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Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/26 07:01
Hello! I'm having a problem and would appreciate if someone could help me with an answer.

When I lived in Japan a few years ago, I joined an official fanclub for my favorite band. I returned to my country and changed the fanclub address to a friendfs who is still living there, but my softbank phone number is naturally not in service anymore.

Today, the fanclub changed the rules. You canft access your account without receiving a message with a code on your phone. I donft know what to do. My friend canft let me use her number since shefs in the same fanclub and you canft have two accounts with one number. And the fanclub will only accept a Japanese phone number, so can't change it to mine.

I read on the internet something about virtual phone numbers, but donft quite understand. How does it work? Is it possible to have a number that seems from Japan but to receive the messages on your phone/computer?

I'm pretty desperate since without that fanclub account I can't apply for concert tickets, and the tour is coming soon. Thanks in advance!
by Cristina (guest)  

Re: Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/26 15:44
You could get a Skype number - Y2400 for a year with an 050 prefix.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/27 01:35
Receiving sms messages to voip and voip-like services is a common problem however and not always successful. Try the skype route, it's not expensive. But in case that fails, another solution would be for your friend to get you a prepaid phone just for this purpose. A softbank prepaid will end up costing you around 1000 yen/mo plus the cost of the phone. Not the cheapest or easiest but it will definitely work.
by yllwsmrf rate this post as useful

Re: Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/27 01:40
Thank you for the replies!

Yes I also found the Skype option but apparently you need to be a resident of Japan to use it. I'm not sure if they properly check you or not, but I'm a bit scared to say I'm a resident when I'm not.

Also, there isn't only an SMS option for the fanclub, I can also receive a call from a robot which tells me the code.

I'm just not sure it will work. Will they be able to tell what I did? Or those numbers look exactly like a local one?
by Cristina (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/27 10:13
by .. (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Virtual Japanese phone number 2016/8/27 13:04
Re Skype requiring you to be resident - that sounds weird as they promote the service as being to have a number when you are not resident - that's the point. I've used two skype numbers in the past for countries I wasn't in because I needed a local number for a business - and when I got my my most recent one in Japan (which actually didn't do what I needed), I didn't see anything about neededing to be resident in the terms.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

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