half fare is less than 10 yen, it will be rounded up. So, if adult fare is 210 yen, it will be 110 yen for children.

For JR, Super express ticket（特急券）, express ticket（急行券） and seat reservation ticket （指定席券）is also half price of an adult. but Green car ticket（グリーン席）, Gran class ticket（グランクラス席） and sleeper compartment（寝台席）* tickets are same as adult. For example Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto will be

As you can see in this chart, Non-Reserved Seat and Reserved Seat of Shinkansen, you will have Child Fare on Both Basic Fare and Super Express surcharge. For Green Car, Basic Fare and Super Express Fare is Child Fare but Green Car is same as adult, so it is relatively expensive.

Source おとなとこども：JR東日本 (jreast.co.jp) (Japanese only)

3. Infant and baby fare

Baby and infants are generally free of charge except:

• 1 adult or 1 child can accompany up to 2 infants for free. If an adult accompany more than 3 infants, you will need 1 Child Fare for the third infant.
• If an infant or a baby uses one seat in the reserved seats, you will need Child Fare.　If an infant or a baby uses one seat in the Green car, Gran Class, or sleeper, you will need Child Fare.
• If an infant travels alone.

Source おとなとこども：JR東日本 (jreast.co.jp) (Japanese only)

４．Buying Child Transportation IC Card

If you are purchasing transportation IC card (such as Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA), there is Child IC card that automatically charge Child Fare. You need to bring passport (to check birthday) of the child and you need to register their name on the card. You need to to go to ticket counter or Commuter Pass counter to buy Child IC Card. For JR, you can try JR Travel Service Center or JR Ticket Counter (Midori-no-madoguchi みどりの窓口）

According to Ministry of Education (MEXT) website, with regard to school age, Article 17, Paragraph 1 of the School Education Law states, “Parents and guardians are obliged to enroll their children in elementary school,… from the beginning of the first school year following the day on which the child reaches six years of age.”On the other hand, Article 59 of the Enforcement Regulations of the School Education Law stipulates that “The elementary school year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31 of the following year.” So, when is the date when a person reaches the age of six years? According to the Law Concerning Calculation of Age and Article 143 of the Civil Code, a person is one year older (reaches full age) at the end of the day before his/her birthday (12:00 p.m.). Applying this to a child born on April 1, the child would be six years old at the end of March 31, the day before his/her birthday (12:00 p.m.).Therefore, the grade level of students born on April 1 is one grade higher than that of students born on or after April 2, so that a school year consists of students born on April 2 through April 1 of the following year.