Sayonara Suica Penguin: Popular JR East Mascot Bows Out After 25 Years

Accepted at More Than Two Million Stores

In November 2025, JR East announced that, in conjunction with improvements to its Suica IC smart card functionality to be implemented in autumn 2026, a new mascot character will take over from the current Suica Penguin to mark 25 years since the card’s launch.

The Suica Card (© East Japan Railway Company) and the Suica Penguin (© Sakazaki Chiharu/© East Japan Railway Company/© Dentsū).

With its charming appearance, the Suica Penguin has been popular with users ever since the card was introduced, which has contributed significantly to wide use and promotion of the card. The creator of the character, illustrator Sakazaki Chiharu, commented that “it has been wonderful to take this long journey with Suica Penguin over 25 years.”

Suica is a backronym for Super Urban Intelligent Card, taken from the Japanese phrase sui sui, meaning to move smoothly. Launched in 2001, the IC card was initially accepted at 424 stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The coverage area and services were subsequently expanded, as well as the number of locations where the card can be used through reciprocal use with other transportation operators across Japan. An e-money system was also introduced, so the cards can easily be used to make purchases in stores.

As of the end of October 2025, a total of 120 million cards (both physical and through the app) have been issued and they are now accepted at around 2.2 million stores (as of September 2025).

Suica Timeline

November 18, 2001
Service begins at 424 stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area

March 22, 2004
Introduction of Suica e-money system

August 1, 2004
Reciprocal usage agreement with JR West means that Suica cards can also be used in the Kansai area, while JR West’s Icoca card can be used in the greater Tokyo area

June 1, 2007
Introduction of points service

March 23, 2013
Reciprocal usage agreements between 10 major IC cards means that these can all be used over much of Japan

July 2013
Number of monthly uses rises above 100 million for the first time

July 2018
Number of monthly uses rises above 200 million for the first time

September 1, 2019
Introduction of Welcome Suica for international visitors to Japan

September 8, 2020
Number of Mobile Suica members rises above 10 million

Created by Nippon.com based on data from JR East.

Data Sources

• Fact Book 2025 (English) from JR East.
• Information about Suica after 20 years (Japanese) from JR East.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A screenshot of the Mobile Suica app provided by JR East. © Kyōdō.)