Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Printable Version

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Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Shinichirou - 2013-03-05

Hi, everyone.

I will be staying in Japan - for 14 days only. I will be needing a cell phone,though.

Renting seems far too expensive (I would not make many calls anyway), so I thought of buying a USED phone somewhere and going to docomo or anywhere else and ask them to put some money in it... (SIM-card model) Is that possible?

I could show them the address of the ryokan I would be staying at with my name in it and everything. So, the question is, will this work?

If not, are there any other ways to do this?

Thank you.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Javizy - 2013-03-05

I got a prepaid phone with Softbank which cost about 6000円 (half mandatory credit). The signup process was literally more rigorous than getting my visa, and I'm not someone who uses the word 'literally' inappropriately. The phone, or brick, itself would look outdated in 1995, and the call charges are laughable. This was the best option available. Renting might not be such a bad idea.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Stansfield123 - 2013-03-05

I heard tale of shops which require Japanese ID and address, but I'm reasonably confident that you won't run into any problems in a major store, with just what you have.

http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/sim_t/index.html
This one has unlimited data and 25 minutes of outgoing calls for 30 days. It's 4000円. I doubt you'll find anything better than this.

P.S. I'm not sure about the cost of renting, but I have a feeling it's less than 4000円 plus whatever the phone you're buying will cost you. (note that prepaid minutes in Japan are ridiculously expensive, at around 100円 - if you rent, the minutes are bound to cost a lot less than that, probably less than 50円)

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Javizy - 2013-03-05

Stansfield123 Wrote:I heard tale of shops which require Japanese ID and address, but I'm reasonably confident that you won't run into any problems in a major store, with just what you have.

I went to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku and was asked for my visa, passport, Japanese address, phone number of workplace/someone I know and had to fill out and sign two forms.

Edit: by visa I mean 在留カード.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Stansfield123 - 2013-03-05

Javizy Wrote:
Stansfield123 Wrote:I heard tale of shops which require Japanese ID and address, but I'm reasonably confident that you won't run into any problems in a major store, with just what you have.
I went to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku and was asked for my visa, passport, Japanese address, phone number of workplace/someone I know and had to fill out and sign two forms.

OP said that he has all of those.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Shinichirou - 2013-03-05

I am very grateful for your fast replies. You have helped me a lot!

Well, yeah, I think I got everything they might ask for, going to bring my Japanese acquitance along then, just in case.

By the way, has someone actually RENTED a phone? Maybe that would be cheaper? Any reasonable prices out there?

Thanks again!

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Irixmark - 2013-03-05

You usually can't get a cell phone, prepaid or other, unless your visa is good for more than 90 days and you have an address in Japan. That's why cell phone rental companies exist. Unless something has drastically changed in the last two years, I would not waste my time on trying to get a cell phone with your visitor stamp in the passport. I tried four different stores and companies to no avail.

In the end I rented from these guys http://www.rentafonejapan.com/ and the price was much, much better than the rip-off rentals at the airport and the like. Still not cheap though. You also occasionally get calls for previous renters of the same phone number, but that's a terrific opportunity to practice your Japanese in unexpected situations.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Shinichirou - 2013-03-05

Wow. The link's great! Thank you!

I think that's way cheaper than renting one elsewhere.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Stansfield123 - 2013-03-05

Shinichirou Wrote:I am very grateful for your fast replies. You have helped me a lot!

Well, yeah, I think I got everything they might ask for, going to bring my Japanese acquitance along then, just in case.

If you have someone to buy it for you, then your troubles are over. You should try buying it yourself first though, just to see if it works.

P.S. Maybe it's in the attitude. If you ask whether it's possible, the clerk will just assume it's not (even though it's perfectly legal, I know that for a fact). You should just ask for the card, as if it's perfectly normal.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Shinichirou - 2013-03-05

That's a piece of great advice! xD Thanks.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - rdhodson - 2013-03-05

If you sign up for iNext travel insurance ($36 US for the cheapest plan), you get a free cell phone rental. The phone is free, but you do have to pay $20 upfront for usage. That's a total of $56 for travel insurance, a cellphone, and $20 of calling time; it's a really good deal.

https://www.inext.com/travel-card-deals/free-cell-phone.aspx

This works really well. I take a group of 15 students to Japan every year for 4 weeks in May, and require them all to sign up for iNext insurance and get the free cell phone. Within our group, it's a flat 20 yen charge to call, and I believe it's similarly cheap for other local calls.

