Radio equipment used in Japan must meet the technical standards in Chapter 3 of the Radio Act, shown by a technical conformity mark on the device. A phone bought abroad has no such mark. Visitors are exempt anyway, and the Wi-Fi exemption comes with a deadline.
Why visitors are exempt
To let tourists use their own equipment, Japan permits devices without the technical conformity mark when they meet certain conditions, principally that they comply with international standards equivalent to the Japanese ones.
The rule’s stated purpose is to prevent interference in the use of radio waves. It is spectrum regulation and has nothing to do with customs.
Phones
A mobile phone or broadband wireless access device qualifies when it meets standards equivalent to Japan’s and either:
- it is brought from overseas and used for international roaming, meaning it stays under contract to a foreign carrier that has a roaming agreement with a Japanese carrier, or
- it is used with a SIM card from a Japanese mobile or BWA carrier.
For anything more specific, the ministry’s advice is to contact the mobile or BWA carrier.
Wi-Fi: 90 days
For wireless LAN devices (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the 2.4 GHz, 5.2 GHz, 5.3 GHz, 5.6 GHz and 6 GHz bands) the allowance runs for 90 days after entering Japan.
The device has to be confirmable as meeting IEEE 802.11a/b/n/ac/ax/be standards, which in practice means carrying the Wi-Fi logo. Permitted uses include connecting to a free public wireless LAN access point.
On a normal trip this never matters. It matters on a stay of more than three months, a working sabbatical, or if you leave equipment in Japan between visits.
What to do
Nothing, for a two-week holiday. Your phone is covered by roaming or by a Japanese SIM, and your laptop’s Wi-Fi is covered for 90 days.
Most visitors never choose a route deliberately. Yours depends on how your phone gets signal:
- Home carrier roaming switched on: the first route.
- A Japanese SIM bought on arrival: the second.
- A travel eSIM data plan: the first route as well, because the provider is a foreign carrier holding agreements with local networks, which is the relationship the rule turns on.
If you want data working on landing, a travel eSIM bought before departure puts you on the roaming route from the moment the doors open, with no airport counter.
Ubigi, and the antenna icon
The ministry’s advice to ask the carrier is easier to follow when the carrier has already published the answer. Ubigi names the two Japanese networks it roams on. Its help centre says “In Japan, Ubigi works with two telecom partners: NTT Docomo and KDDI”, and its operator list, read on 1 October 2026, agrees.
Those are Japanese networks, but a Ubigi plan is still the roaming route and not a Japanese SIM. Ubigi is a brand of Transatel, and its own service specification for Japan names Transatel, in France, as the company providing it.
The same help page covers a worry you may have on arrival. On KDDI, “the antenna pictogram might not appear at the top of your screen”, because of protocol differences between the two companies, and Ubigi states that “your internet connection will still work”. If a Ubigi plan in Japan shows no signal icon but pages load, that is expected and needs no fix at the airport.
We have affiliate arrangements with Saily and Ubigi and earn a commission if you buy through our links. Neither is needed to satisfy the rule: leaving your home carrier’s roaming switched on does that too.
A data plan that satisfies the roaming route the rule describes Our full write-up. (affiliate link)
Ubigi names the two Japanese networks it roams on (affiliate link)