Updated : Nov 16, 2023
Stores at Narita airport offering prepaid SIM cards/pocket WiFi routers are closed early in the morning and late at night.
There are only a few shops offering them outside of the airport. If you have not reserved before coming to Japan, you will not be able to get a prepaid SIM card easily after leaving the airport.
If you arrive at such time, one of your choices would be purchasing a prepaid SIM card through a vending machine.
Recently, prepaid SIM cards can be purchased through several vending machines at Narita airport, which are available for 24 hours a day.
Prices sold at vending machines are lower than that of shops at the airport.
However, if you want more chaper one, you are better off to go to electronics retail stores such as Yodobashi Camera or Bic Camera outside of the airport.
They sell data only prepaid SIM cards offered by various vendors.
Also, you can buy from Amazonco.jp. They are available for international delivery,so you can receive it before they arrive in Japan.
Recommend Prepaid SIM cards on Amazon.co.jp
Bland | Capacity | Usage days | Price |
GLOBAL WORLD | 6GB | 15 | ¥6,000 |
GLOBAL ASIA | 6GB | 8 | ¥3,500 |
JOURNEY | 50GB | 90 | ¥10,000 |
FAST SPEED | Unlimited | 31 | ¥6,000 |
JOURNEY | 10GB | 20 | ¥4,500 |
JAPAN | Unlimited | 16 | ¥5,500 |
JOURNEY | Unlimited | 8 | ¥4,500 |
JOURNEY | 3GB | 8 | ¥3,000 |
JOURNEY | 1GB | 6 | ¥2,000 |
JOURNEY | Unlimited | 5 | ¥4,000 |
SIM cards sold in vending machines at airports are data-only. Phone calls and SMS are not available.
Data Communication quality tends to be better for plans with clearly stated data capacities, such as 3GB.10GB and 50 GB.
If you want to purchase a large amount of data at a low price, please see this page.
Prices of prepaid SIM cards for travllers to Japan available on Amazon.
Locations (MAP)
Prepaid SIM cards sold through vending machines at airports are very useful for international travellers, it's crucial to ensure that your smartphone is compatible. You only need to check two things to see if it can be used in Japan without problems.
If you find that your's is not compatible with the bands or if you have a slightest concern on it, you are better off renting a pocket WiFi router.
While most smartphones released after 2020 are designed to be compatible with various global frequencies, some may still have limitations.
To be connected with the internet in Japan, 4G or 5G enabled devices are required.
5GBand | Frequency | |
n77/n78 | 3.7GHz | Sub6 |
n79 | 4.5GHz | Sub6 |
n257 | 28GHz | mmW |
Band | Frequency | Area |
Band 1 | 2100 Mh | Most Area |
Band 19 | 800 Mhz | Rural Areas, Mountains, Lakes |
Band 21 | 1500 Mhz | All Cities (incl. Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya) |
Band 3 | 1700 Mhz | Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya |
Check if your smartphone supports the frequencies used in Japan, especially the 4G Band 1 (2100MHz).
You can easily verify this using services like willmyphonework.netI am Momo. I'm Japanese and I work in the telecom industry, so I'm familiar with the telecom situation, services and products in Japan, such as SIM cards and Pocket WiFi, and I'm running this website in the hope that my knowledge will be useful to visitors to Japan.
I translate from Japanese to English using ChatGpt and DeepL because I am not so good at English. so my expressions may be rude or hard to read. if you find any inappropriate expressions, please let me know the correct English expression.