Where to buy a SIM card in Japan

Bring your passport, and expect data only

Two rules apply everywhere in Japan and neither has an exception worth planning around. A passport is required and scanned for every tourist SIM purchase. And every tourist SIM sold in Japan is data-only — no voice calls, no SMS, whatever counter you buy it at.

That second one surprises people who assumed a local SIM would give them a Japanese number. It will not. The practical workaround is a messaging app, and in Japan that means LINE rather than WhatsApp: LINE is what Japanese people actually use day to day, so it is also how you will end up talking to hotels, guesthouses and local contacts. Install it before you go.

The airport, including the small ones

Staffed Docomo and SoftBank counters are not confined to Tokyo and Osaka. Narita (NRT), Haneda (HND), Kansai (KIX), Chubu (NGO), Fukuoka (FUK) and New Chitose (CTS) for Sapporo all have them, alongside 24/7 vending machines from IIJmio and b-mobile.

Counters open around 6am and close between 10 and 11pm. The machines run all night, stock data-only plans and take credit cards, so a 1am landing is an inconvenience rather than a problem. Typical airport price is about $12.

Queues are the real variable: 20 to 30 minutes at Narita's peak, 10 to 15 at Haneda, and Kansai similar to Haneda. We break down the terminals, hours and the timing of Narita's worst periods on our Japan airport SIM page.

In the city

Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera, the big electronics chains, sell SIMs in most major cities and are the easiest in-town option by a distance. Two Bic Camera branches in Tokyo — Yurakucho and Akihabara — have English-speaking staff who will help with setup, and Yodobashi Akihabara is the same. If you arrived without a SIM and want a person to hand you a working phone, that is where to go.

Avoid one common mistake: 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson sell top-up cards for SIMs you already have, not SIM kits. Walking into a konbini expecting to buy your first Japanese SIM will not work.

Street-level carrier stores — Docomo, SoftBank, au — are a different proposition again. They are almost entirely Japanese-language. You can try, and staff will be polite about it, but without Japanese it is hard work and there is no reason to put yourself through it when Bic Camera exists.

Or skip the shop entirely

If your handset takes an eSIM — iPhone XS and later, most flagship Androids since 2021 — none of the above is necessary. You buy online, scan a QR code, and it activates when you land. Our eSIM compatible phones list covers the details.

These Japanese prices were read off the providers' own sites:

An earlier version of this page said Japan's verified ladder topped out at 20 GB, with no 50 GB plan to jump to as there is in the US or Sweden. That was wrong: Nomad sells 50 GB for 30 days at $35, verified, and at $0.70 a gigabyte it is the cheapest data on the page — under a third of the 5 GB rate. Airalo's Japanese product is sold as Moshi Moshi at checkout; that is a product name rather than a network.

Airalo and Nomad also sell unlimited by duration, verified: Airalo at $11.50 for three days, $17 for five, $27 for a week, $34.50 for ten days, $48 for 15 and $69 for 30; Nomad at $11 for three days, $25 for a week, $41 for 14 days and $49 for 21.

Note that at roughly $12 the airport SIM is not being undercut dramatically here. An eSIM saves you the queue and the passport scan more than it saves you money.

Nobody will tell you which network you get

Airalo, Saily, Nomad and Holafly publish no host network for Japan, so we hold nothing on which carrier their plans use — eSIMCard is the one exception, naming KDDI, NTT Docomo and SoftBank on its own Japan page — the NTT Docomo and SoftBank pairing this page used to attribute to Holafly's listing came from our own data rather than from Holafly. eSIM Go's listing names SoftBank, which is the seller's unverified claim and one we have not confirmed. Japan is a market where wrong carrier claims circulate widely, so treat any confident statement about it, including on other sites, with suspicion.

Buying physically is the only way to know. A Docomo SIM from a Docomo counter is unambiguously on Docomo, which is worth something if you are heading into rural Hokkaido or the mountains rather than between cities.

What we would do

Buy an eSIM before you fly if your phone supports one. If it does not, use an airport counter — $12 and a short queue at Haneda or Kansai is fine, and the 24-hour vending machines cover late landings. If you are already in a city and SIM-less, go to Bic Camera at Yurakucho or Akihabara rather than a carrier store. Either way, install LINE, because no tourist SIM in Japan gives you a number to call from.

More on the market at our Japan hub.