Before you go
There are a few different ways to pay for parking in Japan.
What you need at the machine, though, is usually one of these.
The parking ticket (駐車券)
The number of the space you parked in
Your car’s license plate
Some parking lots also have you pay up front.
1 Paying with a parking ticket
You’ll see this at multi-story and underground garages.
You take a ticket at the entrance and pay when you leave.
Put the ticket into the pay machine (精算機) and the charge comes up.
At malls and department stores, shopping can make your parking free or cheaper.
You may need the ticket for that, so take it with you rather than leave it in the car.
2 Paying by the number of your parking space
You’ll see this at ground-level lots (平置き駐車場).
Every space has its own number.
When you leave, you enter your number at the machine and the charge comes up.
Enter the wrong number and you pay for somebody else’s car.
So photograph the number with your phone as soon as you park.
3 Paying by your car’s license plate
Some parking lots read your plate with a camera.
You enter the number at the machine, and it shows you the matching car.
With a rental car, photograph the plate when you pick it up.
4 Paying first
There’s also a 前払い式 (“pay in advance”) type, where you park and pay right away.
The machine may print a ticket when you pay.
If it tells you to leave the ticket somewhere visible inside the car, do that.
It’s not always cash only
Depending on the parking lot, you can use
cash (現金)
credit cards
cashless payment such as e-money
to pay.
Even with cash, not every banknote works.
Carry coins and small notes and you’ll rarely be stuck.
The payment methods you can use are shown on the machine.
If you’re not sure, look at the machine first
“So how do I pay?”
If you find yourself wondering that, look at the pay machine.
The machine is asking you to
put in the parking ticket
enter the number of the parking space
enter the car’s license plate
Spot which one it wants, and the rest is the same everywhere.
Handy things to remember
With a rental car, photograph the license plate.
When you park in a ground-level lot, photograph the space number.
When a ticket comes out, take it with you rather than leave it in the car.
Make those three a habit, and paying stops being something to think about.
※ How you pay, and which cash, cards and cashless payments you can use, differ from one parking lot to another. When you actually use one, check the pay machine and the signs on site.
