Mobal vs Sakura Mobile: Which One Should You Actually Get?

If you’re staying in Japan for more than a few weeks, a phone number isn’t optional. You’ll need one to sign a lease, open a bank account, set up payment apps, and get through the SMS verification that half the country’s services demand.

The catch is that the cheap domestic plans want a residence card you won’t have for weeks. That leaves two providers who’ll take a passport: Mobal and Sakura Mobile.

So which one? Here’s the answer first, then the reasoning underneath.

Want the cheapest sensible setup? → Mobal

Cheaper on day one, and the only one with small plans — including a voice-only line at ¥1,430. Over twenty pickup points nationwide, so getting connected after you land is quick wherever you arrive.

Want someone to call when it goes wrong? → Sakura Mobile

Phone support, live chat, and an office in Shinjuku you can walk into. Worth the extra if you’re nervous about setting up an eSIM in a country whose language you don’t read.

Student? Close to a tie — Sakura’s ¥1,100 discount cancels out Mobal’s cheaper start. Choose on support instead.

What both providers have in common

A lot of what gets written about these two is a comparison of things that don’t differ.

Both run on docomo. Same coverage, same speeds, same reception in the countryside and on the shinkansen. Neither is “faster” than the other.

Both need only a passport. No residence card, no Japanese bank account, no credit check, no proof of income.

Both give you a real 070, 080 or 090 number — not a 050 internet number that Japanese services reject.

Both work entirely in English, from signup to billing to cancellation.

And both require you to collect in person. Since April 2026, the identity check for a line with a phone number can’t be completed online with a passport, so neither company can email you an eSIM QR code. You order online, then show your passport at a counter. Two minutes.

So the decision isn’t about network or paperwork. It’s about how much you pay, how much data you actually need, and what happens when you want out.

How much data do you actually need?

Less than you think, and this changes the answer.

Your phone bill is a fixed cost, month after month, and for a long stay that adds up faster than any one-off fee. So it’s worth being honest about what you’ll use.

You’ll have Wi-Fi at home. You’ll have Wi-Fi at school, at the office, at the co-working space, and in most cafés. Mobile data is for commutes and being out — which for most people lands somewhere around 10 to 15GB a month, not 30.

Ask anyone who’s lived here a year. They started big and moved down.

The monthly plans

Data	Mobal	Sakura Mobile
Voice only, no data	¥1,430	—
1GB	¥1,650	—
5GB	¥3,190	¥3,278
10GB	¥3,630	—
15GB	¥3,795	¥3,828
30GB	¥4,378	¥4,378
40GB	—	¥5,478
50GB	¥5,280	—
60–100GB	—	¥7,678–¥12,078

At 30GB they cost exactly the same. If you were comparing the headline tier and couldn’t decide, that’s why.

Under 5GB, only Mobal has anything. Sakura’s smallest plan is 5GB. Mobal goes down to 1GB at ¥1,650, and to a voice-only line at ¥1,430 — a working Japanese number with no data at all. If you’ve decided you’ll use Wi-Fi at home, that’s a perfectly sensible way to live here.

Where they overlap, at 5GB and 15GB, Mobal is cheaper by ¥88 and ¥33. Small, but it’s a fixed cost every month.

And nothing is permanent. Take 30GB for your first month while you’re on maps constantly and running your life off mobile data, then drop to something smaller once you know what you actually use. Both providers let you change plans.

Day one

The fees are labelled differently but the cash out of your pocket is what matters.

	Mobal	Sakura Mobile
Activation fee	¥0	¥5,500
SIM or eSIM	¥4,950 (often ¥4,455 on sale)	¥0
Total on day one	¥4,950 (¥4,455 on sale)	¥5,500

Mobal saves you ¥550, or a little over ¥1,000 during a sale. Not decisive on its own, but it’s the same direction as everything else in the low tiers.

Students: Sakura closes the gap

Sakura takes ¥1,100 off the activation fee for students, bringing day one down to ¥4,400 — slightly under Mobal’s sale price.

It isn’t advertised loudly. There’s an option at step 2 of the application; if you don’t see it, enter the code studentdiscount at the final step.

Mobal has no student discount. So if you’re enrolled somewhere, the day-one argument disappears and you should choose on support and data tier instead.

Where Sakura Mobile is genuinely better

Three places, and it’s worth being straight about them.

Calls and texts are cheaper. Not marginally — texting is six times cheaper.

