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Do Japanese Cellphones have TV Receivers 2014/7/6 10:27
I am currently living as a foreigner in Japan. I noticed a colleague watching a tennis match on his cellphone. I got interested and asked if he was streaming from the Internet. He said he was not and that he did not have a data package for his phone. As I did not know him very well or command a good enough level of Japanese to ask directly I would like to ask if anyone around here knows:

Do Japanese cellphones have TV receivers?

If so, can I buy a second hand phone without contracting a line and be able to watch Japanese local TV on it?

Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable advice.
by simonality  

Re: Do Japanese Cellphones have TV Receivers 2014/7/6 16:06
Do Japanese cellphones have TV receivers?
YES.
cellphone directly receives digital TV signals, so called as one-segment signal. I think iphone may not work.

If so, can I buy a second hand phone without contracting a line and be able to watch Japanese local TV on it?
Possibly YES. you may ask shop staffs.
by ken (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Do Japanese Cellphones have TV Receivers 2014/7/7 07:56
Do Japanese cellphones have TV receivers?
not all Japan cellphone/mobile come with TV receiver.

only phone with TV button definitely able to receive OneSeg TV broadcast, so check the phone model carefully.

If so, can I buy a second hand phone without contracting a line and be able to watch Japanese local TV on it?
You won't be able to access the TV function if there is no SIM card in the phone, especially those 'dumb'phone or galakei as those are lock to phone carrier. Those phone will not function without SIM card in the phone. Smartphone well maybe you can get TV broadcast since you can still access some function via wifi even though there is no SIM card..

generally phone TV/OneSeg, should work without any contract or subcription but the way the phone company operate here is that the phone is lock to certain company and without SIM card the phone function is LOCKed/inoperable.

by not all (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Do Japanese Cellphones have TV Receivers 2014/7/7 08:35
I know from personal experience that you can definitely use a smartphone to view "one-seg" TV broadcasts even without a SIM card (provided of course that the phone has one-seg TV capability in the first place).

Note that you can buy small handheld one-seg TVs for under 5,000 yen these days, so that might be a better option than looking for a second-hand smartphone.
by Bjorn (guest) rate this post as useful

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