Renting a Phone in Japan

Hey everyone i'm going to Japan next year and due to roaming charges im not gonna have access to my phone. However i still need a phone in order to call a taxi. I heard that there are quiet a few companies at NRT and i was wondering which is a good company to go with and how do they charge do they charge by call or by day and since im gonna be there for a week i need to figure an estimate of how much it's gonna cost to rent the phone.

http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/comparison.html

one of the most mentioned/reccommended rental phone/sim company.

rental 1 week, start from 8,+++yen.
Example iPhone 4s, 8,+++yen, with 1,000yen credit and unlimited data.
Free pickup/return from airport.

If it's just for calling a taxi, why not use a pay phone? Or have your hotel call for a taxi when you need one?

because its so much easier to have a phone then having to rely on pay phones

I recently rented a phone in Japan from Softbank. You can do this at the airport for them and many other companies and only need your passport and a credit card. It was just for emergencies and text messages so in the end I didn't actually make any calls on it. I tried a few times but I either got no answer or people knew I was on a phone rental and just rejected the call and called me back because it was free for them. When I got the invoice I noticed I was charged for four calls of about 1-3 seconds each. Out of curiosity I checked with the person I called and they sent me photos of their phone history showing the calls in question were 'missed calls' so I shouldn't have been charged. I forwarded this information to Softbank who basically told me to shove it and that there isn't a problem with their records.

For me, this extra cost was only about $5, but for heavier users of their phones when travelling it could be much more. I wasn't charged for every missed or rejected call I made so don't know why these four were special. Because of this issue and their crap customer service, I would not recommend Softbank.

In some countries making call and receiving call you will get charged, even if the calls does not get through.

renting the phone is easy. you can pick them up form the airport or have it delivered to where you are staying, and it's there waiting for you. and put everything in the pouch to mail back when you are leaving. If I remember right, they can also ship it to you in your home country at an extra charge, if you need it right when you get there.

However i still need a phone in order to call a taxi.

Depends on your service plan, but if you will only use it for emergencies and to call an occasional taxi then it will probably still be cheaper to just use your home phone and pay roaming charges to the odd call.

I heard that there are quiet a few companies at NRT and i was wondering which is a good company to go with and how do they charge do they charge by call or by day and since im gonna be there for a week i need to figure an estimate of how much it's gonna cost to rent the phone.

Lots of variety at NRT, but they basically charge per day for the rental (100-250 yen/day), plus a fee for outgoing calls (~100 yen per minute). You can find better deals online with companies like globaladvance, pupuru, etc.

@yllwsmrf

yeah i was looking at the different companies at Terminal 2 of NRT since im gonna be taking the Skyliner train to my hotel anyway and so far the one im liking the best is JAL ABC

I always use this company, pre-order phone online then just pick it up and return at the Q-Liner counter at Narita.
Here is a link to G-Call: http://www.g-call.com/e/rental/dom/rental.php