About a week before the earthquakes hit I posted this message about inexpensive mobile phones. Since then, I bought a SIM-free (unlocked) phone and got service for my daughter through R-Mobile. All in all, we’ve been quite pleased. One problem is that getting things set up can be a little confusing even if you understand Japanese and I haven’t been able to find good support in English. (This is quite ironic in view of Rakuten’s fame for having made English the official company language: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/05/23/editorials/rakuten-forges-ahead-english/) Still, the price is right and I think their contract terms are much better than AU or other major providers for those who don’t plan to be here a full two years. We were also pleased to find that we could use the phone to place calls when traveling outside of Japan. The cost per call is fairly high but if you only need to make a couple of short calls (“Please come and pick me up” etc) it’s fine.
If you have any information about good phone deals, please share them here.
– Kirk