Rental Mobile Phone

It's convenient for us to use mobile phone when traveling, not only daily life. The more you use mobile, the more active you travel because it is efficient for travelers such as booking for tours, restaurants, and accommodations. (Mar, 2008)


Your Mobile Activated in Japan?
It is mostly impossible for you to use your mobile phone brought from your home country (because Japan doesn't have the network system of GSM, known as the most popular mobile network), however; if your mobile has compatibility to W-CDMA or your subscription in your country has loaming-partnership with Japanese mobile phone companies, it can be used as usual.


Method to Use Mobile in Japan

1. Loaming Service
It's possible to use your mobile if your subscription has loaming service in Japan. It's very convenient because you don't need to change your phone number such as when you use for business, however; the rate may become higher than using in your home country. Contact your subscribed mobile phone carriers for more details.

2. Prepaid
It is common to use prepaid mobile phones in Asia and Europe. Japan has prepaid system as well, however; due to the fact that it's been used for crimes in the past, it requires users to show the ID and other verification, which is very complicated. Therefore, foreigners hardly use prepaid mobile phone for short term stay in Japan nowadays.

3. Rental
At present, renting a mobile is the most common way for foreigners to use mobile in Japan. You can reserve a mobile by FAX and Internet before you get to Japan and receive it when arriving at airports in Japan (You might not need to reserve it but it is recommended to reserve for must-use). The basic fee is composed of Rental Charge + Insurance + Call Charge. You may want to pay options such as Email, Delivery Service to hotels, and Internet Access. The payment will mostly charge to your credit card account which you register. 


How to Call
When you make a domestic call from your mobile in Japan, you need to dial the city code number (area code number) and the phone number, for instance, the city code of Tokyo is 03 and Osaka is 06. When you call international call, it depends on the mobile rental companies so you might want to check it when you receive it. They might have a support desk for troubleshooting provided in foreign languages, too.


What can I do with my rental mobile?
Needless to say that you can call and you may want to use Email and access to websites for mobile phone. Functions might change on what you use as rental so you might want to check it before use.