Coupon ticket is known in Japanese as Kaisuuken, written in Japanese as 回数券（かいすうけん）. I heard about this type of ticket option from Mr. Shimizu, who is one of my colleagues, when I discussed with him my recent changes in work place for two days in a week.
For the past four years I have been commuting between Kiba and Higashi Ojima. Monthly Pasmo card is cost-effective if the work place is same for all working days. For some reasons, for some people, there may be more than one work place in a week. In my case, it happened to be three days in Sakura, Chiba prefecture and two days in Kiba, Tokyo. Usually, Japanese companies pay for the commutation charges biannually. Employees can claim the travel expenses for any additional travel such as domestic business trips and travels based on company's request.
Until now, Pasmo card charged for 6 months was very useful, convenient and cheap. If the same Pasmo card is used for three days a week, I will end up using the card for 12 days in a month, but need to charge it as usual. Pasmo cards are cheaper than daily tickets if one commute at least 16 days a week. For a typical salaryman in Japan, Pasmo card is cheap and cost-effective, but not anymore in my case. That was the reason for the discussion with my colleague to explore another ticket options.
Kaisuuken is very useful ticket option when you have a walking habit. Many people have the habit of walking to the office and back home weekly twice or thrice depending on the climate. 6 months or 3 months charged Pasmo card will not be good option if you have this walking habit.
Kaisuuken written in Katakana as ｶｲｽｳｹﾝ is a bunch of tickets, typically eleven numbers that we can buy from ticket vending machines at any station. Pay for ten tickets and get one ticket free! For example, if we pay 300 Yen for one ticket, we will get eleven tickets for 3000 Yen. If you walk back home from office at least two days a week and use Kaisuuken, you are going to save something around 3000 Yen/month.
Kaisuuken has expiry periods. So, pay attention to the number of tickets while doing a bulk purchase.
The inconvenient point is the storage of these tickets safely in our bag. The railway companies in Japan has a solution for this too. They provide a small envelope to keep these tickets.
Charged Pasmo cards are useful when we need to travel multiple times between same points. The money you may save out of this habit will not be significant, but can buy an ice cream or coffee once in a while.