It is nice to have the travel insurance, too; it covers emergency medical evacuation, which -- if you ever need it -- would be very expensive.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - RawToast - 2013-03-09

If you need a phone for contacts with home, your probably best using your own phone and a payg sim (to avoid a big bill!) Just check that your phone supports WCDMA2100, most phones in Europe support this band and Chinese/Indian Mediatek based phones do too.

Just make sure to ask friends and family to contact you by text, receiving is usually free and sending is cheap. With voice data you get charged both for sending and receiving... which is dumb.

If you can live off text messages it might work out cheap enough for all communications.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - cangy - 2013-03-11

http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2010/07/general-information-for-smart-phone.html

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - raeesmerelda - 2013-03-15

I ended up using this several years ago, and never had any problems.

http://www.cellhire.com/

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Akuji - 2013-03-22

Irixmark Wrote:You usually can't get a cell phone, prepaid or other, unless your visa is good for more than 90 days and you have an address in Japan.

4 or 5 years ago I bought a prepaid phone at a Softbank store in Shinjuku. 1,5 years later I bought a new USIM card for said phone at a Softbank counter at Narita airport (the subscription of the phone had expired). In both cases I was visiting Japan on a visitor visa and as the address I used the address of the hotel I was staying at. So it definitely was possible back then. It might depend on the store, though

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Irixmark - 2013-03-22

RawToast Wrote:If you need a phone for contacts with home, your probably best using your own phone and a payg sim (to avoid a big bill!)

Whatever difficulties you have in buying a prepaid phone in Japan on a visitor visa will also apply to a pay as you go (aka prepaid) SIM, unfortunately.

I will try this again in July and report back. Has anybody recently successfully bought a prepaid phone or SIM?

I'd prefer to have a prepaid phone or SIM over renting, even if more expensive, so that the phone number that doesn't change and I can reuse it whenever I go to Japan.

@Stansfield123, what makes you so confident that salespeople in four different stores just made things up for no apparent reason when they said "it's illegal unless you have a visa that's good for more than 90 days and a permanent address in Japan"? The only case I know of someone getting around that was by just showing his Japanese driver's license. Can you clarify what you mean by you "know for a fact that it's legal"? If there's a Japanese regulation, I'd be glad to show it to the next obstinate store clerk.

PS: Just found out the other week that unlike in the UK, prepaid SIM cards in Germany are technically also only available to people with a permanent address. Obviously nobody cares in the slightly shady Turkish-run stores, so it's easy to get around that problem.

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Irixmark - 2013-03-22

Softbank at least is pretty explicit about the "more than 90-days" and alien registration rule:
See point G. at http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/welcome/started/identify.html

Or in English: http://mb.softbank.jp/en/start/contents/shop.html

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - Shinichirou - 2013-03-23

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Thanks for the recommendations and great advice. After all, I had someone Japanese accompany me. That was the key factor it seems. Got my phone in the end! xD

Buying a prepaid phone in Japan - tricky part - erlog - 2013-03-23

The 90 days and residence card thing actually are concrete laws. It's part of the same legal stuff that controls who can have a bank account. It's part of a crackdown on organized crime.

Also, purchasing a phone for someone else or handing off a bank account in order to get around these rules is also illegal. There's signs up around where I live warning people about this. That's why these companies are so strict, but if you have all the right documentation it's pretty easy.

Usually they'll want to see your bank book, residence card, and proof of employment. The bank book is just to set up automatic payments, and not really to see how much money you have or anything.

The one sticking point is that sometimes they'll deny you if you don't have your final plastic residence card yet. If you just have the temporary paper version they might try to argue with you. This is where bringing a Japanese person with you can help.