Your first mobile phone in Japan

17 comments

1. Used iijMio because no other company would accept my overseas credit card for some reason. Received a Motorola edge 20 fusion for about 3万 (can’t remember the exact price) because it was the cheapest phone with specs that I could accept.

2. I got a PHS from JPhone and there was some sort of campaign so it was two yen or something similarly uber cheap without being free.

3. Docomo FOMA galakei flip-phone in 2006. It had an animated screen and could play MP3s. Oh and a button to do the flip action. It was sweeeeeeet. Fees were dog-shit expensive, but they were the same for all the big three back then.

4. Apple 3S, I think 60,000 with softbank. Still have it and it works!

5. My first and still current phone is a feature phone from NTT Docomo. I paid a grand total of 0 yen upfront.

6. Hand me down JPhone PHS that weighed about 10 grams and the fanciest thing you could do was change the ringtone and light colour.

   First one I bought myself was the first Vodafone model that you could watch TV on

7. Is OP looking for advice and ideas of what/where to get a new device **now** or are they curious about the prices old-timers might have paid?
   Some of the members have been here since before smartphones were the norm so it might give some odd numbers.

8. I think I got an iPhone 7 at Softbank in 2017, want to say it was Y70,000 or something. Just upgraded last year to the iPhone 13 mini for free with Softbank, then moved to povo after one month. Highly recommended if you don’t make a lot of phone calls.

9. Softbank and let me tell you how fucking expensive it was.

   Do NOT let them recommend phones to you. They will show you the most expensive phones and you will have to pay for the phone since you’re on a (one year) visa.

   I had to keep telling them to show me cheaper phones until I found one that was about 20000 yen. It was fucking annoying. My phone before was a 100000 phone. If you go phone shopping, there’s a price on the price tag that means “full phone price” which is usually the biggest number on it. If you’re on a 1 year visa, that’s the price you gotta pay up front. If you have a 3 year visa, I think you can get a payment plan but you still will pay that full price.

   I’m currently on Y Mobile and my bill is half that of softbank for the same plan. (I think currently like 4000/mo or so while softbank was almost 10000. I went softbank because a friend was on it and recommended me)

10. 0 yen.

    I just brought my US phone and inserted an iijmio sim card.

11. 1998 Panasonic candy bar phone and 0 yen up front

12. It was free when I got on a two year plan with AU back in the day. It was one of the flip phones from Sony with an antenna to watch tv.

13. The i-Mode phone of my dreams, the Sharp Aquos phone that flipped into a portable TV, back in 2008.

    I paid whatever the price it was, but on 24 installments.

14. For me it was the [Denso DP-194](https://aucfree.com/items/n152219952) on the J-Phone network. Chose them because Fujiwara Norika was their advertising model 😉

    The phone was cool, had a little character who walked around when the phone was on standby and changed what they did based on time of day. Also had 2 sensors on either side of the phone so the display would turn off until the sensors detected you were holding the phone in your hand. I think I paid 1 yen for the phone for signing up.

15. I got a google pixel from the google store, which is cheaper than going to an electronics store like bic camera or yodobashi. It’s sim free so I just put my old sim card, which was Mobal. Not the most ideal option but I got it right when I arrived and I’m too lazy to change number.

16. Don’t remember price. It was through Docomo in 2015. Got an iPhone 5S on a two year plan.

17. Softbank 16gb iphone 6 plus. Mnp to AU iphone 6 plus 256 gb after 2 months. Paid remaining of softbank all at once and installment on AU.
    Skipped 7, and 8 . AU iphone x during xmas. Also in installment.
    Mnp to Ahamo (iphone 12 pro max 512 gb) and still using it. Planning to switch to android very soon.