The ¥660 Japan Mobile hack

I recently went through what can only be described as an ordeal to get a phone plan in Japan with Rakuten. I was ready and prepared to go all in with the Rakuten eco-system too: Phone, shopping, banking - the whole 9 yards to accumulate points and use them for many things including paying for my phone bill.

Hating on Rakuten

My first purchase on Rakuten's online shopping platform 'Rakuten Ichiba' was a Tern HSD E-bike that I planned to rig-out with a child seat so I could cycle our daughter to Hoiken (daycare). I made the purchase, and the next day I received an email saying due to fraud protections they have cancelled my order and closed my Rakuten account. 

This is a common issue when using overseas credit cards - I had the same issue with Amazon and that was cleared up pretty easily by filling in their online form and attaching a photo of me holding both the offending credit card and my Zairyu card. They never closed the account though. Rakuten had a form too, but this form didn't have provision to attach photos or any supporting documents or comments - just standard fields such as name, address and contact numbers. I completed this form over a dozen times and it got rejected everytime with my account staying locked. Because I could not log into my account at all, I didn't know exactly how my address was written or which phone number was listed so I tried them all in case their system was automated and really pedantic. 

There's no contact number or call centre for Ichiba either that I could find and Tomomi even wrote a long explanation to them via email and to this day they still refus to reopen my account. 

So to hell with Rakuten. If they are that difficult to work with to resolve a simple matter why would I want to use them for anything let alone everything. I wanted to change my phone provider ASAP as fortunately that was the only Rakuten service I had setup already.

Genius

There are so many options for phone plans when searching online, and when you don't read Japanese at a high level, nor don't trust that translations will do the job properly with intricate things such as contracts then word of mouth is best - people who have been there and done that. 

Whilst searching the r/japanresidents subreddit on Reddit, I found one user 'u/petitelollipop' who shared their plan and it is absolutely genius:

POVO + IIJmio = ¥660 per month for a Japanese phone number and 5gb Data per month.

This is achieved via 2 separate e-sims and can all be done online too! 

¥660 per month is super cheap! Rakuten for example is ¥980 if you use less than 3gb data and to make calls you need to do it through yet another app (the Rakuten Mobile app amazingly can't do it, you need Rakuten Link) Oh and that app like everything Rakuten is riddled with ads like cancer. Horrible.

POVO App

How does it work?

Although both companies offer all a number of plans with all services, the key is to use each for their respective advantages:

IIJmio - setup as a data-only e-sim on a monthly plan. It seems to be the cheapest 5gb data-only e-sim around. 5gb is a good amount as I have found 3gb to be very borderline even under minimal usage and careful setup of background app data access etc. It's also carry-over data so nothing is wasted if you don't use it. AND you can purchase additional data just as one-off's if needed, which is cheaper than POVO aswell.

POVO - is akin to a prepay e-sim. To keep it active you simply need to buy a top-up every 6 months, their cheapest one is like ¥250. The good thing about Povo is it gives you some flexibility - if you want more data or even some phone minutes you can just buy a top-up as needed. There is a list here with prices. Phone minutes for example are a ¥550 per month addition and that gets you unlimited calls so long as those calls last less than 5 minutes. not bad, but not ideal if you are trying to get through to a customer support office and are on hold for a long time...

That's the beauty of Povo, all the add-ons are listed on the app clear as day and super easy and fast to purchase. You can buy amounts of data and minutes that last a certain period of time - you can even buy a chunk of data valid for a year! There's roaming stuff too where you can buy top-ups for specific overseas country so maybe when travelling you don't need to look at another e-sim.

But as I said before, IIJmio is certainly cheaper for buying data popups, it's just less convenient to do as you have to go digging to find the option. 

IIJmio data plan costs

The catch?

The catch is that it's not suitable for everyone. It doesn't include the ability to call people from your number or send old school SMS for example, but then a lot of people, myself included, use apps that use data to call and message these days. Having a number to receive calls and texts (such as 2FA codes) is very important though and something that you probably would struggle without in Japan.

This is for us cheap people who don't want to commit to large monthly costs and just need the bare minimum to function and survive. If you live on data and need to stream TikTok whilst walking down the street or need to make a lot of calls from your number then this is not for you. 

I should also add this is for people living in Japan and is not suitable for holiday makers.

Setting up

Signing up for anything is a bit of an ordeal and these are no exceptions. However, I managed to work my way through both of these on my phone in a single afternoon without any assistance from my Wife - I even managed to sort out the porting of my Rakuten phone number and subsequent cancellation of that plan too. I was quite pleased with myself that day. 

The sign-ups are simply a lot of translating each page and selecting options and completing form fields, along with a bit of translate copy and paste for your name and address in Kana. IIJmio as a data-only e-sim will not need ID verification but POVO, as it is a Japanese phone number, will and you will have to install the app to do it. A tip if I may, when signing up for stuff in Japan, things seem to go a lot smoother when using a Mynumber Card as opposed to just a Zairyu card, because at the time of writing, the new Zairyu cards aren't reading properly so systems can't get the full data needed. 

Here is a link to a guide on setting up POVO.

Here is a link to a guide on setting up IIJmio.

Oh, and unlike many online services in Japan, I am able to use my overseas card to pay for both of these providers which is a big plus!

In Closing

Hopefully this tip is useful for you, either if you are trying to find a new phone provider in Japan for the first time, or looking for ways to cut your costs whilst maintaining some flexibility around your usage.