I’d like to keep my japanese phone number for some time after i move back to my home country. Obviously the cheapest method would be best. I don’t want to continue to pay my current monthly fee, since i can not actively use the japanese phone plan anymore. Even the cheapest plan with my current provider is still around 1000¥ per month.
In my home country, there are prepaid sim cards without any monthly fees. You pay as you go for calls, sms and data usage, but if you are not using any of it, then essentially there is no cost for the sim except 10€ per year, because the sim will only stay valid for 1 year after the last charge of the prepaid credit.
So i could just migrate my phone number from my current provider to that prepaid sim provide and then keep the phone number for 10€/year.
What are the options in japan?
Any similar prepaid sim with no monthly cost? Or a contract with really low monthly fees?
Other methods to “park” my number, like migrate to some voip provider?
4 comments
if you can afford 1000¥ month, just setup payment method as your working credit card. it’ll stay up
[https://povo.jp/spec/](https://povo.jp/spec/) by au.
You just have to buy a “topping” every 180 days.
Docomo will park your phone number for 400 yen a month. It’s not advertised anywhere obvious, but it’s for people who go abroad for an extended period but want to keep the number.
Other providers should have similar plans, but you have to ask.
Here’s a web site outlining options for various carriers:
https://oranda.jp/life/japan-mobile/
While [Rakuten’s Saikyo Plan](https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/fee/saikyo-plan/en/) starts at 980 yen per month, their voip [Rakuten Link app](https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/service/rakuten-link/) would allow you to make and receive calls on your JP phone number, as well as send and receive SMS messages, while you are outside of Japan, at no extra cost; and include [2Gb of roaming data](https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/service/global/overseas/en/) in a number of countries.