seigex

The 8/1 to 10/31 promotion is just for the cheap eSim price which is 550 yen, 350 yen when purchased from amazon, and they'll add 200 yen on to your gigaplan when you sign up, so for me with the 20gb eSim plan it was 1850 yen (1650 for the 20gb plan + 200 eSim fee to make the eSim cost 550 yen). It shouldn't have anything else to do with timing you'll be in Japan, but yeah activate it before 10/31 or they'll charge you the full amount, which comes out to around 3000 yen just for the eSim itself.

That said, once you activate the sim, your account is active. So I activated mine one month too early and will be paying for this month as well as when I'm in Japan, but oh well, still cheaper than other options and it'll be useful when I go back in December.

jamar

Basically, yes.
0. Obtain “entry code” from Amazon (you can skip this and apply directly on IIJMio, this can cost a little more to a lot more depending on if they’re having a promo on the signup fee at the time)
1. Sign up for the 4GB plan on Oct 15, you’ll have 4GB and you’ll be charged for the first month.
2. On Nov 1, your unused 4GB will roll over to the next month, and you’ll be billed for the second month.
3. When you arrive on the 17th you’ll have the rollover 4GB and new 4GB = 8GB to use.

if you need more data, replace 4GB with 8GB, 15GB, or 20GB and your on-arrival total with 16GB, 30GB, or 40GB.

Angusgor

Thanks! Looks like they're running the same promo on the iijmio website so there is no benefit getting it from Amazon if they tack on a 200 Yen fee.

So the data gets rolled over on the last day of the month (Oct 31/Nov 1) and not at (Nov 15) in my example? That's kind of weird. If that's the case am I going to get billed on Dec 1 for a third month?

seigex

yeah they are, i only went with Amazon because I couldn't for the life of me get my registration complete, and was hoping the amazon code would keep me from having to do it, but it didn't. Turns out you need to create the katakana version of your name, and then copy that also to the kanji name boxes. I was leaving the kanji name boxes, so the next button wouldn't turn blue. also if you use your hotel like i did, add a 0 to the first section of the phone numebr, so like +81-3-1234-5678.. put 03 1234 5678 in the boxes to make it work, for building name, i put the katakana version of my hotels name in, but romaji might work too.

Also yeah it will roll over on the 1st. I was given 4GB to prorate me through 9/30, and I'll get a new 20GB on 10/1.

Angusgor

Yeah I figured out the katakana part when I was signing up for the Sumo tickets. Used this to get my name yesterday. English to Katakana Converter (sljfaq.org).

So in my case I will have to pay for 3 months of services because I need to activate it before October 31? Damn that's silly... Do you have the part of the site/agreement where it talks about the data getting rolled over?

If that's the case I guess I can pay for /2GB for October, and then when it renews increase it to 4.

seigex

Yeah, same one I used. I don't have the agreement, I just know that I paid for 20GB but mine shows 4GB available until 9/30, then there are separate line items for 10/1 11/1 and 12/1 under it.

Angusgor

Keep me posted on October 1 if you get charged for October . If you paid for 20GB but only have 4GB it looks like they prorated the amount of data you have (like you said) so I am guessing you won't get charged on Oct 1 but on your one month anniversary instead. Doesn't make sense for them to charge you the full amount but only prorate it down to 4. But I wonder how much data they'll give you on Oct 1? Maybe they'll give you 16GB until they bill you again on Oct 25...

jamar

Here's the FAQ entry on their website. Even if Google Translate doesn't work well, there's a visual that shows you exactly what happens.

Also, I've been paying for service since February (to keep my SMS-capable SIM) and I can confirm that data rolls over by calendar month. There's line items for up to three but that's for "data coupons" you can buy for certain other types of plans. The "Giga Plan" that you get on eSIM doesn't support those.

Angusgor

Thanks! That link is very helpful. Can you confirm if they bill on the 1st of each month or at the anniversary date? (unless you activated your service on Feb 1... then you won't know)

jamar

Going back through my email it looks like I signed up on the 1st, so I can't help you there, sorry. I get billed on the last day of each month (which is the 1st of the next month in Japan).

Pamyurin

IMO the iijmio method seems like a lot of work to save a few dollars. After checking esimdb, Ubigi is 16 USD for 10GB for 30 days, is it really worth it to go through all the steps of rolling over data to get maybe 16 GB with Iijimo vs 10GB with Ubigi?

Not sponsored btw, it just seems like that company is the best price performance at the moment without going through those hoops.

htodd

Wow, I'm having no luck at all trying to buy an esim. Amazon Japan is now blocking all forms of payment I'm trying for the iijmio esim (all US credit cards, and also buying an Amazon gift card with a US card and using that doesn't work.)

Now I'm on iijmio's site and I keep doing something wrong and I'm redirected to the SIM signup.

I should've kept one of my old iPhones with a SIM slot, but I didn't. I'm going to have to get a pocket WiFi for the first time in a long time. Do they still run really hot? I accidentally took a rental cell phone through the gates once. No one would take it back out for me and so I had to take it to the US and mail it back to Japan. I hope I don't do the same with the pocket wifi.

seigex

Blocking in what way? I just purchased one a few days ago through amazon.co.jp, and i highly doubt they would go to any effort to block payments because a few people bought esims. US citizens buy stuff on japan amazon all the time.

On iijmio's site, you have to sign up once you get the SIM in the cart and before you can pay, put in the katakana version of your name for the kanji and kana names, and the romaji put your real name, there are websites that let you convert you name to katakana. 姓 and セイ are last names 名 and メイ are first names.

For address, put your hotel address and phone number. Just have to put the zip code in and it'll fill out the rest, then put their phone number with a leading 0 (ie 3-1234-5678 becomes 03-1234-5678 ). Should be good to go after that. If it's the giga esim, you won't be asked for your ID.

seigex

You underestimate how cheap I can be, and iijmio is 20gb for their 1650 yen ($11) product.

jamar

There are a couple of other things working in IIJMio's favor aside from the price.

1. Guaranteed local connection. Most major players in the eSIM market will route your data through whichever provider/country provides them the cheapest way to provision one-off data SIMs, which, for some reason, is rarely a provider in the country you're going to. IIJMio is local and will route your data locally. Ubigi is technically owned by NTT but unless someone comes back and reports on it I won't just assume they're issuing the eSIMs themselves.

2. No hard cap. Ubigi eSIMs hard-cap your data- use that 10GB and that's it. IIJMio just throttles you to 200kbps and allows you to buy more high-speed data should you want it.

3. Set it up once and use it over and over again. If you're a repeat visitor then it's easier to set up IIJMio once and be able to just turn it on once you arrive in Japan.