eSIM for Japan
eSIM prices read on September 8, 2026.
Most trips want a fixed-data plan, not unlimited. Two weeks of maps, messages and some video comes to about 11.9 GB, the cheapest plan that covers it runs $23, and the same two weeks bought as unlimited costs $41. The calculator works it out on your own dates.
The plan that fits your trip, priced on your dates
A 20 GB plan, from $23 each
You'll use about 11.9 GB over 14 days, or 850 MB a day. For 2 travelers, that comes to $46. The same trip on unlimited would cost $41 each, or $18 more. See when unlimited does win.
You install the eSIM at home and switch it on when you land, and two things have to be true before you buy: your phone has to support eSIM, and it must not be locked to a carrier.
See the comparisonThis is an order of magnitude. Take the plan above if you're hesitating.
Five eSIMs, out of the nine we looked at
Each row shows that seller's cheapest plan covering both your volume and your dates, recomputed every time you change a setting. The table reorders itself, cheapest first.
| Seller | The plan that covers you | Its unlimited | Japanese network | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nomad | $2320 GB, 30 dayson sale, normally $26 | $4114 days | Solid in citiesthinner in the mountains | Open |
| Ubigi | $3225 GB, 30 days$28.80 through our link | $3915 days$35.10 through our link | Good everywherethe only one that holds up off the beaten track | Open |
| Airalo | $2420 GB, 15 days | $4815 days | Solid in citiesthinner in the mountains | Open |
| Saily | $24.9920 GB, 30 days$21.24 through our link | $48.9915 days$41.64 through our link | Solid in citiesthinner in the mountains | Open |
| Yesim | $29.7620 GB, 30 days | $41.4714 days | Solid in citiesthinner in the mountains | Open |
How these five were picked
The cheapest ones that genuinely allow tethering, and all five do. Holafly is out: it's the priciest of the nine and caps tethering at 1 GB a day, and Saily gets in on price with one catch, an unlimited that drops to 1 Mbps past 5 GB in a day.
What a dollar price means, seller by seller
Read on their own pages on September 8, 2026, and the three of them do it three different ways.
Airalo and Saily publish a real dollar catalog, and you can tell because the ratio between their dollar and euro prices shifts from one plan to the next instead of holding steady. Ubigi charges the same number in dollars as in euros: $16.50 where a European pays €16.50, which is close to 14 percent less once you convert. That's a pricing choice and not a display bug, since the same page in pounds returns £13.50. Yesim goes the other way and multiplies its euro price by exactly 1.20 across all thirty-five plans, when the market rate sits near 1.17. Yesim's dollar buyer pays about 2.5 percent extra. That alone is reason to weigh the other four first.
A Japanese phone number
None of the five gives you one. Messaging apps cover reaching people. It only matters if you have to leave a local number someone can call, for a restaurant booking say, and that means going through a Japanese carrier, more expensive and booked before you fly.
Which Japanese network you're actually on
None of these sellers owns a single antenna. They all rent from the three Japanese carriers, and that choice decides your coverage. Docomo (Ubigi) climbs highest into the valleys and holds on the islands. KDDI (Ubigi, Nomad, Airalo, Yesim, Saily) covers cities and their edges very well, and Yesim is the only one of the five renting nothing else. SoftBank (Nomad, Airalo, Saily) is fastest downtown and fades soonest deep in the countryside. In Tokyo or Kyoto all three work everywhere and the question doesn't arise.
The Tanuki discount, and the sale that isn't ours
The second price on the Ubigi and Saily rows is a discount that belongs to us, negotiated with them: 10 percent at Ubigi on a first order, 15 percent at Saily. It applies at the button, no code to type. It never enters the ranking, which compares list prices, because a seller shouldn't gain a place on an advantage the others were never asked to offer.
A row marked on sale is different. That's the seller's own promotion, it's what you pay today, and it does count in the ranking, with the normal price next to it.
What a day of sightseeing actually uses
Rough daily figures, hotel and public wifi excluded.
These cross what the app publishers state against average French consumption measured by Arcep, 17 GB a month per subscriber. The 250 MB floor is our own estimate, and we have not found a public source that measures what a tourist actually uses in a day in Japan, so treat that number as a starting point rather than as a reading. What is solid: GPS costs almost nothing. Satellite positioning is free, only map tiles and live traffic use data, a handful of megabytes an hour. A full day walking around stays under 80 MB.
