Luggage Forwarding in Japan (2026): Real Prices, and the Airport Rule Nobody Explains

Japan's courier network will move your suitcase across the country overnight for less than a taxi across Tokyo, and it is the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade available to a visitor with a large bag. English guides mention it. What they rarely include is what it actually costs, how far ahead you have to hand it over, and the one rule that reliably catches people out.

That rule, in one line: the airport service sends your bag to the airport you depart from, not the airport you arrive at. The carrier itself flags this on its own page, which tells you how often it is misunderstood. Everything below is from the operator's published pricing, read on August 31, 2026.

What it costs, with real numbers

Prices depend on size and distance. Here is one region to its own airport — the most common case, and the cheapest:

All figures are cash prices, tax included, per parcel, one way, and they already contain the 660 yen airport handling fee. Paying by a cashless method knocks a few yen off — 1,595 instead of 1,600 at the smallest size, which is a rounding artifact rather than a discount worth chasing.

Cash or cashless, and why the tables differ

Every fare is published twice, as a cash price and a cashless price, and the gap is a handful of yen rather than a meaningful saving — 1,595 against 1,600, or 5,126 against 5,130. It is worth knowing only because it explains why two guides quoting the same route can differ by five yen without either being wrong. The figures in this guide are the cash ones, which is the higher of the two, so you will not be caught short.

Within a region, the price is the same anywhere

This is worth knowing before you assume Tokyo is expensive. We ran the same lookup for Kansai to Kansai Airport and got identical figures to Kanto to Haneda, size for size: 1,600 at the 60 size, 5,130 at the 200. The pricing is by region pair, not by city, so sending a bag to your local airport costs the same whether you are in Tokyo or Osaka. Distance only bites when you cross regions — and note that the gap widens sharply at the large end, from about 520 yen at the 60 size to 2,070 yen at the 200.

Discounts, and which ones are real

Several are advertised. The ones that apply to a visitor without a loyalty account are 100 yen off for dropping the parcel off yourself at a branch, convenience store or agent rather than booking a pickup, 60 yen off for creating the label digitally, and 100 yen off per parcel when sending two or more to the same address. Round-trip booking takes off 200 yen. The larger percentage discounts require the carrier's membership program, so treat those as not applicable unless you have signed up.

The airport rule that catches people out

The direction that does work at an airport is outbound from arrivals: the operator confirms you can send luggage from an airport to your home or hotel. So the useful shape for a visitor is usually: send the big case from the arrivals hall to your first hotel, and later send it to your departure airport before the last leg of the trip. Both are counters in the same building.

Two days, not one

The deadline is the part that decides whether this is available to you at all. Parcels must be handed over two days before departure, and three days from some areas, and before that day's cut-off at the counter you use — the cut-off time varies by drop-off point. The bag reaches the airport by the day before you fly, and you collect it from a partner counter on the day.

So if you are flying tomorrow, this is not your solution. That is what station lockers and left-luggage counters are for, and they are a genuinely different tool: storage buys you a day, forwarding buys you a journey.

Bring the label copy to collect it

At the airport counter, the bag is handed over in exchange for the sender's copy of the shipping label — the operator states this as a requirement rather than a suggestion. Put it somewhere you will not lose it between hotels. If you booked the round trip, the return leg needs no new label and no further payment at all.

Sizes: measure both ways

The size you pay for is decided by whichever is larger — the combined dimensions, or the actual weight. A light but bulky bag is priced on its dimensions; a small, heavy one is priced on the scale.

Two hard limits. Nothing over 200 cm combined, and nothing over 30 kg — the operator does not accept it, and there is no surcharge that makes it possible. If your case is over 30 kg you have an airline problem as well as a courier one.

What you give up by sending to an airport

Two restrictions apply specifically to airport-bound parcels, and both are the kind you discover at the counter.

Because you cannot request a delivery window, the only control you have is when you hand the bag over — which is another argument for the earlier of the two possible days rather than the later.

Where you can hand a parcel over

Four routes exist, and three of them earn the drop-off discount. You can book a pickup from your address, which is the convenient option and the only one with no discount; take it to a branch, which earns 100 yen off, or 150 if you are a member; take it to a convenience store or an agent, both 100 yen off; or use a parcel locker where your building has one. One caveat the operator flags: parcels at the 180 size and above cannot be sent from some convenience stores, which is exactly the range a large suitcase falls into.

The round trip, and one airport that charges twice

If you are coming back through the same airport, booking the return at the same time saves 200 yen per parcel and removes the paperwork on the way home: drop the bag at the counter, no label, no payment. The return leg is valid for one month from the day the outbound parcel was accepted, which comfortably covers a normal trip.

Liability is 300,000 yen per parcel

The stated limit for this service is 300,000 yen per parcel, tax included. That is a ceiling on the carrier's liability, not a valuation of your bag and not travel insurance. For a suitcase of clothes it is ample. For camera bodies, a laptop or anything you would not replace casually, the answer is the same as it is everywhere: keep it with you.

The international version, and where it stops

There is also a service that sends checked baggage through to your destination airport abroad, available on one Japanese carrier's international flights out of Narita, Haneda and Kansai.

How this fits a real itinerary

The pattern that saves the most effort on a two-week trip through several cities is simple, and it is not the one most people try first.

What to keep with you

Whatever you send, keep the things that make the day work in the bag you carry: passport, medication, valuables and one change of clothes. The forwarded case is reliable, but it is not with you, and the one scenario worth planning for is a delay on the day you change cities. This is the same logic as packing a carry-on for a flight, applied to a train.

When it is not worth it

Three cases. If you are staying in one city, the airport-to-hotel leg alone rarely justifies the cost against a train with a suitcase — see our guides on Narita to Shibuya and Haneda to Tokyo Station for what that journey actually involves. If you are traveling as a couple with two large cases, remember the price is per parcel each way, so a single hotel-to-hotel move is two fares. And if your plans are not fixed two days ahead, the deadline makes the decision for you.

Where it is unambiguously worth it: a multi-city route with a week or more of moves, a large case, and stations with stairs at both ends.

Luggage forwarding FAQ

Sources

All prices, the airport handling fee, the hand-over deadlines, the restrictions on time-slot and cash-on-delivery for airport-bound parcels, the round-trip terms and its one-month validity, the Kansai return-leg fee, the liability limit, the label-copy collection rule, the discounts and the international service's US-route exclusion: the carrier's own service page for its airport luggage service, with the fares read from its live fare tool for three separate origin-destination pairs rather than from a summary. The size categories with their combined-dimension and weight caps, and the rule that the higher of the two applies: the carrier's published size guidance. Fares were revised on October 1, 2025; all pages read on August 31, 2026. Confirm your own route and parcel with the operator's lookup before you rely on a figure here.