I brought my two-year-old phone with me when I moved to Tokyo just over 2 months ago from Sydney – with a promise to myself that I’ll reward myself with a brand new phone (Google Pixel 3 🤤) when I land a job.
However, I needed a phone number for recruiters and companies to reach me whilst job hunting. Upon talking to my Tokyo born and raised friend, the major telecoms (Softbank, NTT Docomo and au that I know of) are naturally expensive but cheap mobile plans are offered by disruptors.
Differences in Japanese mobile phone plans compared to Australia
The difference between mobile phone plans offered in Japan compared to Australia that I noticed are:
- Digital only plan (usually 2GB, 3GB option then suddenly jumps up to 20GB, 30GB)
- Making and receiving calls is an additional cost (usually unlimited 5 minutes /10 minutes or unlimited call option)
- Monthly wifi connection fee
- No mention of SMS/MMS
- No mention of international calls or message
- Option to select which main phone line to use (Softbank or au)
The new mobile plan services are targeted towards tech-savvy younger generation who basically don’t call anymore but uses their phone for social media (shortened as SNS- social network sites -in Japan), watch videos and play games 🎮.
Interesting observational side note: In Japan, gaming has a much wider audience than in Australia. I knew that gaming is a growing industry but I see young females, middle-aged men, kids and young men playing games on their phone during their commute. The games they play may differ but the take up of smartphone gaming is much higher than in Australia.
Upon going through a number of phone plan cost simulations, I chose Line Mobile (Line is a Japanese version of WhatsApp / China’s WeChat) with a small data and 10 minutes unlimited call option (as mentioned in “First impression of living in Japan” post, a call often needs to be made for a restaurant reservation).
It all works fine with a slightly annoying feature where I can only make a call through a specific いつでも電話(Anytime phone) app that is hard to copy and paste phone numbers.
Fortunately, just before Golden Week or a couple of weeks ago, I was offered a job! Another step into settling down into Tokyo …and a shiny new gadget✨ for me as a reward.
How to get a mobile phone plan in Japan
Quite rare to a Japanese company, my employment contract includes 10,000 yen/monthly payment towards a phone and/or internet bill (approx AUD$120) as we are allowed to work from home (another rare feature for a Japanese company).
This was a perfect reason for me to switch to a mobile phone plan that includes a new handset. Wanting a new phone on my trip during Golden Week, I quickly researched for the best plan. NTT Docomo offered a plan just over my budget (which meant I only have to spend around 1,000yen or AUD$12 for a brand new phone and a plan). That said, trying my luck, I headed to their competitor, SoftBank to see if they will offer me a deal.
Nope, SoftBank in Roppongi is a reservation only store and the next available slot was in 3 hours time. Uh?
Shrugging them off, I headed to NTT Docomo, just a mere 50m away and even though hardly anyone was in the store, no one served me. NTT Docomo is also a reservation only store.
In Australia, telecom is a mainly commission based sales job so when you enter a phone shop, the staff will pounce on you with a dollar signed eyes –> 🤑. My two friends who worked at the same telecom shop told me that they’ll try and swipe each other’s customer away to grab the commission. Friendly, but aggressive.
Service-centric Japan is a totally different world. I headed home to research the nearby NTT Docomo store to find one that doesn’t require a reservation. I called them to make sure they had the handset that I want….but their phone rang out.
Another store told me that it’ll be difficult to fit me in as there were lines outside the door before they opened up the store that day. Queues to get into a phone store? It wasn’t a special iPhone or Samsung or Google Pixel launch day, just a regular day in Japan. Seems like I have to get used to waiting in line for a lot more things than I imagined!
Defeated, I made an appointment the day after we came back from the Golden Week holiday.
The appointment
Friendly staff greeted me and asked me if I brought an MNP with me.
MNP or Mobile Network Portability is a service that allows a transfer of a mobile phone number from one provider to another.
MNP Explained
I thought the providers sort it out for the customers but I needed to request one from my current provider and hand it over to the new provider. Shucks, another delay.
The staff helped me book another appointment (one week later as an MNP may take several days depending on the company) but walked me through a range of plans and explained a few things to make (hopefully) the last appointment as smooth as possible.
She was very transparent and recommended a plan that will be more cost efficient and even showed me the handset that they had reserved for me.
A quick interview about Japan and mobile phone
As she was so friendly, I asked a few things including the reservation policy. She said it only started a few months ago to avoid people waiting for hours. Sometimes, they spend three hours with an individual customer! This is a reflection of the aging Japanese population where many older people aren’t familiar with the latest technology and changes in telecommunications and hence need to ask a lot of questions. Secondly, Japanese simply asks a lot of question to understand the plan rather than simply signing up.
Another interesting thing the lady told me is that although iPhone series are the most popular handsets in Tokyo, handset choices are very regionally specific. In Kanagawa prefecture next to Tokyo, Fujitsu phones are quite popular as Fujitsu factory is in Kanagawa. I didn’t even know that Fujitsu (famous for air conditioning system) make phones!
My appointment is on Monday so the entire process isn’t finished yet but hopefully, it’ll be resolved next week. Until then, I will continue to charge my old phone every 2 hours…
Update: I did go to my Monday appointment and although I couldn’t completely verify that I can pay off the phone, I was able to complete the contract and now I am a proud owner of a new phone 🙂
Native Expat 