Getting a cellphone in japan

I think Ill just browse a few shops and play the dumb gaijin bit and see if I get lucky

 

I have proof of my UK address, passport and visa. I got it in the softbank shop at nishinomiya-kitaguchi. She photocopied my passport and I gave them the name and address of the Japanese person's house I was staying at - same as in my passport. Maybe they changed the rules since May. I know two other people that did the same thing.

Either way, I have a SIM and a phone, two phones. I can sell one of the phones, or the SIM and the phone. I won't be going back to Japan for a while...

 

A collection of colonies.

 

as for softbank, the sim have to be charged at least once a year or the whole package inkl. phone goes over the jordan! that at least was what the shop told me, when i opened an account for a friend of mine.
so better hurry up

 

:shrug:
Definitely not.

 

they said that shit, for that kind prepaid account i opened for my friend. else there are some activities during a period of a year (e.g. using the phone) or you have to charge the phone, else the account will be deleted and with it the phone and stuff:shrug:

 

I have to top up my SIM with credit once a year or I lose the number. I am posting it off to Japan for my friend to do this for me next month.

 

Aaah... prepaid. Hm...
I have a friend that uses Softbank prepaid and he didn't mention anything like, but he's in Japan like 5 times a year. I could see some weird type of shut off going on, in order to keep the pool of used numbers down.

 

I'd recommend Chinese or Korean 'stores' that sell unlocked phones (mostly Softbank). There's a whole bunch of them in Tokyo.

 

offtopic : Hey, another portuguese arround the foruns. We should all get together sometime and compare sizes (of neerdiness of course )

On nokia phones, they may be ugly, but they are tought as bricks.So stop trying to take phones aways from the japs, and buy yourself a good ugly european machine.

 

@fisheye
I dont know how many there are, Altough my new account has a join date of 2007 I've been lurkin these boards since circa 2003, but I only spotted about 2 or 3 PT members since.

My last "tough as bricks" Nokia had about 3 official shells, all cracked and ended up detaching from the phone, had to get a replacement battery as the main battery started to swell and nearly exploded, the replacement one started to fail about 6 months, phone shut down whenever I got a call.
Also the pins in the chassis that held the shell/faceplate/batteryplate all broke down and i had to get a replacement chassis.

Then the SIM card slot started failing and one day I got a "memory fuil" error and the phone never booted again...

At least the Symbian UI was great imo

@Perkunas
Any particular shop or are you'd recommend? How do I tell it's a chinese shop? Tokyo is quite a big place you know

 

There is a spanish website that sells unlocked japanese phones. I doubt that they die in one year because fuck, they ARE expensive. xD

 

Go to the parts of town a/ a high concentration of Chinese/Korean people. Not sure where the Chinese parts of town are. For Korean, try Akasaka or Okubo.

It's the SIM, not the phone.

 

so true!

 

But if I got a japanese phone, I'd throw the SIM to the trashbin and I'd get a spanish provider prepaid SIM card, I guess he'd do the same lol.

 

And you (and he) would pay through the nose while using it in Japan. Of course, any other SIM is another story.

 

Actually I would do both, use the prepaid Softbank SIM while on vacation and use my own SIM card when I get back home

 

hey i apologize for bumping a 2 week old thread, but i figured starting a new thread really would not accomplish much.
IM Matt, not many of you know me, i really gotta post more i love the collections forum! im from Canada, and I've been looking into this Japanese cellphone sort of an idea for a while now. I noticed its pretty hard to get ahold of one. i've found one in north america, but it has no AC adaptor, ebay doesn't have anything on it, and the only website that had one was au.kiddi's shop and i said oh well thats helpful lol.
I was curious about these shops they have in japan themself more then anything, lifestyles are alot different. IM very unknowing of japan so thats why I am asking this,

Can you go into any cellphone shop and buy AC adaptors etc?
And would buying an AC adaptor for a phone from 2007 be just as hard as finding a phone without the mess etc that they have to go through now?
i don't wana cause grief with you regular forum members my sincere apologies.

Hope i got my question across,

I just curious on an AC adaptor for a W53H I can't find one
Have a great day all and apologies on my rant,
-Matty

 

I know that with AU, depending on the amount of money you put on it you either get 1 month (1000 yen), 3 months (3000 yen) or 6 months (5000+). If you don't put new money on it after the old expires within 2 months, they shut your phone off.

 

If you are buying a phone, be aware that any subscription based phones that have had the contract cancelled will be a nice paperweight unless you sign up for a new subscription (which you will need to go through all the paperwork and hassle and possibile refusal to sign you up), if the phone is locked to a service then even buying a sim card won't help you (and again you will need to sign up, etc).

If you are buying a pay as you go phone (Au or Softbank), if the service hasn't been recharged for a year then the phone may get cancelled (so even if there is evidence of usage of the phone before then, it doesn't tell you when a card was recharged) so if that has happened then you'll need to sign up for a new pay as you go contract (in which case you might as well buy the phone in Japan...). Also note that any phone that hasn't been legally transfered technically is illegal and a criminal offence.

Although it's a hassle to buy official chargers, it's easier to buy battery based chargers or even USB charge cables (which is what I use, Y105 from a local Y100 shop...), even at the airport you'll be able to buy them for around Y1200 or so.