Job Discussion Forums

[hentaigaijin]

i am in thailand right now but planning to head for japan next month. i am thinking of buying a phone before i leave but would it be better to get one in japan? are phones expensive in japan?

i was looking at Sony Erikkson W810i which is about 165 GBP here.

[BigPoppa]

The GSM phones used in most of the world don't work in Japan.

[hentaigaijin]

the model i am referring to won't work there then?

[hentaigaijin]

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pip1&pid=10653&zone=pp

this one is 3G. would this one be better or should i just stick to getting a japanese phone (i will only be in japan for 6 months though)?

i know naff all about phones but from what i have read on the subject (read but not really understood) having a foreign phone in japan is rare.

i really want an mp3 player/ camera/ phone but don't want to have to carry too much. the ipod shuffle (2nd gen.) is compact but they reckon the sound quality is cack.

[Willy_In_Japan]

It is not a good idea to buy any phone outside of Japan and try to get it to work with Japanese mobile companies.

Japan is a very closed market. They dont do GSM really, and if they do, it is only so their phones can work outside of Japan.

If you want a good phone that does MP3, camera, email etc, I recommend the Sony Ericsson W42

http://www.blavish.com/sony-ericsson-w42s-music-phone/

I own it and like it a lot, but it only does Attrac songs.......but you can convert Mp3s to Attrac with a utility.

[Serendipity]

A warning to those thinking of buying a phone outside of a contract in Japan.

True, most multiband Nokia phones and the like will work with Softbank and Docomo sim cards (not AU) but there is hidden catch.

I bought a Nokia E61 the other day (a work of ark) and signed up with softbank (a sim card only contract. Docomo also provide a similar service). Popped the card in and... worked a treat. No problems. Cool phone, cheap bills and everyone loves me.

Hey, what's my email address? This is where it gets messy. The sim cards for these kind of contracts are NOT programmed with the necessary push MMS mail settings (in English: the phone doesn't know how to connect to the Softbank email server). So, no email. Pants.

On top of this, Softbank or Nokia won't tell me these magic settings (it's PAINFULLY easy for even the simplest of people to enter them into the phone - 10 seconds at most. Punishment for not buying "their" phone?).

There are sites on the internet that purport to know these settings, but thus far, none have worked.

Moral: unless you want to spend a LOT of money paying for packets as you check your POP "Hotmail" email via the built in email client (without realising, I spent 10,000 yen in 3 days just checking txt messages) think good and hard.

Yes, the Japanese phone market is a totalitarian, rigged game, but for the sake of email, I should have reasearched a little harder. Sim cards "working" in "non-standard" phones is not a clear a statement as I was lead to believe.

Gonna keep my phone though, because it rocks. Just hope some bright spark works out the settings one day.

[hentaigaijin]

the w880i looks wicked though. it supports the following networks:

GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, UMTS 2100.

my question is, will it or won't it roam, and also, could i put a japanese sim in it (i will be careful not to spend 10,000 yen on e-mails).

[Serendipity]

Don't see why it shouldn't roam, but I'm not the most reliable person to ask )

There are some very cool phones out there, for sure. I'm smitten with mine, even without the mail.

For reference to all out there, POPing my internet mail account takes around 90k which equals 11520 packets. 1 packet costs 0.2 yen (softbank, white plan) = 2,304 yen to check your email. Ouch.

Mental note: check stuff more before buying stuff

[hentaigaijin]

got this back from the phone manufacturers.


Thank you for contacting the Sony Ericsson Call Centre.

With regards to your enquiry, please see link below to a website that shows the coverage supported when in Japan, this will also provide you with the partners that are supported also:-

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_jp.shtml.

It would appear that only 3g is supported by the Japanese networks.

Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again for further help and support.

this was my reply. i will have to wait and see what they send back.

I do not really understand any of the technical jargon but I am trying to decide whether or not to purchase the W880, seeing as how I will be moving to Japan next month for a period of 6 months (and then back to the UK). I would be purchasing the telephone in Thailand.

Since the W880i is a 3G phone, it should work in Japan too, shouldn't it.

Would I be able to buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Japan that would work with the phone or not? If I used a pay-as-you-go SIM card from England or Thailand, would it allow me to receive calls in Japan and if so would the cost implications be?

anybody else?

[littleturtle]

Getting ANY phone from overseas to work in Japan is a hassle, nightmare and a headache.

Simple solution, GET A JAPANESE PHONE.

They are free when you sign a contract.. they also function as crappy cameras, crappy mp3 players, and crappy televisions. Yes, television. Receiving TV is free.

THen you get a japanese phone with both roman and japanese character sets, it actually works out of the box on the network, and if you get softbank, it will patch into the worldwide SMS networks. (sending international sms costs are ridiculously high - around 100 yen each).

If its that important to you to get the phone you want in thailand, buy it there, but dont expect to use it until you get back to your home country.


Trying to use a foreign phone on the japanese networks is like drinking a swimming pool through a straw. It might work, it probably wont, but if you do get it to work, its going to take a long time, be a lot of effort, and not taste too good anyway.


Worth noting is, contracts here are not lock-in. Back home, you would be expected to pay out the remaining 12 months or whatever if you break the contract - not so here. You will probably pay less than 10,000 yen in breaking fee, and then only the charges you have already incurred. Its no big deal.

[JimDunlop2]