So I’ve been researching the best options for getting a phone number set up in Japan and a lot of posts here have been very helpful but I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed and have some concerns/confusion.
I’m planning on swapping my current number to google voice, no problem there. I’m planning on grabbing a temporary eSIM from the airport, so I’ll have short term coverage. But I have a brand new iphone from the USA which, from what I understand, will not be accepted by a majority of the major carriers in Japan since it lacks the giteki mark.
I see a lot of people saying the only option is to resign to using an mvno, but my understanding is that they’re not particularly cost effective or good as far as coverage. And then if I go and look up past threads about them there’s never a single answer on what is a good service for new foreigners to go with
Is there an option for someone with an American phone to go with, even if it’s a long term (2 year) contract, that has competitive pricing and good coverage? I don’t want to be stuck in kanto/kansai either in case I want to travel.
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Concerns About Phones and Giteki**
So I’ve been researching the best options for getting a phone number set up in Japan and a lot of posts here have been very helpful but I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed and have some concerns/confusion.
I’m planning on swapping my current number to google voice, no problem there. I’m planning on grabbing a temporary eSIM from the airport, so I’ll have short term coverage. But I have a brand new iphone from the USA which, from what I understand, will not be accepted by a majority of the major carriers in Japan since it lacks the giteki mark.
I see a lot of people saying the only option is to resign to using an mvno, but my understanding is that they’re not particularly cost effective or good as far as coverage. And then if I go and look up past threads about them there’s never a single answer on what is a good service for new foreigners to go with
Is there an option for someone with an American phone to go with, even if it’s a long term (2 year) contract, that has competitive pricing and good coverage? I don’t want to be stuck in kanto/kansai either in case I want to travel.
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>my understanding is that they’re not particularly cost effective or good as far as coverage
MVNOs are *significantly* cheaper than the “regular” carriers, so I’m not sure where you’re getting “not cost effective”.
They’re also fine with coverage, because they use the regular carrier networks. The only potential coverage issue is that if it’s super busy in a particular area your data will get “deprioritized”, aka slowed down. During my time on Line Mobile I saw this happen ***once***, so it’s not really an issue.
Usually the solution if you insist on a major carrier is to buy a junk phone, rip the SIM out and swap it into your foreign model. But IIRC the current model US iPhones are ESIM only, so… Yeah. You might be stuck with a MVNO. But they’re perfectly fine.
I used an overseas phone on an MVNO here for years and it was completely fine. Was much cheaper than what I had been paying on Softbank before
I have a foreign iphone and had to problems using Ubigi and then getting a contract with Rakuten
I have used an American iPhone with Softbank since moving here 7 years ago. My husband uses an iPhone 8 on OCN.
Ahamo (MVNO) won’t let you use an esim US phone when you sign up; I recently looked into swapping. If you have a sim phone, you can use that and THEN swap to the US esim phone, apparently.