Cheap SIM cards and eSIMs for Japan

Correction: Japan does not stop at 20 GB

An earlier version of this page said Japan was one of the rare markets where nobody sells a metered plan above 20 GB, and put the country floor at $1.20 a gigabyte. That was wrong. Nomad's prices were indicative when we wrote it — held in our data, never read at the seller. They have since been read off Nomad's own site, and Nomad sells 50 GB for 30 days in Japan at $35.

That is $0.70 a gigabyte, and it is the cheapest metered data in the country by a distance. The 20 GB ceiling is real for Airalo — nothing it sells in Japan is bigger, and its own cheapest rate is $1.20 a gigabyte on 20 GB over 15 days at $24. It was never real for the market.

What the plans cost

Airalo's and Saily's prices were read from their own sites on 13 August 2026, Nomad's on 17 August 2026. Holafly figures are indicative — held in our data, unconfirmed at the seller. eSIMCard's rows have been withdrawn: we read its own pages on 18 August 2026, found the figures we held were wrong, and could not store the real ones. See our eSIMCard page. The eSIM Go figure is unbuyable rather than unconfirmed: eSIM Go sells wholesale to resellers and publishes no consumer price — checked on esim-go.com on 18 August 2026, where there is no basket, no checkout and no per-country page — so its rows cannot be bought or ever verified. See our eSIM Go page.

Nomad is now the cheapest verified price at every metered size in Japan from 3 GB up: $7 against Saily's $7.99 at 3 GB, $10 against Saily's $10.99 at 5 GB, $16 against Airalo's $18 at 10 GB, and $23 against Airalo's $25 at 20 GB. The rest of the market is still tightly bunched — at 20 GB, Airalo's $25 and Saily's $24.99 are the same price to the cent — but Nomad now sits below all of it, and then keeps going where the others stop.

Two weeks in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka with maps, translation and a normal amount of photo uploading fits comfortably in 10 GB. Buy the 20 GB if you tether or stream. The 50 GB at $35 is only worth it if you will genuinely use more than about 22 GB, which is the point where it beats Nomad's own 20 GB in absolute terms — but if you are working from Japan for a month, nothing else here comes close on rate.

Holafly sells unlimited from an indicative $3.99 for a single day up to $20.50 for five. Nomad's verified unlimited runs $11 for three days, $25 for seven, $41 for fourteen and $49 for twenty-one; Airalo's verified unlimited runs $11.50 for three days, $27 for seven and $69 for thirty. For a short trip where you will be navigating constantly, a one- or five-day unlimited plan is genuinely good value against a metered plan you will burn through.

The Docomo question, answered honestly

NTT Docomo has the widest rural, mountain and island coverage in Japan, and it is the network you want if you are going beyond the Tokyo–Osaka–Kyoto corridor. SoftBank is an excellent alternative for a city-only trip, with 97%+ 4G nationwide. That much is not in dispute.

What has been reported wrongly, repeatedly, is which travel eSIM can put you on Docomo. Airalo, Saily, Nomad and eSIMCard publish no host network for Japan at all. Airalo's Japanese product is sold as Moshi Moshi, which is the name of the package and not a carrier — pages that read labels like that as networks are the reason this correction exists. Holafly publishes none either — the NTT Docomo and SoftBank pairing this page used to attribute to its product pages came from our own data, and Holafly names no carrier in any country. Our data lists SoftBank against eSIM Go, and that came from this site's own generated text — eSIM Go has no consumer page on which it could name a carrier, and no plan a traveller can buy.

So the advice you will see elsewhere — buy Holafly because it gives you Docomo — is not something the data supports. Holafly's unlimited plans may well be the right buy for a rural trip on their own merits, but not on that reasoning. If you specifically need Docomo, the reliable route is a Docomo SIM bought in person.

Buying a physical SIM in Japan

A passport or ID is required to register a prepaid SIM. Our data puts a typical airport tourist package at around $12, and Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera stores in the cities sell similar tourist packages.

One quirk worth knowing: tourist physical SIMs in Japan are data-only. There are no voice calls on them. In practice this rarely bites, because LINE — which is what everyone in Japan actually uses — and WhatsApp both work over data. Emergency numbers work on any network without an active plan: 110 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance.

The physical SIM's real advantage is device compatibility. If your phone is older or a budget Android from around 2020 or earlier, it may not support eSIM at all, in which case the airport counter is your only option. Check yours against our list of eSIM-compatible phones before you rely on a download.

Otherwise, for a city trip, the eSIM is cheaper and saves you a queue at Narita or Haneda after a long flight. Full plan tables and coverage notes are on the Japan hub.