Cell Phones - 携帯電話 - rentals in Japan

So you are heading to Japan and want to be able to keep in touch and realised that your mobile phone either will not work in Japan or will be ridiculously expensive and are looking for options.

Unfortunately, Japans telecom system is not compatible with GSM or other US Systems.

You can either buy a prepaid calling card sold all over Japan at convenience stores and vending machines or you can arrange to rent a cell phone 携帯電話 (keitai denwa) while in Japan.

The rental option seems to be more popular and certainly convenient with pick-up/drop-off at airports such as Narita in Tokyo, Kansai in Osaka as well as deliveries to various hotels when arranged for an additional fee.

Some of the more popular companies are Softbank, KDDi, NTT DoCoMo, AU and G-Call.

I found the site for Softbank to be the easiest to understand, navigate and place an order. Softbank has a rental option using the 703SH model noted below, as well as a phone only rental option or a SIM card only rental option.

Softbank's daily rental is 250JPY per day and all incoming calls are Free. Calling locally in Japan 105JPY/min and calling back to the USA 300JPY/min. They have a table listing rates to other international destinations as well as additional fees for insurance, SMS, etc.

Their web site is http://www.softbank-rental.jp/ and the site is available in English and Japanese.

For those interested, some additional company sites offering rentals in Japan are http://www.roaming.nttdocomo.co.jp/ and http://www.g-call.com/

Lastly, many of these same companies also offer a for sale option which might be of interest especially to those who plan to stay in Japan for a while. Mobile phones are cheap to buy and there is a wide array of choices to pick from.

All the best....Mark