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Next Subway (つぎ地下, Tsugi Chika) is an unofficial next-train tool for the Sendai Subway. The app screens are in Japanese.

How to Ride the Sendai Subway: Tickets, Fares and Access to Sights

This page is for first-time riders and visitors to the Sendai Subway (Namboku Line and Tozai Line). It covers how to ride, fares, and how to get to some sights from Sendai Station.

This is an unofficial guide. It is based on information published by Sendai City Transportation Bureau (仙台市交通局), but fares and rules may change. If anything here differs from the Transportation Bureau's information (in Japanese), please follow theirs. Checked on October 19, 2026.

Station and line names follow the English on the Sendai Subway Route Map. The Japanese names are shown alongside.

1. Find stations and next trains with Next Subway

Next Subway shows the next train, the one after, and the last train for each station and direction, using the subway timetable data published by the City of Sendai. You can search by station name in kanji or hiragana, or choose from the stations near your current location (現在地から近い駅).

The app screens are in Japanese. Station names are shown in Japanese, so the Japanese names in parentheses on this page help you match them.

For trips that use both lines (for example, from Izumi-chuo (泉中央) to Arai (荒井)), the app works out the connecting train at Sendai Station and your arrival time. You can choose how many minutes to allow for the change at Sendai Station: 3, 5, 7 or 10 (5 at first).

Times are as scheduled. Delays and suspensions are not shown. On days with a special schedule, such as around the New Year, the app shows a notice instead of times.

Open Next Subway (in Japanese)

2. Riding

Buying a ticket

1. At a ticket machine in the station, touch “きっぷを買う” (buy a ticket).
2. To buy tickets for two or more people or child tickets, press the combination button.
3. Touch the button for the fare (the fare depends on where you go; see section 4).
4. Put in cash or an IC card such as icsca.
5. Take your ticket. Please do not forget your IC card or change.

In the photo of the ticket machine in the Transportation Bureau's “how to buy a ticket” (PDF, in Japanese), the screen shows “English”, “中文” and “한국어” buttons in the upper right. One-day passes are sold at the same machines (the “一日乗車券” button).

Ticket gates

• All subway ticket gates are automatic.
• IC card: when you enter and when you leave, touch the center of the reader until it beeps. One IC card cannot be used for several people; please buy a ticket for each person.
• Ticket or Subway One-Day Pass: put it into the slot. When you leave, tickets are collected and one-day passes come back out of the gate. Please do not forget to take your pass.
• Loople Sendai and Subway One-Day Pass: if yours is a paper pass, show the back (with the date stamp) to station staff when you enter and leave.

Platforms

On the Namboku Line, Platform 1 is for Tomizawa (富沢) and Platform 2 is for Izumi-chuo (泉中央). On the Tozai Line, Platform 1 is for Arai (荒井) and Platform 2 is for Yagiyama Zoological Park (八木山動物公園); only at Sendai Station, Platform 3 is for Arai (荒井) and Platform 4 is for Yagiyama Zoological Park (八木山動物公園).

If your fare is not enough

• IC card: you can enter even if your balance is less than the minimum fare. Before leaving, use the fare adjustment machine inside the gates to top up in 1,000-yen units or pay just the shortfall (in 10-yen units), then touch the gate.
• Ticket: put your ticket into the fare adjustment machine and follow the steps on the screen. Use the adjustment ticket it gives you to pass the gate.

Wheelchairs and luggage

No advance booking is needed to ride with a wheelchair. If you need help, please speak to station staff at the station window before you board.

Luggage you bring on board must be within 2.5 m in total of length, width and height (length up to 2 m) and 30 kg in weight.

3. Changing between the Namboku and Tozai lines (Sendai Station)

The Namboku Line and the Tozai Line meet at Sendai Station. You can change lines without leaving the ticket gates. The Transportation Bureau's fare table has a transfer fare table for when you “transfer between the Namboku Line and the Tozai Line without leaving the ticket gate at Sendai Station” (for example, Izumi-chuo (泉中央) to Yagiyama Zoological Park (八木山動物公園): 370 yen).

On the Transportation Bureau's map of Sendai Station, the second basement floor (B2) is the transfer concourse, the third basement floor (B3) is the Namboku Line platform, and the fourth basement floor (B4) is the Tozai Line platform.

On the route screen of Next Subway, you can choose the time to allow for the change at Sendai Station and see the connecting train and your arrival time.

The Transportation Bureau's Sendai Station page (in Japanese) says that some station maps and routes inside the station have changed because of construction work (checked on October 19, 2026). For changing to and from JR lines, see the City of Sendai's “transfer guide for Sendai Station” (in Japanese).

4. Fares, IC cards and passes

Fares

• Fares depend on the distance. Adult fares are 210, 250, 310, 340 and 370 yen. You can check the fare for each trip on the Transportation Bureau's fare table (Japanese and English, PDF).
• Within the area up to three stations from Sendai Station (Sendai (仙台), Kita-Yobancho (北四番丁), Kotodai-koen (勾当台公園), Hirose-dori (広瀬通), Itsutsubashi (五橋), Atago-bashi (愛宕橋), Kawaramachi (河原町), International Center (国際センター), Omachi Nishi-koen (大町西公園), Aoba-dori Ichibancho (青葉通一番町), Miyagino-dori (宮城野通), Rembo (連坊), Yakushido (薬師堂)), the fare is 210 yen.
• Elementary school children pay half the adult fare, rounded up to the next 10 yen. Children aged 1 or over who are not yet in elementary school ride free, up to 2 per fare-paying passenger (from the third child, the child fare applies). Children under 1 ride free (child fares, in Japanese).
• On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and during long holidays such as Golden Week and the summer holidays, up to 2 elementary school children ride city buses and the subway free with each adult (“ハッピー・ファミリー・ライド”, Happy Family Ride).

