Mar 22, 2016, 3:00 am
Last edit by: RichardInSF
Japan - Prepaid Data SIM Wikia
1) get a SIM before the trip, activate it when you land. you can find japan-specific prepaid SIMs on ebay/amazon/... .Some countries have providers that offer good roaming rates in other countries(eg Starhub in Singapore, Ais Sim2Fly available globally)
2) preorder it, delivered to your hotel
3) preorder it to airport post office, can pick up when you land
4) preorder it, pickup at some airport counter/store
5) at airport/city, find an store/kiosk/vending machine and buy from them
6) Use an app such as Iijmio, Airalo or Ubigi to buy an e-SIM if your phone supports it
If you are arriving at Haneda international terminal without a SIM: Exit customs, turn right, and continue to the BIC camera store on the left side. Ignore any other places and vending machines that will sell you a SIM. BIC has a good selection at regular camera store prices.
1) get a SIM before the trip, activate it when you land. you can find japan-specific prepaid SIMs on ebay/amazon/... .Some countries have providers that offer good roaming rates in other countries(eg Starhub in Singapore, Ais Sim2Fly available globally)
2) preorder it, delivered to your hotel
3) preorder it to airport post office, can pick up when you land
4) preorder it, pickup at some airport counter/store
5) at airport/city, find an store/kiosk/vending machine and buy from them
6) Use an app such as Iijmio, Airalo or Ubigi to buy an e-SIM if your phone supports it
If you are arriving at Haneda international terminal without a SIM: Exit customs, turn right, and continue to the BIC camera store on the left side. Ignore any other places and vending machines that will sell you a SIM. BIC has a good selection at regular camera store prices.
Prepaid SIM discussion (consolidated)
Oct 7, 2013, 8:53 am
#92
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Nov 4, 2013, 9:04 pm
#93
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I emailed them that exact question last week and they refused to explicitly state that the 5S would work OK. I bet they just haven't had a chance to test it yet so it's not official. I'm going to risk it myself next month...
Nov 8, 2013, 2:39 am
#94
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I am really glad I got a sim from econnectjapan. I was sitting on the train to Nara reading FT when I saw the thread about LH opening up F completely on YYZ-MUC for awards with UA. Booked and ticketed before even reaching Nara and more importantly before Lufty realized its mistake. 
Nov 9, 2013, 9:28 am
#95
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The econnectJapan SIM costs more than bMobile and I just found out the reason -- in an email from econnectJapan, they told me that they use the bMobile SIM card!
So why pay econnectJapan more? Doesn't make sense to me.
So why pay econnectJapan more? Doesn't make sense to me.
Nov 12, 2013, 1:42 pm
#96
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Not a big deal if you're there for less than 2 weeks, but sucks if you're there for just over 2 weeks.
I was there for just over 15 days. I either could buy 2 a b-mobile SIM and re-up for another $40 or buy one eConnect SIM. Guess which I chose?
Nov 12, 2013, 4:40 pm
#97
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The eConnect SIM is good for 30 days while the b-mobile SIM is only good for 14 days.
Not a big deal if you're there for less than 2 weeks, but sucks if you're there for just over 2 weeks.
I was there for just over 15 days. I either could buy 2 a b-mobile SIM and re-up for another $40 or buy one eConnect SIM. Guess which I chose?
Not a big deal if you're there for less than 2 weeks, but sucks if you're there for just over 2 weeks.
I was there for just over 15 days. I either could buy 2 a b-mobile SIM and re-up for another $40 or buy one eConnect SIM. Guess which I chose?
Nov 12, 2013, 4:46 pm
#98
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 2,304
The eConnectJapan is a B-mobile LTE sim. The current B-Mobile Visitor sim is 3G. There's some notes here that Nexus 5 North America version doesn't get a signal with a data only 3G sim
http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2013/...h-mvno-3g.html
https://code.google.com/p/android/is...etail?id=61918
Of course, one can purchase B-Mobile LTE prepaid sim from Amazon and activate it with a Japanese cell phone instead of purchasing a pre-activated one from eConnectJapan.
The Nexus 5 is confirmed to work with B-Mobile LTE sim but the signal icon function might be broken unless you want to manually patch it or wait for Xposed updated for KitKat + the docomo data sim module.
http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2013/...d-nexus-5.html
Just wanted to put this forth as Nexus 5 might be a popular travel phone.
http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2013/...h-mvno-3g.html
https://code.google.com/p/android/is...etail?id=61918
Of course, one can purchase B-Mobile LTE prepaid sim from Amazon and activate it with a Japanese cell phone instead of purchasing a pre-activated one from eConnectJapan.
The Nexus 5 is confirmed to work with B-Mobile LTE sim but the signal icon function might be broken unless you want to manually patch it or wait for Xposed updated for KitKat + the docomo data sim module.
http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2013/...d-nexus-5.html
Just wanted to put this forth as Nexus 5 might be a popular travel phone.
Nov 20, 2013, 10:50 am
#101
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Does the bMobile LTE sim also support 3G? If so, that would be a good reason to get it (that and the 30 day lifespan). I had assumed it was just the standard bMobile sim.
Nov 21, 2013, 9:31 am
#102
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BMobile LTE SIM specs: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/l_1gb/detail.html
LTE：2100MHz/1500MHz/800MHz
W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA：2100MHz/800MHz
However eConnect website says their SIM card has : Downlink: 7.2 Mbps / Uplink: 5.7 Mbps (best effort)
which are the specs for HSDPA (3G), not LTE.
LTE：2100MHz/1500MHz/800MHz
W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA：2100MHz/800MHz
However eConnect website says their SIM card has : Downlink: 7.2 Mbps / Uplink: 5.7 Mbps (best effort)
which are the specs for HSDPA (3G), not LTE.
Nov 21, 2013, 1:24 pm
#103
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BMobile LTE SIM specs: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/l_1gb/detail.html
LTE：2100MHz/1500MHz/800MHz
W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA：2100MHz/800MHz
However eConnect website says their SIM card has : Downlink: 7.2 Mbps / Uplink: 5.7 Mbps (best effort)
which are the specs for HSDPA (3G), not LTE.
LTE：2100MHz/1500MHz/800MHz
W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA：2100MHz/800MHz
However eConnect website says their SIM card has : Downlink: 7.2 Mbps / Uplink: 5.7 Mbps (best effort)
which are the specs for HSDPA (3G), not LTE.
Question is - what US LTE phones support the Japanese bands? Most US LTE works in the 700, 2100/1700, and 2500MHz bands.
Granted, as LTE radio tech gets better, there's better support for more bands in a given phone, but most current US models seem to be sparse on the LTE support outside their networks.
Nov 21, 2013, 1:26 pm
#104
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I was there in late July/early August, so unless it became an LTE SIM more recently than that, I'd safely say it supports 3G.
Nov 21, 2013, 3:43 pm
#105
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B-Mobile have both 3G and LTE SIM for 1GB limited. LTE SIM would say 4G on the wrapper.