Saily in Japan: five sizes, second-cheapest at every one

Correction: Saily is no longer the cheapest confirmed price

We read Saily's Japan page on 13 August 2026 and captured five plans. Until 17 August 2026 this page said no provider we track had a verified price below Saily at any of those five sizes, and that was true at the time — Nomad's Japan prices were indicative, and the figures we held for them were also, as it turned out, one to five dollars too high.

Nomad's Japan catalogue has now been read at source. It undercuts Saily at every size the two both sell, and it sells a 50GB plan that Saily does not.

Nomad's verified ladder sits under all of it: $4.00 at 1GB over 7 days, $7.00 at 3GB, $10.00 at 5GB, $16.00 at 10GB and $23.00 at 20GB, each for 30 days apart from the 1GB. The gaps run from a cent at 1GB to two dollars at 10GB and 20GB. Our data holds an eSIM Go row of $17 at 10GB, below Saily as well, but 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.

Which rung to buy

This is where Saily's ladder earns its keep, because it covers the whole range without gaps.

A standard Japan trip — Tokyo for four or five days, Kyoto for three, Osaka for three, a day trip somewhere — runs most travellers 6 to 8GB across a fortnight. Maps running in cities, Translate's camera mode in restaurants and supermarkets, photos going out to a group chat. That points at the 10GB at $17.99, which leaves headroom without paying for a month of capacity.

Go down a rung if you are the sort of traveller who reconnects at the hotel each evening. Free wifi in Japan is genuinely everywhere — stations, convenience stores, most cafes — and 5GB at $10.99 is enough for a fortnight if you use it. Go up a rung only if you are tethering a laptop or staying beyond three weeks; at $1.25 per gigabyte the 20GB is the best rate on Saily's ladder, but paying for data you don't use is not a saving.

The 1GB at $3.99 deserves its own note. Seven days of validity for under four dollars is the cheapest way to land in Japan connected, and it is the right buy for a two- or three-night stopover. It is not enough for a week of live navigation.

Where Airalo takes it back

One real weakness: every Saily plan above 1GB runs 30 days, whatever your trip length. Airalo charges for the calendar as well as the data, and on a short trip that is cheaper.

Its verified 5GB over 7 days is $10, against Saily's $10.99 for 5GB over 30. Airalo's verified 20GB over 15 days is $24 — $1.20 per gigabyte, and below Saily's 20GB month at $24.99. If your trip is a week or a fortnight rather than a month, price the short-window plans before defaulting to Saily. The cheapest data in our whole Japan set is neither of theirs: it is Nomad's verified 50GB for 30 days at $35, or $0.70 a gigabyte.

Airalo also sells unlimited, from a verified $11.50 for three days to $69 for thirty, and Nomad from a verified $11 for three days to $49 for twenty-one. Saily has no unlimited Japan plan at all. If counting gigabytes is the thing you want to avoid, Saily is not the provider.

The network claim we've removed

An earlier version of this page said Saily ran on SoftBank alone, and warned that competitors with a second carrier had a fallback in rural areas that Saily lacked. That was the centre of the old verdict, and there was no source for it.

Saily does not publish a Japanese host network. Neither does Airalo, and neither does Nomad — the three providers whose Japan prices we have actually confirmed are also the three that tell you nothing about coverage. The listings that do exist elsewhere in our data came out of marketing copy rather than a checkout page, so they are leads, not specifications.

What that means practically: on the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka corridor it does not matter. Japan's four operators all clear 97% population coverage and the national average is around 50 Mbps; no visitor on that route will notice which masts they are using. If your trip runs into the Alps, the Hokkaido interior or the smaller Okinawa islands, coverage is the whole question and Saily cannot answer it. Nobody we track can answer it with a confirmed source.

Hotspot tethering is reported as supported across Saily's plans, which is the practical gap against Holafly's Japan product, where tethering is blocked. Saily is built by Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, so an existing account saves you a sign-up. Neither point is verified by us.

Verdict

If you want the lowest price you can check, that is now Nomad rather than Saily, at every size the two share. Saily remains a clean, gap-free ladder with a good small plan and prices we have confirmed to the cent — but a dollar or two above Nomad at each rung, on figures that are equally confirmed.

The other reasons to look elsewhere are about shape rather than money: a short trip, where Airalo's calendar pricing wins, and unlimited data, which Saily does not offer. And if your itinerary depends on rural coverage, understand that you are buying a price rather than a network.

Full provider comparison on our Japan hub.