If you plan to stay in Japan for more than one year, it’s probably better for you to install the internet. However, there are over 600 companies and the number of them keeps growing. Therefore, this article shows how to set up the internet in your home.
Before you read this article, make sure who is responsible for the internet in your apartment because the internet is complementary in many apartments or the fee could be included in the rent.
Internet Service in Japan
There are basically two types of internet services in Japan, optic fibers and pocket wifi.
Optic fibers have faster transmission speed while you need installation work and you can only use the internet at home.
On the contrary, with pocket wifi, you can connect internet no matter where you are and no installation work is necessary, but the transmission speed of portable wifi is slower than that of optic fibers.
The flow of setting up the internet
1. Figure out what you want
Since there are hundreds of companies that offer a different plans, it is really important for you to know what you want to prioritize.
These are the main things you should ask yourself.
- Optic fiber or portable wifi?
- How fast internet do you want?
- How much can you pay for the internet a month?
- Do you need English support?
You also should consider the compatibility with your phone carrier because many companies get you a discount if you combine your internet contract with the cell phone carrier.
2. Pick one company
Once you figure out what you want, the next step is to pick one company. Note that companies you can choose differ depending on which area you live in.
Big companies such as NTT, KDDI, and SoftBank cover all over Japan but smaller ones only deal with specific areas. It isn’t that smaller companies offer lower-quality services and they sometimes have good benefits. Keep in mind that each apartment has pros and cons.
3. Make a Contract
After you decide which company to use, you make a contract with them. The basic procedure is to fill out your information, choose a payment method, and pick one date when you can be home either in the whole morning or afternoon for the installation work.
The earliest date you can make a reservation for the installation is normally in 2 weeks.
Although the main flow is the same in most companies, the small details vary depending on the company so be careful.
4. Installation
This process usually takes 1 ~ 2 hours (depending on the building) and all you have to do is just stay home. After this, you will have an internet connection in your home.
5 Most Popular Internet Providers in Japan
There are hundreds of internet companies in Japan, which makes it difficult for even Japanese people to find the right one. Therefore, we picked up the five most popular internet providers for foreigners based on their transmission speed, prices, foreign-friendliness, and compatibility with cell phone careers.
※Transmission speed is compared based on the basic transmission speed because you can speed it up by paying extra money.
From time to time, they also do sales promotions where you can get cash back so check it out when applying.
1.au Hikari
Transmission speed
au HIkari, owned by the biggest electronic company KDDI, offers the fastest internet service in Japan. Although the transmission speed varies depending on areas, Tokyo’s basic speed is 5Gps, which is the fastest in Japan as of today. Even in a rural area, they offer 1Gps internet service, which is probably fast enough for most people.
Price
The three-year plan starts from 5,600 yen per month and the two-year one does from 5,500 yen and the price of them goes down by 100 yen yearly. This plan includes the internet service, a wifi router, set-up fee, and landline telephone. If looking into their website, you will find a plan with only the internet but DO NOT APPLY FOR THIS. The Internet-only plan doesn’t cover the setup fee, which is 37,500 yen, raising a monthly bill of about 6,000 (with a three-year plan).
Foreign-friendliness
au Hikari welcomes foreign customers by providing an English web-page and foreign language service stores across Japan. However, keep in mind a technician who comes to your home when setting up the internet line is less likely to be able to speak English.
Compatibility with cell phone careers
Since au Hikari’s parent company KDDI is a cell phone career called “au”, they will give you a discount if you have an au phone. At this moment (it might change), you can get a 1,000 yen discount per phone every month, 12,000 yen a year.
Therefore, if you have an au phone, you should absolutely take advantage of this.
docomo Hikari
Transmission speed
docomo Hikari, owned by the biggest telephone company NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) offers 1Gps internet service. docomo Hikari covers all over Japan and provides a stable internet connection
Price
The two-year plan for apartments starts from 4,000 yen and one for homes does from 5,200 yen.
Foreign-friendliness
docomo Hikari also has an English web-page and deals with foreigners.
Compatibility with cell phone careers
Since docomo Hikari’s parent company NTT also provides a cell phone career service called “docomo”, they will give you a discount if you have a docomo phone. At this moment (it might change), you can get a 1,000 yen discount per phone every month, 12,000 yen a year.
Softbank Hikari
Transmission speed
SoftBank Hikari offers 1Gps internet service and is run by SoftBank group; one of three major internet carriers in Japan and the parent company of American 4th biggest cell phone carrier company Sprint.
The main service is pretty much the same as the docomo Hikari but what makes them special is that they will give you rental wifi until the internet line is set up in your home for free. It usually takes a month to set up the internet after the application so this
Price
The two-year plan for apartments starts from 3,800 yen and one for homes does from 5200yen.
Foreign-friendliness
Softbank Hikari also has an English web-pageand deals with foreigners
Compatibility with cell phone careers
Since SoftBank is one of the major cell phone carriers in Japan, you will get a discount if you have a SoftBank phone.
Nuro Hikari
Transmission speed
Unlike the other three companies, Nuro Hikari is not owned by cell phone carrier companies but Sony. They installed a different type of optic fiber, enabling us to connect to up-to 2Gps high-speed internet. This company provides the second fastest internet connection in Japan.
Price
The two-year plan for apartments starts from 5200 yen and the set-up fee is included like other ones.
Foreign-friendliness
Nuro Hikari doesn’t have an English service so check this “provider-hikaku net“.
Compatibility with cell phone careers
Since SoftBank and Nuro Hikari are tied-up, a discount will be given to you if you a SoftBank phone user.
WiMAX (pocket WiFi)
Transmission Speed
WiMAX is short for “Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access” and is a type of signal. Many companies use this signal and offer mobile wifi services. The maximum connection speed hits 1.2 Gps, but this type of signal is that it doesn’t go through walls smoothly, resulting in a slow connection especially underground or inside of huge buildings.
Despite its speed, the pros for WIMAX is that you can bring it to wherever you go so you can connect your phone to the internet not only from home but from anywhere, which implies you don’t need a large capacity expensive data plan for your phone
Price
WiMAX’s unlimited data plan varies depending on the company but usually costs approximately 4,000 yen per month. However, with mobile wifi, your cell phone contract can be a very cheap one, which has super limited data capacity.
Foreign-friendliness
If you use Asahi Net as a provider, they have an English service. Asahi also does a normal internet service.
Compatibility with cell phone careers
Some companies such as UQ or au offer a discount if you have their phone. However, mobile wifi allows you to have a minimum data plan contract for your phone, which is around 1,000 yen a month, thus you don’t need to worry about it.
5 Internet Companies in Japan
The Internet market in Japan is so huge and complicated that choosing the right one is not easy at all. Five options I introduced in this article are the most popular companies and four of them have English support.
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