Sending luggage in Japan — what it costs, and the size rule that decides the price

The train and the courier disagree about the same case

Luggage forwarding between hotels, stations and airports is ordinary in Japan and is what residents do rather than dragging a case onto a train. It is not same-day: an ordinary parcel arrives the next day or later, so it goes ahead of you. It is also the answer when the baggage seats are sold out.

⚠ The size class is the larger of two readings

This is the rule that decides the price, and it is almost never translated. Yamato states it plainly: compare the total of the three sides against the actual weight, and the larger of the two determines the class.

So an 80 cm box weighing 8 kg is not an 80 — it is a 100, because 8 kg falls in the 100 band. A dense bag of books costs more than a bulky bag of clothes of the same shape.

No single side may exceed 170 cm, and anything that has to stay upright is limited to 100 cm on a side. Cool delivery stops at the 120 class.

⭐ Two things are accepted above the 200 cm limit

The ordinary ceiling is 200 cm across three sides and 30 kg. Two sports items are exempt from the size ceiling and carry a fixed rate instead:

• A golf caddy bag — charged at the 160 rate, and accepted even above 200 cm.
• A ski or snowboard all-in-one case — charged at the 180 rate, also accepted above 200 cm. Two sets per package at most.

The 30 kg weight ceiling still applies to both, and both are excluded from the multi-parcel discount. A suitcase gets no such treatment: it is charged on its measured size and must stay inside 200 cm.

This matters because it is the only route left for a package the Shinkansen will not take. Over 250 cm a case cannot board a train at any price — but a 210 cm ski case is still a parcel.

Three discounts, and what each one excludes

• JPY 100 off for dropping it off yourself at a branch, an agent or a convenience store. ⚠ Some convenience stores will not accept 180 or larger.
• JPY 50 more for members who drop off at a branch and produce the label at the in-branch terminal.
• JPY 100 per parcel for two or more going to the same address on a multi-parcel label, prepaid only — ⚠ excluded for the airport service, cool delivery, compact, golf, ski, round-trip, time service and international. Yamato adds that suitcases and boston bags may be excluded depending on size, without saying where the line is.

The same-prefecture rate is separate and lower

When both ends are in one prefecture there is a reduced rate — JPY 1,410 for a 100 class against the JPY 1,530 zone rate in Kanto, for instance. It applies to prepaid parcels collected from an address or dropped off at a branch, a PUDO point, a delivery locker, or a convenience store if the label was made with Yamato's smartphone service. ⚠ It is not available for parcels sent from Okinawa, which is why that one square of the table is blank, and it does not cover the airport, golf or ski services.

Sending it to the airport costs JPY 660 more

Yamato adds a JPY 660 airport fee to anything sent to an airport, and the airport service gets no multi-parcel discount. Hand it over two days before you fly — three from some areas — by the counter's cut-off time; it goes to the airport you leave from. The calculator adds the fee when you pick an airport as the destination.

What this page does not cover

Other counters at airports, run by airport handling companies, price differently from Yamato's own service, and the hotel desk that arranges it for you may add its own handling fee. Other carriers have their own tables. The figures here are Yamato's published cash fares, which is the yardstick everything else is quoted against.

Related

• Shinkansen luggage rules — what the train requires, and why this page exists.
• Airport charges — what leaving costs before the fare.
• Trip checklist — the rest of what your dates decide.