Cheap contract mobile?

Coming from the UK with my £12 a month contract and its unlimited calls and whatnot, I'm miffed by the 7000-9000 that everywhere seems to want to charge for a smartphone here. Any ideas on getting something cheaper?
I'll likely make few calls to anyone bar my wife, but would like Internet facilities to email, blog, Skype et .
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
J

Several low-cost providers have entered the market, but most of the information is in Japanese only:
http://kakaku.com/keitai/smartphone/lowprice/

Emobile has the Nexus 5 for 2500 per month and Nexus 6 for 3000 yen per month, assuming you buy the device up front (starting from 40,000 yen).

You get a phone number and 5gb of data per month. Telephone talk time is not included, but it is cheap and any talk time is added to your bill automatically.

I'm in a similar situation and am currently looking into umobile. Unlimited LTE data from docomo's network, doesn't require a 2 year contract. Only catch ive found so far is that phone calls aren't cheap, I think it's 40 yen/min but like you, I rarely make phone calls so I don't mind the rates

I'm using my own phone so i haven't researched any phone + sim contracts.

Forgot to list the price. That plan I'm looking at is 3000 / month. They have other tiers as well without unlimited data.

Bmobile also has several low cost (under 3000 yen/mo) bring-your-own-device plans available that will be worth looking into.

I'm interested if anyone has found something cheaper than any of the above , I've just moved here and not too proud to say I miss contact with my best mate like mad!

Just use Skype ?

There are much cheaper plans with less data too. I know Yodobashi has an entire shelf with simcard plans priced from 2gb to 10gbs, so I would check those out.

What's your budget, and needs? Data only prepaid sims are extremely cheap, with some plans as low as 500 yen/mo.

Budget extremely tight, everything seems so expensive here compared to back home dont want to go into my financials on here.
Skype not really convenient for me or my bestie I want to give her surprise calls! DDone some research today and cheaper plans are around so thanks for that. Rob

Skype not really convenient for me or my bestie I want to give her surprise calls!

Why not? You can buy prepaid skype credit that would allow you to place international calls from your computer to her regular phone. It's pretty reasonably priced the last time I checked.

For privacy reasons mate

For privacy reasons mate

Not sure I follow. Or perhaps you aren't aware that Skype can be used in a way that is similar to the regular calling app on your phone.

Bit wary of Skype cos of spam contact requests and phone hearing issues in past which frustrating but might give it another go.