🇯🇵 Japan eSIM

Before you go

• Coverage is excellent nationwide, including the Shinkansen and most metro systems. The tunnels on the mountain lines are the main exception, and they're short.
• Japan's networks are dense but its buildings are not always friendly to signal, and deep basement floors of department stores and older concrete hotels can be weak spots.
• You'll use more data than you expect. Translation apps, transit routing and maps run more or less constantly, and Japanese transit routing is genuinely worth the data.
• These are data-only plans. They don't come with a local phone number, and they don't carry calls or texts, so keep your normal SIM switched on for those and let the eSIM handle data.
• The plan starts when it first connects to a network at your destination, not when you buy it. Buy it weeks ahead if you like; the clock starts when you land.
• Install it before you fly, over your home Wi-Fi. Installing needs an internet connection, which is the one thing you won't have at the airport.
• Don't delete an eSIM to make room for another one. An activation code only works once, and your phone can hold several profiles side by side.

Japan eSIM questions

Does it work on the Shinkansen?

Yes, along almost the whole route. You'll drop briefly in the longer tunnels, particularly on the Tokyo–Kanazawa and the Hokkaido stretches.

Will my phone work in Japan at all?

Any phone that supports eSIM will work on Japanese networks. The old warnings about incompatible Japanese frequency bands applied to much older handsets and no longer apply to modern eSIM-capable phones.

How much data for two weeks in Japan?

10 GB is the common choice. Translation and transit apps are heavy users, so 5 GB can be tight if you're moving between cities daily.

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