Japan has spent much of the overtourism debate trying to control where visitors go, how much they pay, and what they are allowed to do. The latest answer to crowded trains and overflowing lockers is a bit different: don’t move the tourist. Move the suitcase.
JR East’s new luggage-moving service
On August 1, JR East launched JRE Tebura Tabi, or “JRE hands-free travel,” a same-day luggage service between Tokyo and Sendai. Travelers can reserve and pay by 9:30 a.m., drop their bags into a MultiEcube locker by 10:30, and then board the Tohoku Shinkansen without them.
The suitcase arrives that evening at a hotel around Sendai Station or in the Akiu Onsen area. In the other direction, bags deposited in Sendai reach hotels around Tokyo.
The price is ¥3,500 (USD $22) for a small bag/suitcase, ¥3,600 (USD $22.60) for medium, and ¥3,700 (USD $23.20) for large, in either direction. It’s not an unreasonable price for a door-to-door delivery service, but it’s high enough to make some pause and question if it’s worth it.
Plus, since it has specific deadlines for reservations, it requires a bit of advance planning. It’s not a simple travel convenience service that relies on impulse buying. (These are the kind of “gotchas” you may not know about before traveling to Japan that we cover extensively in our free Japan trip planning guide.)
To pay, you can use IC cards, QR codes, or credit cards; no cash.
That’s not to say this is the first service of its kind. In fact, it’s more of an extension of the MultiEcube lockers that have been around since 2023. By combining multifunctional lockers with JR East’s rail-based delivery service, Hakobyun Quick allows people to store things, ship things, and/or arrange pick-up of items at train stations.
Fixing logistical problems with infrastructure
This delivery service addresses a simple problem. Lugging suitcases onto a train can be a hassle. Luggage also takes up space and displaces local commuters, leading to growing resentment toward tourists who haul their bags onto public transit.
The Tohoku, Hokkaido, Akita, Yamagata, Joetsu, and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines don’t have the oversized-baggage seat reservation system used on the Tokaido, Sanyo, Kyushu, and Nishi-Kyushu lines. On those routes, bags measuring between 160-250 cm (63-98 in) in combined dimensions require a reserved oversized-baggage space, with a ¥1,000 (USD $6) penalty for boarding without one.
With its new Tebura Tabi service, JR East is basically saying, “Why bring your luggage on the train at all? Just ship it!”
It is also building the freight network to make that possible. In March, JR East began operating Japan’s first dedicated freight Shinkansen, a converted seven-car E3 series running between the Morioka and Tokyo Shinkansen vehicle centers. Hakobyun Quick already connects Tokyo with Sendai, Morioka, Shin-Aomori, Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, Niigata, Nagano and Kanazawa.
How a labor shortage in trucking affects other industries
The move is partly a response to Japan’s trucking crisis.
A 2024 change to labor rules capped truck drivers’ annual overtime at 960 hours. Without countermeasures, the government projected a 14.2% transportation-capacity shortfall in fiscal year 2024 and around 34.1% by fiscal 2030, alongside a shortage of roughly 140,000 drivers.
Rail is an obvious alternative. The government wants to roughly double rail freight volume from 18 million tons to 36 million tons over about a decade. And since rail freight produces roughly one-seventh the CO2 emissions of trucking, it’s eco-friendly, too.
When you take that into account, adding tourist luggage to these cargo holds isn’t just about making travel more convenient. It’s helping to fill a transport network that Japan wants to expand.
Luggage delivery services: another way to manage overtourism
Sagawa Express is tackling the problem straight from the airport.
On July 22, Sagawa opened baggage delivery and storage counters on the arrivals floors of Narita’s Terminals 1 and 2. Travelers can store bags or have them delivered the same day to hotels in 10 Tokyo wards and Urayasu. Sagawa already has counters at Tokyo Station and Busta Shinjuku, and it is working with JR West on same-day Shinkansen-and-truck delivery between the Kansai and Hiroshima/Hakata areas.
Sagawa has explicitly described this model as “separating the flow of people from the flow of goods.” And yeah, that’s pretty much what’s happening.
The government is encouraging it, too. The transport ministry’s official “hands-free tourism” program promotes certified baggage counters, publishes directories through JNTO, and subsidizes improvements. Its goals include reducing pressure on coin lockers and luggage space on trains while making it easier for visitors to travel beyond Japan’s biggest cities.
The timing is no accident. Japan welcomed a record 42.7 million international visitors in 2025. The first half of 2026 was slightly lower year-on-year, but spending remained enormous: visitors spent a record ¥2.5 trillion (USD $15.75 billion) in the second quarter alone. And fewer travelers do not necessarily mean less luggage pressure, particularly when visitors are spending more.
Anyone who has tried finding a locker at a major Japanese station already understands the problem. Sapporo Station has seen lockers fill by midday during busy event weekends. A 283-locker bank opened on Tokyo Station’s Yaesu side in March. The suitcase has become a surprisingly significant piece of the overtourism problem.
Some snags in streamlining
¥3,500 buys a very different experience from dragging a 20-kg (44-lbs) suitcase through Tokyo Station, onto a Shinkansen, and down the streets of Sendai. However, travelers on tight budgets will likely continue carrying their own luggage. Meaning, it’s not clear if it will help with the luggage side of overtourism that much.
The next stage is already coming. MultiEcube lockers are scheduled for Narita Airport around autumn 2026, alongside a pilot testing station-to-airport baggage movement. JR East also plans a same-day service that inbound visitors can book before arriving in Japan, using NTT Data’s digital passport platform.
It’s an interesting turn. Japan’s response to overtourism has often been to restrict the tourist: raise taxes, limit access, regulate behavior, or charge more. The hands-free model, on the other hand, leaves the visitor alone and reroutes just the luggage.
The result could be a second transport network running alongside the passenger system, one in which suitcases, parcels, and eventually other goods move through stations and airports without their owners.
For travelers, that could make Japan feel dramatically easier. For the companies building it, the prize is larger: a new logistics infrastructure hidden in plain sight, built around the country’s existing railways.
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Sources
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