Updated September 16, 2026

Phone, internet and banking in your first year in Japan

SIM contracts, fibre internet and bank accounts often ask for a credit history, a Japanese credit card or six months in the country. These guides tell you which options you can get without them.

What do you need? ↓How this is written

6 guides14 sign-ups tracked for new residence cards

Start here

What do you need?

Each guide starts with the options you can sign up for, then compares price.

01 · SIM cards

I need a phone number

Which SIMs need no credit check, and which need a residence card.

02 · Home internet

I need internet at home

Which options need a Japanese credit card, and what is left if you have none.

03 · Banking

I need a bank account

The six-month rule, and who it does not apply to.

04 · Residence card

My residence card is new

Which sign-ups refuse the new card, and what to do instead.

05 · Pocket Wi-Fi

I need a laptop online

Prepaid pocket Wi-Fi with no contract, or a monthly unlimited plan.

06 · Moving in

I just moved in

What has a legal deadline, and what can wait.

What we found

What the Japanese sources say

Each of these comes from a provider's terms or a government directive published in Japanese.

Banking

You may not have to wait six months for a bank account

The rule comes from a Ministry of Finance directive. It treats you as a resident after six months or once you work at an office in Japan, whichever comes first. If you work here, you don't have to wait.

The directive, and what to bring →

Home internet

The cheapest fibre we compared will not take your card

GMO fibre accepts only credit cards issued in Japan and refuses debit cards. GMO’s home router takes credit cards only too. Most people cannot get a Japanese credit card in their first year.

What works instead →

Residence card

New residence cards fail some online sign-ups

Cards issued from 14 June 2026 are second-generation cards, and some online identity checks cannot read them yet. You can still apply another way.

What to select instead →

How this is written

Checked against the source, or it says so.

1 Japanese primary sources Provider terms, ministry directives and city office notices, read in the original Japanese.

2 Unconfirmed figures say so Anything we have not confirmed shows “checking” instead of a number. Each page shows the date it was last reviewed.

3 Commission does not set the order We sort by what you can sign up for, then by verified cost. The internet page lists ahamo, which has no advertising link, because some readers can pay for it when they cannot pay for GMO.

Some links are advertising links, and pages carrying them say so at the top. How we work · What we collect