IC cards

• You can use Sendai's icsca, and also Suica and the IC cards that work with Suica (PASMO, Kitaca, TOICA, manaca, ICOCA, PiTaPa, SUGOCA, nimoca and Hayakaken (はやかけん)). PiTaPa postpay is not accepted; please top up your PiTaPa in advance.
• Mobile Suica, PASMO and ICOCA also work. They cannot be used with the ticket machines and fare adjustment machines that take inserted cards, and you cannot top up a phone at the station's ticket machines or fare adjustment machines.
• You can buy an icsca at station ticket machines: 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 or 10,000 yen, each including a 500-yen deposit. Cash only. icsca top-ups are in 1,000-yen units and in cash (except with the icsca charge app).
• Station ticket machines can also top up Suica and other IC cards.

Contactless credit card payment (Tozai Line only)

• At the 13 Tozai Line stations, you can ride by touching a credit card or similar on the dedicated reader at the staffed gate. No registration is needed. Touch the reader on the entrance side when you enter, and the reader on the exit side when you leave; station staff check it and open the gate.
• Accepted brands: Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club, Discover and UnionPay (銀聯).
• At Sendai Station, it works only at the East Gate and West Gate (not at the North Gate, South Gate or the Senseki Line transfer gate). You cannot change to the Namboku Line with it.
• The regular adult fare always applies (child fares and welfare discounts do not). Only the cardholder can use the card; one card cannot be used for several people. You can only leave with the same card or device you entered with.
• It cannot be combined with other tickets (commuter passes, one-day passes, IC cards and so on), and cannot be used to pay a fare adjustment.

One-day passes and other passes

• Subway One-Day Pass (地下鉄一日乗車券): unlimited rides on all subway lines for one day. Everyday pass (valid any day) adult 840 yen / child 420 yen; Saturday, Sunday and holiday pass adult 620 yen / child 310 yen (the weekend pass is valid on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays and the New Year period, among others). Sold at the station ticket machines, valid only on the day of purchase (to buy in advance, go to a station window).
• Loople Sendai and Subway One-Day Pass (るーぷる仙台・地下鉄共通一日乗車券): unlimited rides for one day on Loople Sendai and the subway (Namboku and Tozai lines). Adult 1,000 yen / child 500 yen. Sold for the same day at the information office at the Sendai Station West Exit bus terminal and at the windows of every subway station (to buy in advance, use the digital ticket on “Sendai MaaS”).
• Sendai Marugoto Pass (仙台まるごとパス): two consecutive days on all subway lines, Loople Sendai, city buses (the Transportation Bureau's page adds a note on city buses; please check the page), JR lines between Sendai, Matsushima, Matsushimakaigan, Yamadera and Shiroishi, all of the Sendai Airport Access Line, and more. Adult 2,930 yen / child (elementary school) 1,470 yen. Sold at ticket offices (みどりの窓口) and reserved seat ticket machines at major JR East stations in the free area, the ticket machines at Sendai Airport Station, and other places. You can use the automatic gates on the subway.
• SENDAI AREA PASS: a pass for visitors with a non-Japanese passport (you need your passport when you buy and use it). Adults (12 and over) 1,420 yen / children (6–11) 720 yen. On the subway, insert it into the automatic gate. Sold at the JR EAST Travel Service Center (3rd floor of JR Sendai Station) and the reserved seat ticket machines with passport readers at Sendai Station. Please check the official website (English) for the area it covers.

For prices and where to buy, see the Transportation Bureau's ticket page and Sendai Marugoto Pass page (in Japanese).

5. Getting to sights

Examples of sights you can reach from Sendai Station without changing trains. Ride times are the median time of weekday trains leaving Sendai Station between 10:00 and 16:00 in the timetable data (timetable effective July 1, 2023). Platform numbers at Sendai Station are from the Transportation Bureau's “how to ride the subway” page.

• Walking times from the station are shown only when the official information of the place or the City of Sendai gives them.
• “See the next trains” opens the route screen in the Next Subway app (Sendai → that station, in Japanese), where you can check upcoming trains and the return trip (逆向き, reverse). The station pages linked below are available in English.

• Yagiyama Zoological Park
• Site of Sendai Castle / Sendai City Museum
• Jozenji-dori Avenue / Sendai Mediatheque
• Ichibancho and Chuo-dori shopping streets
• Sendai 3/11 Memorial Community Center
• Yurtec Stadium Sendai

6. Official information

The Transportation Bureau's website has no pages in other languages; it offers machine translation by Google Translate. The route map and the fare table are in Japanese and English.

• How to ride the subway (Transportation Bureau, in Japanese)
• Sendai Subway Route Map (Japanese and English, PDF)
• Sendai Subway Fare Table (Japanese and English, PDF)
• One-day passes and discounts (in Japanese)
• IC cards you can use (in Japanese)
• Contactless credit card payment (in Japanese)
• Sendai Marugoto Pass and SENDAI AREA PASS (in Japanese)
• Sendai Station (Transportation Bureau, in Japanese)
• Transfer guide for Sendai Station (City of Sendai, in Japanese)
• Transportation Bureau website in other languages (machine translation)