Ahamo sign-up nonsense

Has anyone else gotten repeated rejections over “dirt on their residence card”? There’s a smudge on the back of my residence card, but it’s not even on the writing or ward office stamp. Ahamo says they can’t read it.

It’s not like I didn’t upload my passport or link my bank account to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that I’m me. I have the feeling that they just don’t want me as a customer.

8 comments
  1. Go to a physical docomo store and sign up to the cheapest plan. Then go home, open up your computer and switch to ahamo using the online portal.

  2. I’ve had that issue with a bank (where basically part of the letters on my name were chipped), so I just went and got my residence card remade at immigration….

    for you, I guess you’ve tried to clean it, but maybe a box cutter or something can help you scratch off any dirt? Of course you might end up actually damaging your card enough to require it to get replaced so … yeah.

  3. You are mistaken, you are here to work and pay tax. Not enjoy luxuries reserved for true Japanese citizens.

  4. Did they say it was the dirt? I got a vague response about “not being able to read/conform *something* on your id” and it turned out I had to make a new application with my name in English instead of katakana.

  5. My partner (Japanese) and I both had issues with ours at first. Took a couple of tries to get approved. They’re just really picky with the process, I guess.

  6. I had a problem where my brokerage firm couldn’t read my card no matter how high quality I scanned it. The address on the back had smudged. The correct procedure in such a case is to get immigration to reissue your residence card. My renewal was coming up at the time though so I accepted a frozen account for a while and submitted the new card when I got it.

    I also tried to sign up with ahamo but couldn’t because of my name for some reason I forget now. I think it was because the name on my residence card (last first middle1 middle2) doesn’t match the name on my credit card (first last). I just gave up and decided ymobile was still worthy of my custom. But if you want to go with ahamo you can do the sign up in store trick others have mentioned.

  7. Japanese wife and I had the same problem, both rejected for really unclear/stupid reasons. She’s convinced they make it difficult on purpose so people give up and just get DoCoMo, or at least get the ridiculous 3k fee (per-person!) for in-store help to sign up.

    We gave up and just got regular DoCoMo, so she may have a point.

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