Smartphone in Japan for 1 Year
May 2, 2015 8:52 AM Subscribe
I'm getting assigned to work at the parent company near Tokyo for a year. Yay!!! They won't be providing a mobile phone. Boo!! What's the best way to have a smartphone in Japan for the year?
Most of what I've seen seems like contracts are two years at minimum, and that I'd continue to pay for the smartphone even after I'd cancel the contract. Unless I want to buy one outright at full price, which just isn't in my budget.
Another option looks like it's to swap out SIM cards. This seems like the best plan, but I'm seeing enough contradictory information online that I'm not sure the best way to go about this. What I'm seeing seems mostly geared towards short term travelers and may be outdated.
A third option would be to get a dumbphone for domestic calls and a Pocket Wifi to keep using Google Maps, e-mail, and everything else on my current phone.
Which option is best? Which option am I ignoring? For what it's worth I have an iPhone 5S and am part of a family plan in the US.
Most of what I've seen seems like contracts are two years at minimum, and that I'd continue to pay for the smartphone even after I'd cancel the contract. Unless I want to buy one outright at full price, which just isn't in my budget.
Another option looks like it's to swap out SIM cards. This seems like the best plan, but I'm seeing enough contradictory information online that I'm not sure the best way to go about this. What I'm seeing seems mostly geared towards short term travelers and may be outdated.
A third option would be to get a dumbphone for domestic calls and a Pocket Wifi to keep using Google Maps, e-mail, and everything else on my current phone.
Which option is best? Which option am I ignoring? For what it's worth I have an iPhone 5S and am part of a family plan in the US.
Best answer: I would continue to investigate the pay-as-you-go SIM card options for voice. For data, a mobile router is the way to go, if you can get a promo deal.
We spend a couple of months a year in Japan. My wife has a dumb phone, and we have traditionally used a 4G Wimax router for Internet. It has worked okay in the past, but we finally bought a new one this year and the technology has really improved.
posted by Nevin at 9:51 AM on May 2, 2015
We spend a couple of months a year in Japan. My wife has a dumb phone, and we have traditionally used a 4G Wimax router for Internet. It has worked okay in the past, but we finally bought a new one this year and the technology has really improved.
posted by Nevin at 9:51 AM on May 2, 2015
Best answer: There has been a huge proliferation of contract-free SIM cards in Japan recently, and the plans are changing rapidly.
My current phone plan is unlimited data (no included talk minutes), for around ¥3,000 a month. That's with b-mobile, for which I had to do the following: I walked into a Yodobashi Camera location, picked the right size of SIM card, bought it, then went home and activated it by calling with my friend's phone. I brought my own Nexus phone from the US, first a Nexus 4, then a Nexus 5, although any unlocked phone should work. I haven't investigated any other plans, but here's a big compilation of various other services:
Lay of the land as of January, 2015.
posted by wakannai at 4:45 AM on May 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
My current phone plan is unlimited data (no included talk minutes), for around ¥3,000 a month. That's with b-mobile, for which I had to do the following: I walked into a Yodobashi Camera location, picked the right size of SIM card, bought it, then went home and activated it by calling with my friend's phone. I brought my own Nexus phone from the US, first a Nexus 4, then a Nexus 5, although any unlocked phone should work. I haven't investigated any other plans, but here's a big compilation of various other services:
Lay of the land as of January, 2015.
posted by wakannai at 4:45 AM on May 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
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FYI another service you might want to use while there is a VPN service like unblock.us that will let you stream Netflix and Amazon over your phone or laptop while overseas.
posted by jfwlucy at 9:38 AM on May 2, 2015