Japan SIM Guide

About

Hi, I'm Michi.

I run Japan SIM Guide from Tokyo. It's a small site with one goal: help foreigners in Japan navigate the country's mobile market without getting overcharged, locked in, or stuck talking to a phone shop in a language they don't speak.

Author

Name
Michi
Based in
Tokyo, Japan
Languages
English, 日本語
Time in Japan
Long enough to have switched carriers more times than I'd like to admit

Section 01

Why this site exists.

The first time I tried to set up a mobile plan in Japan as a foreign resident, I spent about three hours in a docomo shop with a translator app and walked out without a SIM. The plans I was being shown weren't the ones I'd seen online. The English-language information I could find on the internet was either out of date by two years or written by someone who was clearly being paid by one specific carrier to recommend that carrier.

That gap — between what's actually happening in the Japanese mobile market and what English-speaking foreigners can read about it — hasn't really closed since. Prices change. Plans get renamed. New online-only brands appear. Most of the existing English content still recommends what was best in 2019.

This site is my attempt to make a smaller, more honest version of that information. One person writing about what they actually use. Updated when things change.

Section 02

Editorial principles.

These are the rules I hold myself to. They exist because the affiliate-marketing space online is full of sites that don't.

  • I only recommend SIMs I've personally used or tested. If I haven't put it in my own phone or in a friend's phone, I don't recommend it. If I list a carrier I haven't used, I say so.
  • Prices are verified directly from each carrier's website, not copied from older blog posts. Each guide on this site has a "verified" date. When prices change, I update the page or note that the information may be stale.
  • I write what I'd tell a friend, not what makes me the most money. Affiliate commission rates differ wildly between carriers. The carrier paying me the most is not always the carrier I recommend. My picks are based on what actually works.
  • Comparisons are honest, not stacked. If a competitor is better for a specific use case, I say that. If my pick has weaknesses, I list them. Readers can tell when a comparison is rigged, and they should be able to.
  • I don't write fake reviews or stuff articles with keywords. Every guide is meant to be read by a person who needs an answer to a specific question. SEO is a side effect of writing something genuinely useful, not the point.
  • If I get something wrong, I fix it. Email me. Seriously. If you find a price that's outdated, a sign-up step that's changed, or a recommendation that no longer holds, I want to know.

Section 03

How the affiliate part works.

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one of them and sign up for the service, the carrier pays me a small commission. You pay the same price you would have paid going to the carrier directly.

This is how the site stays free and how I justify the time I spend keeping it updated. It's also why I have to be careful about the picks — readers can sense when a "recommendation" is really a paid placement, and I'd rather earn slowly with trust than quickly without it.

Specific things to know:

Commission does not influence my picks. The carrier paying the highest rate on the LINEMO/povo/Rakuten comparison is not LINEMO, but LINEMO is still my recommendation for most readers. I check this every time I update the site.

I disclose at the start, not buried in the footer. The footer of every page says the site uses affiliate links. The TL;DR of each article also makes it clear when a recommendation is one I earn commission on.

If a carrier I don't have an affiliate deal with is genuinely better, I still recommend them. ahamo, for example, doesn't have a well-known affiliate program in the foreigner market, but I still send people to ahamo when they live in rural Japan and need docomo's coverage.

Section 04

What this site is not.

To save us both time: this site is not customer support for any carrier. If your eSIM doesn't activate or your plan changed without warning, contact the carrier — I can't help with that and I don't have a relationship with their support teams.

It's also not a comprehensive review of every mobile product available in Japan. It's a small set of guides for foreigners who want a working phone plan without spending a weekend on it. If you're looking for the cheapest possible MVNO sub-plan optimized for your exact data usage pattern, you're probably better off on a Japanese-language comparison site.

If you're a carrier or service interested in being reviewed: I'm open to it. I'll test what you send me and write what I find. I do not accept payment for positive reviews.

Contact

Get in touch.

Found a mistake. Have a question I haven't answered. Run a carrier and want to be on the list. All of these are good reasons to email.

Email me