In Japan you have three ways to stay online with your own phone: your home carrier's roaming, a rented pocket Wi‑Fi router, or a travel eSIM. Here is how they differ, which Japanese networks our plans use, and the one setting Japan needs that other countries don't.

Illustration: a traveller with a phone on a quiet street of traditional wooden houses in Japan, in soft evening light.

Your options

  • Your carrier's roaming. Nothing to buy: your own SIM works in Japan if roaming is on. Check what your carrier charges for data in Japan before you go.
  • A pocket Wi‑Fi router. A separate device you rent, carry, keep charged and return at the end. Several phones can share it.
  • A travel eSIM. Bought online and installed before you fly, inside the phone you already carry. Your own SIM stays in for calls and texts: the eSIM is data only.
A comparison of a travel eSIM, a local SIM and roaming: where you buy it, when it works, whether you keep your number, the documents you need and how the price works.
A travel eSIM, a local SIM and roaming, side by side.

Japanese networks on our plans

  • Networks. Depending on the plan, our Japan eSIMs use NTT docomo, KDDI (au), SoftBank or Rakuten Mobile, all with 5G. Some plans can use all four, some KDDI and SoftBank, some NTT docomo alone. Each plan's card lists its own.
  • Where the traffic reaches the internet. In Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan, depending on the plan, so websites see an IP address from there. The plan's card says which.
  • Two kinds of plan. A pack of data for the whole validity, or an allowance for each day. Each plan's card says what speed you get once a day's allowance is used.
  • When the validity starts. For almost every plan, when your phone first connects to a network in Japan, not when you buy or install the eSIM. So you can buy and install it early. Start using it within 180 days of buying it.
  • Running low? Top the same eSIM up in My eSIMs, on plans that take a top-up. Nothing to reinstall.

The APN: the one setting Japan needs

The APN tells the phone how to reach the internet through the network. Abroad an iPhone usually sets it by itself, but in Japan our provider's eSIMs need it set by hand: vmobile.jp. The APN is also shown on your eSIM's card in My eSIMs and in the email with your eSIM.

  • iPhone: Settings › Mobile Service (Cellular) › your travel eSIM › Mobile Data Network, then enter the APN under Mobile Data.
  • Android: some phones need the APN entered by hand too, under the travel eSIM's mobile network settings, in Access Point Names.

Change the APN of the travel eSIM only, never of your own SIM. Apple notes that an iOS update resets an APN you entered, so check it again after updating.

Illustration: a traveller with a phone at the window seat of a high-speed train, a snow-capped mountain outside.

Before you fly, and after you land

  1. Check that your phone supports eSIM, in our list of devices.
  2. Buy a plan and install the eSIM at home, on Wi‑Fi: step-by-step guides for iPhone and Android.
  3. After landing, turn on the eSIM's line, choose it for mobile data, turn on data roaming for it, and set the APN.
  4. Keep data roaming off for your own SIM, so your home carrier doesn't charge you.

If the eSIM still doesn't connect, go through what to check when an eSIM is stuck on “Activating”, then write to us in Telegram.

Visiting Korea or China too?

One eSIM can cover more than one country. Japan–Korea and China–Japan–Korea plans work in each country they name, so you don't switch eSIMs at the border.

Calls and texts

A travel eSIM has no phone number, calls or SMS. Keep your own SIM on for those, with Wi‑Fi calling if your carrier offers it. Messaging apps work over the eSIM's data.