Do You Need A,special Phone Charger In Japan

Between choosing a service provider, getting the correct sim bill of fare for your phone, and agreement your contract, getting a cell phone in Japan can be challenging for newcomers! Never mind the fact that information technology's usually one of the kickoff things you'll be doing – especially equally a educatee.

Whether your intent is to report in Nippon just for a set up amount of time, or you lot want to stay afterwards and work, you should focus on getting the best deal you tin. This guide walks you through everything you lot demand to know about getting your mobile service fix in Nippon so y'all can stay connected without breaking the bank!

Will my strange prison cell phone piece of work in Japan?

Before nosotros even await at the different options for service plans, you should know whether or not your phone from your abode country will work in Nippon.

It used to be that most strange phones wouldn't work in Nippon. Merely in 2021, the situation has mostly been resolved, and with a few exceptions, the respond is that yes, you can use your foreign phone in Nihon (though some features might not work properly).

How to cheque if your phone is locked

To be able to use your strange prison cell phone in Nippon, you demand to make certain it is unlocked. This doesn't mean yous swiped up on the lock screen! It means that the phone is not locked into the network of but one service provider and will piece of work with other networks.

Before you come to Nippon, you should contact your service provider and ask them to unlock your phone. Some countries don't allow providers to lock phones, merely if you're from America, Canada, or the UK, odds are your phone was locked when you purchased information technology. Your service provider may charge a service fee to unlock your telephone, just it should exist a simple request.

Getting phonation and data service on a foreign telephone

If y'all have an unlocked prison cell phone, yous tin get service from nearly service providers in Nihon, but y'all should consider taking advantage of the low cost plans from providers, called MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). They employ the network of larger providers and pass their infrastructure savings on to you lot – the consumer.

They are able to offerdata only orinformation & voice plans depending on your needs. Compared to the chief 3 service providers in Nippon (SoftBank, NTT DoCoMo, au by KDDI), they are cheaper and you can exit the contracts with fiddling or no penalty.

Anybody who has ever been held in a asphyxiate-hold past SoftBank will attest that these friendly newcomers to the Japanese mobile market place are welcomed with open arms.

Y'all tin can generally sign up online and receive a Japanese SIM card and phone number in a day or two (aye, Nippon has a not bad courier organization!) or choice upwards upon arrival at the drome, depending on the provider. One exception is LINE Mobile, which requires yous to accept a Japanese ID and Japanese credit carte du jour in your name.

Information & Voice SIM Providers in Japan

The post-obit table outlines some of the most popular data and phonation SIM providers in Japan. Pricing info is the monthly cost, before tax.

Cost	Contract	Cancellation Fee	More Info
500MB: ¥1,100 3GB: ¥ane,480 6GB: ¥two,200 12GB: ¥3,200 +Add Voice (unltd. calls under 10 min): ¥880	1 year	Contract months remaining x ¥1,100	LINE Mobile
3GB: ¥1,480 15GB: ¥2,480 25GB: ¥3,480 +Add Voice (unltd. calls under 10 min):¥770	No min.	Northward/A	UQ Mobile
3GB:¥2,980 incl. 30 minutes 5GB: ¥3,980 incl. 40 minutes 7GB: ¥4,980 incl. 50 minutes 20GB: ¥6,680 incl. threescore minutes	No min.	N/A	Sakura Mobile
2GB: ¥1,540 7GB: ¥2,420 13GB: ¥3,740 +Add Vox (unltd. calls under 10 min):¥880	one year	Contract months remaining x ¥one,100	Nuro Mobile

Information only SIMs and not getting a telephone number

In the list above, some of the companies offer the option of going "data only" and getting a SIM that does not include a phone number. Yep, y'all can exercise this, simply it will make life infinitely more hard, as you need a phone number to sign upwards forso many services in Nihon.

Practise yourself a favor and throw downwards the actress fee to include vocalisation every bit part of your program, and get a telephone number.

Getting a new cell phone and plan in Japan

Let's say you don't want to use your telephone from your home country, and you would rather go a new phone in Nihon. Mayhap you lot want to finance the phone (go it for "¥0 down") as part of your monthly bill.

You lot tin can get to a home electronics shop like Yodobashi Camera, Bic Photographic camera, or Yamada Denki and buy a jail cell telephone outright (unlocked), and then use one of the aforementioned MVNO providers.

If you want to finance your telephone as part of your monthly bill, where y'all pay a depression up-front toll (or goose egg) for your new phone on day you lot get it, yous can walk into whatsoever of the "Large three" providers and sign upwardly with them. The Big three mobile providers in Nippon are:

SoftBank
NTT DoCoMo
au by KDDI

Requirements to become a new phone as part of your plan

1
Valid Japanese Residence Card with min. ii years residence remaining
ii
Japanese bank business relationship

This is where people run into issues sometimes. Information technology tin be a flake of a chicken & egg state of affairs between getting a banking concern business relationship set and getting your jail cell telephone. Japanese banks volition mostly require yous to have a Japanese phone number to sign up and create an account, and jail cell phone companies will generally require you lot to accept a banking concern business relationship to sign up and get a number.

To overcome this, apply a friend's or acquaintance'southward telephone number to sign upward for a banking company business relationship, and then become change information technology later. Yes, information technology's impaired. Yes, it works.

