Not sure why I didn’t think of this earlier, but you can just buy a prepaid 3g phone and jack the sim! The cheapest phone is ¥3,980 when purchased as a bundle with two ¥3,000 cards at Don Quiote’s Roppongi. Not bad considering renting a 3g sim card is ¥105 per day or ¥3150 a month EXCLUDING voice and data charges. You also get unlimited sms for only ¥300 a month (not avaliable on docomo’s sim rental program), the ability to NOT have a ¥440,000/month data plan, and you get to keep your number as long as you use the phone once a year… sweet!
softbank’s cheapest phone, the samsung 730sc. shown with removed sim.
How were you able to buy a standard prepaid phone in Japan? I was under the impression that only Japanese citizens (or residents with an alien registration card) were allowed to buy these…
you only need a passport for prepaid. registration cards are needed for postpaid plans.
Brandon,
I hope you might be able to advise me to my best course of action. I will be leaving for an external stay in Japan (from Denmark) in a little over 1,5 months. I am tired of my old phone screwing around, and I’d like to use to advanced capabilities to help me navigate japan while I am there. Translator apps and/or easy to navigate maps.
I’d obviously like to pay at little as possible for using the network and also continue using my phone when I get back…
It is my impression that the best solution for me might be to buy my phone locally, get ahold of a sim card using your advice and then put that in my phone?
I’ve read that japanese phones don’t use sim cards, which makes me semi-surprised that the pre-paid phones actually contain sim cards…
I hope you have some words of wisdom for me…
Regards,
Lasse