I hear a lot of chatter about Sakura Mobile and Mobal, both options targeted at JETs with relatively reliable English support. The issue is, these options are usually quite expensive.
After some research, it sounds like Rakuten Mobile has the best price to output ratio. Its ï¿¥2950 for essentially unlimited data, with domestic/international calling included if you use the Rakuten app.
I really like the sound of this deal. But it has no English support. Anyone have experience with getting this set up? If it helps I am placed in Gunma and it seems to be within Rakuten’s coverage area.
*So far, my plan is to get the Mobal sim and pocket wifi for three months, then switch to Rakuten if possible.*
If you have any other great SIM suggestions, please feel free to leave them below. Mostly looking for affordable options, so feel free to share your insider tips.
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Bumping this thread because I’m in the exact same position, also in the market for a JP phone plan. This Rakuten plan sounds way too good to be true.
What’s the catch??
Don’t get Mobal, they don’t support MNP so you can’t port your number to Rakuten.
First get a Sakura plan and then move from there.
Unlimited is not unlimited. I think about 5gb on the highest speed network. Also older iPhone models (i had a XR back then) had issues connecting to the actual Rakuten Mobile network (only newer phones could take advantage of the network settings) so it was 5gb of high speed then unlimited regular crappyish. I have Ahamo instead which is much faster and a better experience than Rakuten. There is also iijmio through BicSim. It sucks to be without a phone when you first arrive but perhaps ask people living in your area (or nearby JETs) which phone service provider works best since your area might not even be covered by rakuten’s network that well. I think Mobal and Sakura fleece the new alts because they’re easy to set up but you’re paying a little extra for the English support. When I signed up to Ahamo they were running a promotion and I got a new iPhone SE 2 for ¥4,000. The actual promotion was for the base model iPhone SE for ¥1 but I wanted one with more memory. The phone is also unlocked.
I would check what Rakuten’s coverage map looks like for your placement. I have heard that the coverage is fine in the city, but not as good if you are rural.
If you need lots of data, you might also look into Ahamo. They have a 100GB plan that will be available starting in a few days, and they are a docomo subsidiary, so they use docomo’s network, which in my experience has really good service.
Avoid Rakuten at all costs. If you gotta go with an MVNO at least go with one that runs on a proper network (au, SoftBank, or docomo)
Start with Sakura Mobile. Get your sim during orientation and can have a phone to start up. Sakura (unlike Mobal) supports MNP so you don’t have to worry about updating forms. I’m in the process of switching to IIJMIO. MVNO that uses both docomo and au. 2000 yen for 20 gb and only 220 yen/gb for extra. Sakura charges extra purely for the English service
Ok so whats the best company and plan to get then? Someone have an answer to that?
Will repeat others on here, starting off with Sakura Mobile is smart just to have the number ready at orientation. This’ll make applying for banks, residency etc easier. Switching over to another plan like Rakuten will also be easier since you can carry over your phone number form Sakura. I’m currently using Rakuten Mobile and it’s not awful. Connection is rather rough at points but for the most part, it works for what I need at the moment.
Mostly a reiteration of other comments, but I started with Mobal at orientation, and then switched to Rakuten once I arrived at my location. In general, I have been happy with my decision, with some caveats/cons.
1. As others have mentioned, I had to change my number. This wasn’t that big of a deal to me, because I didn’t have the Mobal number long enough to memorize it anyway, but if I had known, getting Sakura would’ve been a better choice.
2. I live in the suburban bedtown (20,000) of a midsized city (400,000 people), and have had reasonably 4g coverage everywhere *EXCEPT FOR MY SCHOOL BUILDING*. This has been quite aggravating, since most of my time is at school. To be fair, you shouldn’t be using your phone much at school, but it would be nice to check messages during breaks.
3. I’ve visited another city around the same size as mine, but on Shikoku Island, and found I was almost constantly on “partner networks.” My partner has a different phone that picks up different cell bands, and she gets Rakuten service in that town, so this may be more of a phone issue than a purely network issue. As I use my phone for tethering (I have no home internet service, just rely on Rakuten for everything), I quickly went over my limit and started to get throttled heavily. That being said, I have never had speed issues in my main town, where I have constant Rakuten signal (or none at all). And this is after frequently using more than 50gb per month.
4. I was lucky enough to have a Japanese person help me set up my account online and basically do all the paperwork for me, so all I had to do was go to the store, show my ID/ credit card, glance at a few documents, and receive my SIM. My japanese would not have been good enough at the time to have done the online process on my own. At least for set-up, you will need to be very comfortable with Japanese, or at least have someone help you significantly. That being said, after you get set up, what do you need support for? Other than set-up, I can’t remember the last time I contacted my cell-phone service’s customer support.
In general, Rakuten has been pretty great for me, but I have been lucky enough to be in a good service area for them. The unlimited plan has genuinely been unlimited (except when not in the Rakuten network), and the price is really good. But if you’ll be traveling to rural areas often, or find the set-up too daunting, then maybe try something else.
Do not get Sakura I feel like if you use a lot of data it’s not worth it! I switched to Rakuten mobile the first chance I got and never looked back! (Also if you’re a Rakuten Mobile user you can get free wifi for a year – which I also am currently taking advantage of)