Cost of the iPhone 3G in Rural Japan
10 comments
After a month of sharing a phone, my girlfriend and I decided to be grown-ups and buy her a phone.
A lot of other ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in the area have the iPhone because of its low price in Japan where it’s not very popular. I originally passed on it in July, but we decided to go with it this time for the internet access, GPS for the car, and, let’s admit – cool factor
We brought along my seventy-five year Japanese friend who runs my English club for translation help. After two hours of negotiation and a weeks wait, she had the phone.
One of the most difficult things about finances in Japan is letting little details go. I wasn’t 100% sure on the exact pricing for the phone, but we went with it anyway. This is something that wouldn’t have flown in America, but working with a translator who speaks broken English tests your patience after a while.
Below is the final pricing for the phone. She got the 3G, not the newer 3GS that recently came out. She also ordered the 8GB model instead of the 16GB, so this is the cheapest and most simple version of the phone you can get.
Costs are based on the USD – YEN conversion of $1 = 90.51 yen
Cost of phone: 0 yen as part of the “iPhone for Everybody” campaign in Japan
By comparison, the 16GB, 3GS costs 480 yen ($5.29) a month for 24 months, or 11,520 yen total ($126.94). The 32 GB, 3GS costs 960 yen ($10.58) a month, or 20,340 yen total ($253.88).
Calling plan: 980 yen ($10.80) / month
She’s signed up for the ‘white plan’ which gets free texts 24 hours a day and free calls from 1 A.M. – 9 P.M to other people on the ‘white plan’. 95% of the native English speakers in the area are on this plan so her bill should never be much more than 980 yen a month.
S! Basic Pack: 315 yen ($3.47) / month
Japanese phones have this function called S! mail which is a fancy version of texting that allows you to send much larger files. I enjoy it because you can send texts over 140 characters.
Internet: 1,029 – 4,410 yen ($11.34 – $48.59) / month
Luckily, I managed to get the wireless hooked up in our apartment which means whenever the phone is used at the apartment, the internet is free. For this reason, I don’t see this amount being very high every month. We’ll probably use the 3G significantly more once we get our car and start using the GPS.
One of the details I was foggy on was how much internet usage caused the cost to go up. They refer to internet usage amounts as “packets used” and I have no idea how much a ‘packet’ is. Oh, well. I guess I should learn Japanese if I want to find out these details.
Startup fee: 2,835 yen ($31.24) one time only
There was also a special 5,000 yen back promotion going on when she bought the phone. The savings are inserted into the monthly payments, which I much prefer over a gift card or money back on the spot. Payments during months 3-7 will be about 1,000 yen lower than normal.
Monthly Payments
Here is how the actual payments will look. This is my Paint representation of the chicken scratch model the worker drew out for me.
Month 1 will be an increased payment because of the 2,835 startup fee. Depending on internet usage, the price will be a minimum of 5,159. Month 2 will drop down to the average 2,324 yen for the S!mail, internet, and calling plan. Months 3-7 is where the 5,000 yen savings kick in, which will lower the price to 1,344 yen a month. It’ll finally even out at month 8 and get back to the minimum of 2,324 yen payment.
The Dirty Fine Print
There are two tiny details. One, we had to sign a two-year contract and an early cancelation costs 9,975 yen ($110.20). I have no idea how long we’re going to be here, but I can see that this fine print burns a lot of people when they go to leave the country. It’s a significant amount of money and almost impossible to find at the store with a translator. I only stumbled upon this information after using Google to translate their website to English.
So Far, So Good
Overall, I’m more than happy with the purchase. The first few days of playing around with it were definitely the “this is the crazy sci-fi technology we’ve dreamed of” moments. It’s also been a great second laptop for us and a solid source of entertainment. The price seems more than reasonable for a phone of its caliber, and I’m hopeful that once we start using GPS that the price won’t rise too much. I’m excited to explore the phone’s apps and functions over the next couple of months.
And I’m excited to break my pop-a-shot basketball record of 86.
I’d love to hear how your iPhone costs match up. If you feel obliged, please include your details in the comments below.
————————————————————————————————————————————
Photo by Johan Larsson
Subscribe 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get email updates
Hi, I'm Austin Morgan. I live in Japan, teach English, and write about personal finance. I hope you enjoy FF and feel free to 
Congrats on getting a phone! About time, haha.
Just a heads up your “Be Your Own Part-time Boss” post on mVd was included in “The Katana” weekly round up on my site. Have a look and hope you’re bundling up for a cold winter!
Sam
[Reply]
Austin Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Hey Sam –
Thanks a ton for the mention at F.S. I’ll get to Twittering my followers a link to your blog.
It was high 60s today so we have some time before winter comes and takes over!
[Reply]
iPhone not popular in Japan? Really? I have four coworkers at my school with iPhones. I see people with them all over my slightly inaka town. Heck, when I went to go get an iPhone GS I had to wait several weeks because they were in short supply.
Last I had heard the iPhone was one of (if not the) most popular phone on the market here in Japan. You can already see its influence in new model phones coming out over here.
(And yes, I do hate regular Japanese phones. They’re horrible.)
[Reply]
Austin Reply:
November 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I found these articles which kind of back up my argument.
This Wired article breaks down exactly what the Japanese don’t like about the iPhone: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/05/iphone-3gs-ranked-1-in-cellphone-sales-in-japan-for-now/
And this blog recently shows how the 3GS was the #1 phone, but it may not last: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/05/iphone-3gs-ranked-1-in-cellphone-sales-in-japan-for-now/
I guess we’ll have to see it a year or so if the numbers hold up.
[Reply]
I think it would be safer to say that the iPhone isn’t as popular in Japan as it was expected to be, especially given how most Japanese have sacked Sony Walkmans and have really fallen in love with the iPod. One of the things that hurt the iPhone right out of the gate in Japan (and yeah, most people outside of Japan think it’s silly) was the lack of emoji (emoticons) for texting. Yeah, the application came out soon after and they’re now standard with iPhones, but that was a marketing failure that any Western company would have made.
As far as the cancellation fees go, they’ve always been pretty up-front about that with me at Softbank.
And, remember, the 3Gs 16GB is at that low, discounted price while the 2-year contract is honored. If you break the contract, you’ll be billed something like 2700 yen per month for the phone for the remaining months. Actually, Softbank does this with most of their recent-model phones.
Anyway, congrats on the purchase, and enjoy!
[Reply]
Austin Reply:
November 14th, 2009 at 12:15 am
At first I was surprised about their fascination with emoticons, but after being here four months and seeing how much they enjoy cute things I’m no longer suprised.
Thanks for the comment and sweet blog name, man.
[Reply]
yo, it’s not only the white plan users that get free texting/calls ~ it’s any softbank user.
viewing PC websites on your keitai (and iPhone i assume) eat up packets like stupid crazy. however, websites that are made specifically for mobile viewing are not bad at all.
[Reply]
Austin Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for tip. Excited to head home for break?
[Reply]