The gap to unlimited
It runs from almost nothing to four times the price, which is why this page won't decide for you.
Two weeks can mean 3 GB or 19 GB, depending on whether you check maps or watch video on the subway. The price follows. On light use the fixed plan costs four times less than unlimited. On heavy use over a single week the gap nearly closes.
Run the whole grid, every length up to a month and every usage the calculator covers, and unlimited never wins, because the cheapest 50 GB plan on the board absorbs even the heaviest need the calculator can produce.
One case escapes that arithmetic, and it's real: downloading films, gaming online, working on video calls all day. That leaves the few gigabytes a normal trip uses. Unlimited becomes the right buy again, and if that's your trip you already know it, so the calculator above isn't built for you.
Will my phone work
Almost every recent phone takes an eSIM
If you bought your phone in the US or Europe in the last few years, it's compatible. This section is for everyone else.
What blocks you is almost never the age of the handset. It's where it was sold. The same model, same name, same part number, doesn't carry the same components from one market to the next. An iPhone bought in mainland China has no eSIM chip at all, because Apple ships dual-physical-SIM handsets to that market instead, and Hong Kong and Macau follow the same logic give or take a few models. Samsung decides model by model and market by market, so a high-end Galaxy can lack it while its European twin has it.
Two situations are worth the check: a phone brought back from a trip to Asia, and a second-hand handset whose origin you don't know. Add entry-level Android, where the chip costs too much to fit into the bill of materials, and anything sold before 2018, which never carried the hardware at all. The check below takes thirty seconds.
iPhone
- Settings, then General
- About
- Look for "Digital SIM" or "eSIM" near the bottom
- If the line is there, you're set. iPhone XS and newer.
Android
- Settings, then Connections or Network
- SIM manager
- Look for "Add eSIM"
- Missing? Dial *#06#: an EID on screen means compatible.
Pocket wifi, and when it beats an eSIM
A battery-powered box that picks up the Japanese network and rebroadcasts it as private wifi. You rent it by the day. Collect it at the airport, hand it back before your flight home.
When it wins
| Renter | 15 days | 31 days | Data | Japanese network | In practice | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja WiFi | ¥11,550 (about $73) | ¥23,870 (about $152) | 3 GB a day45 GB over fifteen days | SoftBanksolid in cities, thinner in the mountains | The most pickup points, and lockers when the counters are closed | Open |
| Japan Wireless | $96.10 | $152.38 | unlimited | SoftBanksolid in cities, thinner in the mountains | Eight to ten hours of battery, eight devices, power bank included | Open |
| Sakura Mobile | ¥10,980 (about $70) | ¥17,060 (about $109) | unlimited | Docomothe only one of the three that holds up off the beaten track | Five airports, post offices or delivery to your hotel, returned in any postbox | Open |
Pocket wifi prices read on September 9, 2026.
What the headline rate really buys
The cheapest renter's headline rate, Ninja WiFi at ¥440 (about $3) a day, buys 1 GB a day for the whole group, which split four ways is 250 MB each, the floor for one day of sightseeing and nothing more. The tier that actually holds a group starts at 3 GB a day, ¥770 (about $5) a day.
What to do today
- Size your plan on your own dates, above. Two minutes, and it saves you from buying unlimited for nothing.
- Check eSIM support on your phone, especially if you bought it outside the US or Europe.
- Ask your carrier to lift the SIM lock if your phone still has one. This is the only step that takes days.
- Buy the eSIM a few days before you fly. Install it calmly at home and only switch it on when you land.
Some links on this page are affiliate links: an order placed after a click can earn us a commission, at no change to your price. Prices were read on the sellers' own pages in dollars on September 8, 2026, not converted from euros. Ninja WiFi and Sakura Mobile bill in yen, and Sakura states it charges in yen only, so their figures are read in yen and converted at the site's reference rate. Japan Wireless bills in the currency you pick, and its dollars are read as they stand, service fee included. Its dollar and euro prices sit at a constant 1.1634 across two very different rental lengths, so that is a conversion, made at a rate about half a percent above the market.