Short answer
A station coin locker will pay you a maximum of ¥30,000 if your bag is lost or damaged, and it forbids storing valuables at all. Paid storage services carry between ¥1,000,000 and ¥1,857,240 of cover, included in the price.
That is a spread of roughly sixty times, on a decision most travellers make by walking past whichever option they see first.
What to do now
- 1Take your passport, medication, cards and cash out of the bag
before you store it anywhere. Valuables are a prohibited category in the locker terms, not merely uninsured.
- 2Photograph the bag and its contents
before handing it over or locking it away. A claim without evidence of what was inside is difficult in any language.
- 3If what is in the bag is worth more than ¥30,000, do not use a coin locker.
The cap is not negotiable and it is not per item — it is the operator's total liability.
- 4Check the cover on the specific product, not the brand.
The same company can carry a million yen on its own booking and a fraction of that when its space is resold through someone else.
The cover, side by side
| Where you leave it | Maximum cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Activity-marketplace storage listing | ¥10,000 per item | Cover stated in the listing's own terms; also limits size, weight and same-day return |
| Station coin locker | ¥30,000 | Operator's total liability, not per item. Cash and valuables prohibited outright |
| Stasher | £10,000 | Published, but the operator lists very little inventory in Japan |
| Bounce | ¥1,000,000 | Per booking, with free cancellation |
| Nannybag | ¥1,000,000 | Per booking |
| Radical Storage | ¥1,857,240 | Per bag, the highest figure we found published |
A high cover figure is only worth something if the operator has somewhere near you to actually store the bag. Two of the services above advertise Japanese cities while listing almost no locations in them — one of them publishes “0 locations” on its own Tokyo Station page. Check that the specific drop-off point exists and has reviews before you book on the strength of an insurance number.
Why this matters more than the queue
When Japan's Kinki Transport Bureau surveyed travellers about hands-free luggage services, the thing that put people off was not price and not the difficulty of finding a locker. Fear of the bag being lost or damaged ranked higher than lockers being full. The same survey found that around 92% of travellers across five countries said they would use a luggage service, and that ¥3,000 per item was the median point at which delivery started to feel expensive.
In other words, the market has already decided that cover matters. It is just that nobody publishes the numbers side by side, so the decision gets made on whichever sign is closest.
What no cover protects you from
The three-day limit. If you leave a bag in a locker past its deadline it is removed and held, and after 30 days from the day you first used the locker it is disposed of — that is not a loss event, it is the terms working as written. The timing rules are here.
FAQ
Is luggage in a Japanese coin locker insured?
Barely. The two rail operators who publish their terms both cap compensation at ¥30,000 for anything lost or damaged, and both list cash and valuables as items you may not store at all.
How much cover does paid luggage storage include?
Far more than a locker. Bounce states ¥1,000,000 of bag protection per booking and Radical Storage states ¥1,857,240. Cover is included rather than sold separately.
Should I put my passport in a coin locker?
No. Valuables are on the operators' prohibited list, which means a claim for one may not be entertained at all. Keep your passport, medication, cash and cards on you regardless of where the bag goes.
Does travel insurance cover luggage left in storage?
It depends on the policy, and many exclude items left unattended. Check your own wording rather than assuming — the storage operator's cover and your travel policy are separate things, and neither is automatic.
Which storage option has the worst cover?
Of the options we checked, a resold storage product on an activity marketplace capped liability at ¥10,000 per item — a third of a coin locker's cap and a hundredth of a marketplace booking's.
Official sources
Check the source directly if your journey depends on a detail.
Checked against official Japanese sources · Last verified September 3, 2026