April 26, 2026
By the HalfKey team
Paying Tokyo utility bills at the konbini, slip by slip
Your first Tokyo electric, gas, and water bills arrive on paper. Each carries a barcode the konbini clerk scans at the register. No bank account, no app, no credit card needed. The slip is the system; the receipt is your proof.
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A new resident's first Tokyo utility bills arrive in the mailbox as paper. TEPCO, Tokyo Gas, and Tokyo Suidō (Bureau of Waterworks) all print a 振込用紙 (furikomi-yōshi — payment slip) with a barcode strip at the bottom. The konbini clerk scans the barcode, you hand over cash, and the bill is paid. That is the entire mechanic.
Most mid-term tenants have no Japanese bank account in the first month. Auto-debit (口座振替 / kōza-furikae) and credit-card billing are not yet open to them. The konbini path is the default, and it works seven days a week from 5am to midnight at every chain. Treat it as municipal infrastructure. It functionally is.
Reading the slip
Two slip formats arrive in Tokyo. The first is a long horizontal voucher about the size of a folded A4 sheet. It has three perforated sections. A left stub goes to the company file. A middle stub goes to the post office. A right stub is what the konbini stamps and returns to you. TEPCO and Tokyo Gas use this format. The second is the postage-stamp-sized slip stapled to a plain envelope, used by Tokyo Suidō for bi-monthly water bills. Same mechanic, smaller paper.
Three fields matter on either format. The 支払期限 (shiharai-kigen — payment deadline) is a Japanese-format date, usually 25 to 30 days after the meter read. The 金額 (kingaku — amount) is the yen total, printed in large type. The コンビニ用バーコード (konbini-yō bākōdo — convenience-store barcode) is the wide black strip on the bottom or right edge. Everything else (account number, customer ID, meter read in kWh or m³) is for the company's records and you can ignore it at the counter.
If the slip has no barcode strip, it is not payable at the konbini. The post office and the company's own service window still take it. This is rare for residential bills under ¥30,000.
The walk-up at 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson
Bring the slip to any cashier counter. Daily Yamazaki and Mini Stop accept the same barcode. The three big networks are within five minutes of any Tokyo address.
Hand the slip to the clerk barcode-side up. They will say お支払いですね (o-shiharai desu ne — "this is a payment, yes?"). Nod. They scan the barcode, the register reads the company and the amount, and the screen shows the total. You pay cash. They stamp the right-hand stub with a red receipt-stamp (領収印 / ryōshū-in), tear it off, and hand it back. The whole interaction takes under a minute.
Two phrases cover anything else. Ask 領収書も下さい (ryōshūsho mo kudasai — "the receipt too, please") if the clerk forgets to hand back the stub. Say 別々で (betsubetsu de — "separately") if you have several slips and want one transaction per slip rather than one combined transaction. Most clerks will batch by default; saying betsubetsu makes the receipts easier to file.
Cash, IC card, nanaco, PayPay: what each chain accepts
Utility-slip barcodes are not standard register items. They route through a separate processor (収納代行 / shūnō-daikō — collection-agency rails) and most cashless options are disabled on that processor.
Cash works at every chain, every time. That is the rule. Plan to walk to the konbini with paper yen.
7-Eleven accepts nanaco (its in-house IC card) for utility-slip payment up to roughly ¥300,000 per slip. This is the one common exception. Charge nanaco with cash at the same register, then pay the slip with the topped-up balance. You earn no points on utility-slip payment, but the cash-out path is convenient if you already use nanaco.
FamilyMart and Lawson do not accept their own house cards (FamiPay, Ponta) for utility slips. They do not accept Suica, PASMO, or any other transit IC card on these slips either. They do not accept credit cards. PayPay scanned by you against the slip's barcode is a different code system. Most utility companies do not encode their slip as a PayPay code, so the PayPay app will refuse the slip.
The short version: bring cash, or bring a topped-up nanaco at 7-Eleven. Anywhere else, cash.
The receipt and why you keep it
The stamped right-hand stub is your only proof of payment for at least 90 days. The utility company posts payment to your account within 3 to 5 business days, sometimes longer for the first bill on a new contract. Your operator or landlord may ask for proof if they see a service-disconnection warning land at the unit before the company has synced.
Photograph both sides of the stub the day you pay. Keep the paper in a single folder (a cheap A5 binder works) until the next bill arrives showing a zero balance carried forward. Then you can recycle the older stub.
For Tokyo Suidō (water), keep the stub at least 60 days. Water posts the slowest of the three because the bureau bills bi-monthly and reconciles after the next meter read.
Deadlines and what happens if you miss one
The shiharai-kigen on the slip is not a hard cutoff. Service does not stop at midnight on the deadline. The company sends a 督促状 (tokusokujō — reminder notice) about 7 to 10 days late. A final notice follows 14 to 20 days after the deadline. Residential power on a TEPCO Stand-by B plan disconnects roughly 20 to 30 days past the deadline. The company has to try twice to reach you first. Tokyo Gas runs a similar window. Tokyo Suidō is the most patient — water rarely cuts off in under 60 days.
The reminder notice itself is a new payable slip with a small late charge added. The fee runs ¥150 to ¥220 depending on the company and the original amount. Pay it the same way at any konbini. Service is not interrupted at the moment of the late fee.
If you have already missed the slip and cannot find the original, call the company. TEPCO's English line is 0120-995-002. Tokyo Gas runs 0570-002211. They will reissue or accept a phone-payment over IVR with a credit card. Both services answer in English during business hours and switch to Japanese after 6pm.
Rent paid by konbini barcode
Some Tokyo operators still issue a 振込用紙 for monthly rent. Older 不動産屋 (fudōsan-ya — real-estate brokerages) running walk-up portfolios are the most common case. A few legacy mansion-management companies still print rent slips too. The slip looks identical to the utility format, with rent in the kingaku field instead of a kWh-derived total. Pay it the same way at any konbini.
Most newer mid-term operators (halfkey included) bill by credit card or by direct bank transfer, not by paper slip. If you signed a contract that mentions 自動引き落とし (jidō-hikiotoshi — auto-debit) or "credit-card auto-charge," you will not see a rent slip at all. If you signed a contract with monthly 銀行振込 (ginkō-furikomi — manual bank transfer) or konbini barcode listed as the payment method, expect paper. The lease document names the path on page two or three.
What to do this week
Open the envelope the day it arrives. The deadline is roughly four weeks out, but the slips are easy to lose under takeout flyers from the same mailbox.
Walk to the nearest 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, or Lawson with the slip and enough cash for the amount printed in the kingaku field. The first time costs you eight minutes including the walk. Every bill after that is muscle memory.
File the stamped stub the same evening. The 90-day proof window is your only insurance if the company's posting lags. It also covers you if the slip gets lost between the konbini scanner and the utility's database.