online japanese phone number.

4 comments

1. VoIP numbers here start with 050. Banks and other such places know what these numbers are and often refuse to accept them as primary numbers. Most banks require you to be a resident in Japan in order to open an account, and a “real” 070, 080, or 090 number is part of that.

   Your best bet is to work with the university. Find out if you can get the money once you get here, or if they can send it to you in a non Japanese account.

2. Like u/Elestriel said, a VOIP number likely won’t do you any good, because they are easily identified and frequently fraudulent, so banks won’t accept them.

   Besides, you cannot open a Japanese bank account if you are not a resident, so why bother? Since you can’t open an account until you’re here, wait until you get here and get an actual Japanese number.

3. Make up a number using this format: 080-xxxx-xxxx to open your bank account.

   Then get a Japanese cellphone and tell the bank you changed your number.

4. As others in this thread have mentioned, you can’t have a Japanese bank account until you are a resident of Japan. Most universities will help their foreign students overcome the bootstrapping issue of needing a phone to get a bank account and a bank account to get a phone, so perhaps there is a miscommunication between you and the university about the timing of the refund, or some kind of internal miscommunication about how to take care of your special case.

   What you need to do more than anything else is explain both your understanding and the steps you’ve taken regarding to the situation to whoever you normally contact about problems at the university, preferably in writing.