Documents you need to bring with you to sign up for a mobile telephone in Nippon

Japanese banking concern account (bring your banking company book)
Japanese ID documents (residence card, health insurance card, etc.)
*Credit card
*Your passport

This is where it tin can exist a bit catchy. Depending on which branch of which company y'all get to, and who y'all talk to that day, they may exist more or less strict on the requirements listed above.

Sometimes yous don't need a credit card, but sometimes they want to take one on file. And really, you shouldn't need a passport every bit all your pertinent details are captured on your residence carte.

Unfortunately, systems have changed over the years, and some staff adopt an abundance of evidence that you aren't a fly-by-night cheat that will run away with your shiny new phone and not pay.

If you bring the above documents to a cell phone shop and they turn yous downwards (information technology happens), you tin can try another branch and you may have different results.

The "Big iii" mobile companies

Please note: Based on our own experiences, and those of many students and other newcomers to Japan, we practice not recommend signing up with one of the following providers. Yes, you tin finance a new telephone over the course of your contract, only in that location are many potential penalties.

SoftBank has a rotating cast of cute white dogs as their mascot, DoCoMo has the much beloved Poinco Brothers, and au has the to the lowest degree offensive website feel of the 3. Too that, in that location's not much to differentiate them, and so let'south look at how the contract experience works with these providers.

Generally speaking, when y'all get with 1 of these companies, you'll be signing up for a 2 year contract, with steep penalties to go out or switch. In render you lot get a "full service" experience, where you can walk into a branch and have your issue dealt with by a person, instead of having to telephone into a service queue.

As a side note, Y! Mobile paints itself as an MVNO, but information technology's just SoftBank by another proper name. Don't exist fooled.

Onboarding feel

There'southward not actually much to complain about here. Besides the sometimes obscure requirements that diverse branches will impose on strange residents we spoke about earlier, basically you are paying more money for a higher level of hand holding.

The staff will be polite, circumspect, and they know their campaigns. There is a huge network of support behind these frontline staff, should you have any questions.

Typically, inside well-nigh an hour, you should be able to walk in from the street and sign a contract, leaving with a brand new phone in your pocket.

The cost of your telephone (unless y'all cull to pay up front end – but then, why are you using one of the Big iii for a contract?) volition be built into your monthly billing. Older phones are cheaper, newer phones are more expensive; this should be very like to your dwelling house country.

Be aware, if you get to a abode electronics shop, like Yodobashi Camera, and walk through their phones section, you can typically cross shop all 3 major carriers without having to hop around between branches. In that location will be staff onsite to get you signed upwards.

Customer experience

Here's where the frustration can begin.

You'll exist paying anywhere from ¥3,900 for a 5GB plan (no phone included) to over ¥ten,000 for a more full featured plan. One of the watch-outs here is they will lure you in with a "discounted" initial half dozen months or twelvemonth, and and then your price will jump drastically after that.

The good news is that because they are such big companies, you can phone them whatsoever twenty-four hours of the week to mutter and someone will listen to your merits politely before telling you it'southward what yous signed up for. So that'due south a nice characteristic.

Cancelling your service

This is where it gets actually fun with these companies.

Because you lot have ostensibly signed a two year contract with them, they can impose seemingly unfair cancellation policies and fees on you lot when you're ready to move on.

Counterfoil fees of over ¥20,000 are not unheard of. Too, you will need to pay for your device in total if you were financing information technology every bit part of the deal.

There is no lenience or leeway for 10+ twelvemonth customer loyalty, so don't count on whatever favors when you're ready to exit. The smiling associate behind the counter is no longer your marry, the moment he or she hears you are looking to cancel.

Billing options

It used to be that you lot had to pay for even your cell phone bill in greenbacks, past taking a monthly statement to a convenience store and paying the cashier.

You lot can even so do this with many providers, both Big 3 and MVNO, but non all. You will have to check with the company at sign-up about payment options, because they change frequently and y'all don't want to be left without a style to pay your bill!

Generally speaking, withal you brand your first payment to initiate the contract should be acceptable for monthly billing payments – if you paid by credit bill of fare to start your service, y'all'll be able to apply the same bill of fare to pay your bill.

Nonetheless, it'south worth noting that not all carriers in Japan have strange credit cards. Many will only have a Japanese credit card with your name on it. Getting a Japanese credit card without a long-term plan in Japan and full fourth dimension work can be a real issue.

Important terminology

The following list is non extensive, just if you're new to reading contracts in Japanese, it's worth knowing at least a few words before you start signing papers.

Japanese	English
データ	Information
通話料金（つうわりょうきん）	Vocalization call fees
回線（かいせん）	Line (telephone line)
使い放題（つかいほうだい）	Unlimited use
月額料金（げつがくりょうきん）	Monthly fee
基本データ容量（きほんでーたようりょう）	Basic data allowance
最大（さいだい）	Maximum
契約（けいやく）	Contract
解約（かいやく）	Contract cancellation

Summary

If you lot're coming to Japan equally a student, you're much better off either bringing your own phone (unlocked, of course), or buying a new phone outright in Nihon and not trying to finance it through one of the Big 3 carriers.

This manner, yous can take advantage of the low monthly fees of the MVNOs and also avert a hefty cancellation fee if you leave Nippon before the ii year contract is up.

If you have longer-term aspirations in Nippon, y'all don't mind paying a higher fee for service, and you similar existence able to walk into a branch in virtually any neighborhood, then you tin can consider going with a major carrier.