Cell phones in Japan

Just like many other countries Japan has a lot of cell phone providers. Today I want to talk about a couple of them and the difference between them all.

The first on the list is the most popular among Japanese families. The provider Docomo is said to have the best service in Japan. However, they don`t have the iphone and from my experience in the past they are a very conservative Japanese company. They offer really good family plans. But they are a little on the expensive side.

The second cell phone company is AU. I used AU for about three years when I was a Japanese language school student. The only reason I left them was because they did not offer free phone calls to friends like Softbank offers. Au`s service was good but I found it a little expensive for my budget considering I prefer to call people  rather than texting them. Yet, if you do not talk on the phone so often they do offer great student discount plans if you plan on studying in Japan.

The most familiar  company among foreigners in Japan is Softbank. The reason they are very popular is because they were the first Japanese mobile company to offer the iphone when it was released. Their plans are also very cheap starting at 990 a month. They 990 yen a month white plan is very good. You can make free phone calls between 2am-9pm free to any other softbank subscriber. Moreover, they offer tethering on their new iphone 5 models. The only negative thing about Softbank is that their service is not soo great and their getting a contract with them could be a little difficult.

To find out my details check the links below

Docomo
http://www.nttdocomo.com

KDDI AU
http://www.au.kddi.com/english/index.html

Softbank
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/