Cell Phones in Japan

In accordance with Japanese culture, I went out and got myself a cell phone in Japan a little while ago with Japan's Docomo carrier. With a student discount, I got a $70 cell phone, plus memory card, Lithium Ion battery and charger for practically free. The phone comes equipped with a 2 mega pixel camera, color screen (with a flip and reversible screen), mini flash (white LED), internet and a crap load of functions.


Front side

Back side (with camera)

Cell phone open

Reversed screen

One function I'm particularly fond of is their phone book where I can store phone numbers, e-mail and a *picture* of the person so I don't forget who that person is (also the picture of that person flashes on to my screen when they call my cell which is a pretty nice touch). In comparison to Canada, cell phones are *incredibly* cheap. The cell phone I was using before comming out to Japan, no camera and limited functions (though small) ran $150.

One thing I realized about using a cell phone in Japan is that it can get pretty damn expensive. I'm on a 60 minute plan/month for about 4,000 yen/mo. That's about a $50 subscription. In Canada I could pay the same amount, get 500 minutes from this Telus plan. For avid users in Japan, that cost can go up to $100/month, easy.

The nice side of things of my plan is that I can be anywhere in Japan and use my cell phone and pay the same rate, where as using my cell in Canada to call long distance within the country will cost me 25 cents/minute. It's bit of a give and take.

But here's the backward part though, people use e-mail on their cell phones like crazy (Japan's got the blackberry beat since a long, long time ago). Even with my cell phone, I have an e-mail address that I can send and revieve e-mail. I am still working on getting used to typing on the cell phone, slowly getting there. With that said cell phone e-mail in Japan is a primary mode of comminication for many youths in Japan.

According to some students I've talked to, arranging say like a get together starts off as an e-mail to friends, people that are interested might get called or get further e-mails to confirm details. All of this is done with minimal cell phone calling.

In Canada, I usually tend to either arrange get together just by calling people straight up from my phone (land line or cell). Well, that's atleast how it works with my friends. Sometimes a get together can happen within 30 minutes with 7 people, other times I'm calling around to set something up for next week. Yes, I do use e-mail sometimes too but some friends have a nasty habit of not checking and not getting back to me.

The reason why people in Japan prefer to use e-mail is that they worry if they're interrupting something if they call their friends during the day. So far from what I have observed from my experiences in Japan is that people hardly use voice mail. When I'm in a situation where I can't take calls, I shut the cell off or leave it in silent mode, easy as that... but you know, it's a cultural thing :).