	Mobal	Sakura Mobile
Domestic calls	¥44/min	¥33/min
Domestic SMS	¥33 each	¥5.5 per 160 characters
Incoming	Free	Free
International calls	¥65/min (0063 prefix)	from ¥33/min (Sakura Dial, 0077-502-010)

If you’ll be ringing landlords, clinics and city offices regularly, this adds up. For most people who use LINE for everything, it won’t.

You can talk to a human. Sakura has phone support, live chat, and an office in Shinjuku you can walk into. Mobal handles support by email and web ticket. If your APN won’t stick at 11pm on your second day in the country, that difference feels bigger than ¥550.

Their support reputation is earned. 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot across more than 1,100 reviews.

Where Mobal is genuinely better

Collecting it is easier. Mobal has over twenty collection points — Narita T1 and T2, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Naha, plus Shibuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo Station, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kanazawa, Hiroshima and more.

Sakura’s network is smaller, and there’s a catch worth knowing: voice plans can’t be collected at every airport they list. They have no counter at Narita Terminal 3 or Kansai Terminal 2, and some locations handle data products only. If you’re landing somewhere other than the main Tokyo airports, check before you order.

Small plans exist. Covered above, but it’s the practical difference for most readers.

It’s cheaper to start. ¥4,950 against ¥5,500.

Mobal gives its profits to charity. Doesn’t affect your signal, but some people like knowing.

Getting out again

Neither has a minimum term or a cancellation fee, and neither prorates your final month. The difference is the deadline.

Sakura runs on the 25th. Submit your termination form through My Page by the 25th and your contract ends that month. Submit on the 26th and it runs to the end of the following month, billed in full. Missing it by one day costs a whole extra month.

Mobal doesn’t publish a fixed cut-off. You select your cancellation month in your account.

There’s also a return: Sakura’s physical voice SIM is a rental item and has to be posted back, at your own postage. Mobal’s doesn’t need returning. eSIMs need nothing returned either way.

Keeping your number after you leave

Both let you hold your number without paying for a full plan — but they do different things, and the cheap one might not do what you want.

Sakura suspension: ¥220 a month. The cheapest way to park a number. Voice+Data customers paying by credit card only, applied for whole calendar months. But service is completely off — no calls, no SMS, no data. You cannot receive verification codes while suspended.

Mobal Vacation Plan: ¥900 a month. Pauses your data while keeping the line.

Mobal Voice-Only: ¥1,430 a month, which supports roaming. Incoming SMS is free while roaming, so your Japanese bank and app codes still reach you overseas. Turning roaming on costs ¥5,995 each time you activate it, which is the part to budget for.

So: if you just want to reserve the number for your return, Sakura’s ¥220 is unbeatable. If you need Japanese verification codes to reach you while you’re abroad, Mobal is the one that does it.

So which one

<div style=”border-left:4px solid #09a4da; background:#f7fbfd; padding:18px 22px; margin:28px 0; line-height:1.9;”> <strong>Get Mobal if:</strong> you want the cheapest sensible setup, you’ll mostly be on Wi-Fi, you want a small plan, you’re landing somewhere other than Narita or Haneda, or you just want the option most people around you are already using.<br><br> <strong>Get Sakura Mobile if:</strong> you want to be able to phone or visit someone when something goes wrong, you make a lot of local calls, or you need more than 50GB a month.<br><br> <strong>If you’re a student:</strong> use the discount code and pick on support. The money is a wash. </div>

Honestly, both are fine. The difference between them is a few hundred yen a month and a support phone number. The difference between having a Japanese number and not having one is the whole reason you’re reading this.

Pick one and get on with your move.

Common questions

Can I bring my existing Japanese number to Mobal? No. Mobal doesn’t accept incoming number transfers. You can port a number out of either provider to a domestic carrier later, though.

How do I pay? Mobal takes international credit and debit cards, and PayPal. Sakura takes international cards, and Smart Pit for paying cash at convenience stores — that route involves a refundable deposit held against your final months.

Can I use tethering? Yes on both, on any plan with data. Not on Mobal’s voice-only tier, since there’s no data to share.

What if I’m under 18? Neither will issue a voice line in a minor’s name. A parent or guardian orders in theirs and collects it in person, since the ID has to match the order.

Which is faster? Neither. Both are docomo.

Can I change plans later? Yes, on both. Start smaller than you think and move up if you need to.