Japan Travel Question - AnyPass + Japan Sim?

January 14, 2024 4:04 AM

Hi folks - like many people, I am heading to Japan for the Taylor Swift concert in February. Some slight complications beneath.

My cousin, who lives in Japan, was able to purchase 2 tickets for us. In order for him to transfer them to us, we need to have the Anypass app on our phones, and this is where I am running into issues.

I am currently in Vietnam with a sim card that has a local Vietnamese phone number, but I also have 1 sim card that is attached to a US phone number. We have been unable to download and authenticate the Anypass app (authentication requires sending a text to a number or receiving a call) with our Vietnamese sim cards. We have not yet tried it with our US sim card yet.

Is it possible to buy a sim card with a Japanese phone number at the airport when we land, and then download and authenticate the app that way? Apologize if this has been answered somewhere before but I am doing a lot of research and unable to find the right answer. Would appreciate any thoughts, input, or advice.

posted by something_witty to Travel & Transportation around Japan (4 answers total)

You can definitely buy Japanese SIM cards at Narita (and Haneda I assume), the last time I was there they had plenty of kiosks selling them. Or you can preorder one for a bit cheaper and pick it up at the airport. I don't know anything about that app, but getting a Japanese number for a week is not hard.
posted by JZig at 9:14 AM on January 14, 2024 [1 favorite]

I think you'll need to do some research here because while SIM cards are available at airports, they don't necessarily come with a phone number - i.e. they're primarily for tourists who just need data for their trip - and if they do, they're probably going to cost more, so you'll need to shop around.
I'm in Japan and have a Mobal SIM which comes with a Japanese phone #: it only costs $10 a month on a long term plan, but short term plans (there's a long term/ short term tab on the page) with a phone # are much more spendy, starting at $55.
posted by 4th Matryoshka Doll at 8:28 PM on January 14, 2024 [1 favorite]

Additional thought: I don't know anything about Anypass, but it's possible that the app you need to download and authenticate is the Japanese version. I've encountered this a few times (e.g. at H&M to get a discount coupon) and - on Android - I had to create a new Google account against my Jp phone #, switch my Play store login to my new Jp account, and then download the Jp version of the app. This is totally doable, although of course Jp versions of apps are entirely in Japanese.
posted by 4th Matryoshka Doll at 8:49 PM on January 14, 2024

If you haven't already, check this out on YouTube. It looks like this is fairly common in the K-Pop community and there are step by step tutorials for phone numbers outside Japan and ticket transfers. I'm not sure which best meets your needs, but the search terms I found helpful were "AnyPass" "Phone # outside Japan" and "Transferring tickets".
posted by Torosaurus at 7:14 AM on January 15, 2024