How much does renting a mobile internet wifi device cost in Japan? We looked for airport wifi and cell phone rental at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan and found this phone tethering which works via a smart phone's hotspot. It's a Huawei Android smartphone from Telecom Square Inc www.telecomsquare.co.jp for a total of 15,157 yen (1122 yen tax included). A credit card guarantee is a must. Use a credit card with no foreign transaction fees such as the American Express Platinum.
This way we get text messaging (useful in Japan), get a phone number people can reach us with, and get to make calls when running late, need to make travel changes or in other emergencies. It worked well. We were warned that signal might be sparse outside Tokyo in remote places such as suburbs and ski resorts but the cell phone worked well in Hakone (the hot spring heaven), Nara (the old old capital with Toudaiji the Great Temple of the East and it's biscuit eating holy deers), and during most of the Shinkansen travel. See a screenshot of our bill below
We were also warned that Japanese mobile wifi is rarely unlimited like T-mobile or what Verizon has to offer in the United States. And also that there's a limit, a quota of 1-2GB depend on how many number of days we would rent. And that using Google Map extensively in Japan burns through a lot of data in Japan so try to avoid. In our case we rented for 8 days to be split between two people. We were good on data.
We were able to use our free unlimited international roaming data - a courtesy of our Tmobile plan (if your plan supports this feature, you will get a SMS text message upon entering the country) -for Google Map and getting directions and train schedules. It was a lucky jackpot. Thanks to Tmobile we saved so much money. If you have T-mobile check if you have unlimited roaming.
In any case, trains, hotels, food and wifi expenses may just be the fixed costs of traveling in Japan. Not being able to read Japanese, kanji, and make last minute plan changes can really suck. And that Google is very powerful in Japan from getting directions, getting train schedules, to translating, it can really make your travel easy.
For our rental, we also got full coverage for all the days because the company Telecom Square charged a hefty $300 if the phone is severely damaged or lost. And we really don't want to pay $300 for a Huawei smartphone (it's really a cheap and low-end Android phone).
If the expense is so high why not just buy a phone in Japan? Japan has a strict regulation that only registered resident can buy cell phones in Japan even prepaid phones, for security reasons.
Your Japanese buddy needs to offer his or her ID to register on your behalf. It's a big favor that makes a lot of Japanese people uneasy. Plus it costs money to set up and activate. Even the prepaid phone costs $100 and up to buy and set up. It's just not worth the trouble if your stay is short. If you are here for travel, study or teach for the JET program consider registering first, get your resident ID (great for getting free national health care coverage for all in Japan for all residents), and then you have your own ID for purchasing a phone. Try getting it from smaller companies other than SoftBank such as Au for a better price:
