Buying a new phone in Japan

I'll move to Tokyo in the first week of October and I'll be staying there for at least a year. I just returned from my trip to Finland where I lost my phone. Before this happened, I was planning to buy a new phone in Japan, but now I'm not sure anymore. So I have 2 questions:

- Do you recommend me to buy a new phone here and make it sim lock free or buy the phone in Japan?
- Is it true that most Japanese have an iPhone? Is there anything else popular as well?

Thanks!

easy one: yes, Japanese have iPhones, but not all like them. 95%+ of the market is apple, I don't know why - maybe they hate Koreans so much that Samsung doesn't sell well (but nor does Sony or HTC or others). You do not need to have an apple product to live in Japan - I don't.

i am a japanese 18. judging from my experience, 45% use iPhone, 45% use Android from microsoft and others. you will not have trouble if iPhone is chosen.

i don't know which is better at the first question. sorry.

I think you can't get a new phone at reasonable price in Japan. you will know that you don't have sufficient financial credit in Japan.

My experience with phone distribution is similar - around half iPhone and half Android.

The other point differs a little bit on what your plan is in Japan.

Typically, phone contracts are for 24 months, but there might be some shorter options if you look them up. Phone plans also will require a credit card (I'm not sure if there are any extra charges on either the phone provider or the banks side if it was an overseas card?) or a Japanese bank account (but to set up your bank account you will need a personal phone number). Otherwise, you can always buy the phone outright. All of the phones which were first sold in Japan after November 2015 (or thereabouts) are sim unlockable, however, some of them can only be used on other networks 6 months after being bought. You'd have to look up the individual handsets to get the details.
*Source: Talking to a few different salespeople when I bought a phone recently.

That all being said, if you are not planning on 24 months I don't think it's really worth the hassle of trying to wait to buy a phone here. You will need a phone number immediately to set up a bank account, bills, etc. Seems like less risk to buy the phone first so you only have to organize the sim when you come, but obviously the final decision is dependent on your finances/what phone you're after/how you want to pay.o

It's impossible to "recommend" you anything without more information about you situation and about what you want.

I would only buy the cellphone in Japan if you intend to stay there for a long time. I think there is no reason to buy a phone in Japan unless you intend on living there. Cellphones are just as expensive in Japan as in other countries.

Generally, cellphones are always attached with contracts and anything with contracts can be difficult to set up if you are coming from overseas because companies are a bit hesitant to make contracts with people who may potentially leave the country at short notice. Also, the cellphones are SIM locked so they can only be used on the Japanese cellphone network and you may have problems unlocking the phone later because not all cellphone companies are willing to do this for customers.

If you have the option, I recommend buying a SIM free phone, then buying a SIM card after you arrive in Japan. You can buy them at large electronics stores such as BIC CAMERA and Yadobashi Camera or order them from Amazon Japan. The advantage to using a SIM free phone is your phone bill will be super cheap compared to contact user. I have a SIM free phone and I pay less than ��2000 a month on my phone bill. Most of my friends pay around ��6000 to ��8000.

Anyway, good luck. I hope that helps.