Nomad in Japan: cheapest at every size, and the only 50 GB

Correction: our old Nomad figures were wrong

Until 17 August 2026 this page said Nomad sold three Japan plans — 3GB at eight dollars, 10GB at eighteen, 20GB at twenty-eight — and that all three were indicative, held in our records rather than read from Nomad. It then argued that Nomad matched Saily to the cent at two sizes and was the joint dearest 20GB in Japan.

Every part of that was wrong. Nomad's Japan catalogue has now been read off its own site: ten plans, not three, including sizes and an unlimited range we did not know existed, and prices one to five dollars below what we published. All of them are verified.

The range

It is the cheapest verified price at every metered size

Saily and Airalo were read off their own sites on 13 August 2026. Nomad is a dollar under Saily at 3GB and 5GB, two dollars under at 10GB, and two under at 20GB. None of those gaps is dramatic on its own. The bottom row is.

The 50GB is the story

Airalo and Saily sell nothing above 20GB in Japan, and for a long time we said the country simply stopped there. It does not. Nomad's 50GB for 30 days at $35 is $0.70 a gigabyte — against $1.15 from Nomad's own 20GB, $1.20 from Airalo's cheapest rate anywhere in Japan (20GB over 15 days at $24), and $1.25 from Saily.

The break-even against Nomad's own 20GB is about 22 gigabytes. Below that, buy the 20GB and save twelve dollars. Above it, the 50GB is the only plan in the country that is genuinely cheap, and it is cheap by a factor rather than a margin.

A standard fortnight — Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, a day trip or two, heavy use of maps and translation — runs most travellers 6–8GB, so the 10GB at $16 is still the plan for a normal trip. The 50GB is for people tethering a laptop, working remotely, or staying a month.

Unlimited, by the day

Nomad's unlimited plans run $11 for 3 days, $25 for 7, $41 for 14 and $49 for 21. Against Airalo's verified unlimited — $11.50 for 3 days, $27 for 7 — Nomad is cheaper at both matching lengths, and it sells 14- and 21-day windows Airalo does not.

They are still poor value against metered data for most people. $25 buys a week of unlimited or 20GB for a month, and a fortnight of ordinary travel does not use 20GB. Take unlimited if you genuinely cannot predict your usage.

No host network, and nothing to trust in the old listing

An earlier version of this page said Nomad's Japan listing pointed to SoftBank and KDDI, and treated that as a point in its favour against Airalo and Saily, which publish nothing. That was our error. Nomad publishes no host network for Japan — or for any other country — and the value in our record came from third-party copy rather than anything Nomad states.

So Nomad sits with Airalo and Saily: three providers, none of which will tell you whose towers you are on. In practice that matters on the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka corridor not at all — Japan's four operators all clear 97% population coverage and the national average is around 50 Mbps. It matters in the Alps, the Hokkaido interior and the smaller islands, where NTT Docomo has historically had the widest rural reach. If your trip depends on Docomo, buy a Docomo SIM in person; no travel eSIM here will promise it.

Top-ups

Nomad's Japan plans are reported not to auto-renew and not to accept top-ups: exhaust the allowance and the fix is a fresh plan rather than adding data to the existing one. That report comes from the same old record whose prices turned out to be wrong, so we would not lean on it — but it costs nothing to size up, and with a 50GB rung now on the ladder there is plenty of headroom to buy.

Hotspot tethering is reported as supported across the range, which puts Nomad alongside Airalo and Saily rather than Holafly, which blocks it. There are no calls and no SMS; these are data-only plans, as every tourist eSIM for Japan is.

Verdict

On the corrected figures, Nomad is the cheapest verified eSIM in Japan at every metered size we can compare, and the only one selling more than 20GB. Buy the 10GB at $16 for a normal fortnight, or the 50GB at $35 if you are working, tethering or staying a month. What you do not get from Nomad — the same as from Airalo and Saily — is any statement about which Japanese network carries you.

Everything priced side by side on our Japan hub.