Send the suitcase ahead: how luggage forwarding makes Japan so much easier

Picture this. You've just checked out of your Kyoto hotel, and your next stop is a little inn up in the mountains. Between you and it: a rush-hour train, a Shinkansen, a bus, and about four flights of station stairs. Now imagine doing all of that with a 20-kilo suitcase in each hand.

Here's the thing locals worked out long ago. You don't have to.

The trick is takkyubin (宅急便), door-to-door luggage forwarding. You hand your suitcase over today, and it's waiting for you at your next hotel tomorrow, while you travel light with just a day bag. Do it once and you'll wonder how you ever packed for a Japan trip any other way.

How it actually works

Takkyubin is the everyday parcel service run by Yamato Transport (look for the black-cat logo), and it's been a quiet backbone of Japanese life since the 1970s. A normal suitcase fits with room to spare: bags up to 160 centimetres all the way around and 25 kilos are standard, and Yamato will carry up to 200 cm and 30 kg.

The easiest place to send from is your hotel. Almost any mid-size front desk will fill out the slip for you and take the bag at checkout, and the desk at your next hotel will be holding it when you arrive. Sending one suitcase between cities runs roughly ¥2,000–3,000 and usually lands the next day (as of July 2026). Just give the desk the name and check-in date of your next hotel, and mention that a bag is coming ahead of you.

No hotel desk handy? A convenience store will do it too. 7-Eleven and FamilyMart handle Yamato; Lawson takes Sagawa, the other big carrier. Same idea, open all night.

The airport move

This one's my favourite for the very first day. You land tired, and instead of wrestling a suitcase onto the train, you drop it at the delivery counter in arrivals and let it meet you at the hotel.

At our home airport, Chubu Centrair near Nagoya, the Yamato counter is on the 2nd floor of Terminal 1. Hand your bag over by around 11:30 and it reaches hotels in the area that same afternoon, roughly 2 to 8 pm, no reservation needed. Just check at the counter that your hotel sits inside the delivery zone. It works in reverse on the way out, too: send the suitcase from your hotel the day before your flight and travel to the airport unburdened.

One rule worth knowing on the Shinkansen

If you'd rather keep your bag with you, know this. Since 2020, the Tokaido Shinkansen (the line through Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka) asks you to reserve a spot for oversized baggage. Bags up to 160 cm total go in the racks, no fuss. Between 160 and 250 cm, you need a reserved seat with a luggage space behind it, which is free; turn up without one and it's a ¥1,000 charge. Anything over 250 cm can't come aboard at all.

Here's the catch: plenty of big check-in suitcases sit just over that 160 cm line. Which is one more reason sending it ahead is often the calmer choice.

When to just carry it

Forwarding isn't always the answer. Same-day hop to the next town? A station coin locker is cheaper and quicker, and the smart ones open with a tap of your IC card. It's the multi-city trips, and that first jet-lagged day, where sending your bags ahead turns a slog into a stroll.

So next time you're mapping out a few towns across central Japan, pack the day bag, send the suitcase, and take the stairs like a local, hands free.