Mobile Phone contract termination

I came to Japan about 7 months ago thinking that I'd be here for at least a year or two. Fast-forward to today and I've decided to go back home in a couple weeks to America. One concern that I have is my mobile phone contract with Softbank.

In the states (obviously, not Japan), I was able to wiggle out of my contract termination charge by proving that I had relocated overseas. I was wondering if anybody was aware of something similar here in Japan where I can at least decrease the massive contract termination fee that I will be facing.

Thanks for your answers!

That depends totally on the contract you've got.

- If you signed up with the "Shin Super Bonus," with some discounts on the usage charges, which allows you to purchase a cellphone for use with no down payment, and you start paying in installments for the phone itself starting with the third month, the minimum contract period is 27 months (you pay in installments over 24 months, or 12 months). If you terminate before 27 months (in case of 24 installments, this means before you complete the payment for the cellphone itself), then you'd have to pay the rest for the cellphone itself, 'cause you've bought it (just started to pay in installments) and have been using it.

- If you just bought the phone upfront, then if you stay on one plan for six months or longer, there should be no charge to terminate.

If you took the installment payments, it was like you took on a loan to pay for the cellphone, so it might be difficult to get out of what the contract says. But there have been instances of consumer complaints where, in one instance, the purchaser after returning home with his new Softbank phone found that his own home was out of range (unusual) so he wanted to cancel his contract, and a few other instances where the purchaser complained about the amount which became due upon termination, where the purchasers have not been informed of the details upon purchase. I

I think it will be a matter of explaining the situation at a shop and see how they react :(

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation! Does anybody else have any tips when it comes to terminating a mobile phone contract?

Hey Dan. I know this post is more than six months old, and you might not even see this message, but I was wondering what happened to you and your contract. Did you end up paying the fees?

I'm in pretty much the same situation right now, and wondering what happened to you (and maybe other customers as well)?

I hope you read this message. Thanks in advance.

Hey Edwin,

The only money I ended up owing Softbank was the money for the phone itself. What I did was, I registered my overseas credit card number with them and continue to pay for the phone each month with that. It comes out to about $12 a month for me which isn't too bad, much better than paying $220 in a lump payment.

Hey guys,

I didn't want to open up a new topic so I thought I'd better be asking it here. I didn't quite understand all the details about canceling the contract but here my situation - I just signed a White Plan contract with Softbank last week, but something happened and I'm extremely unhappy with Softbank right now, and I'm thinking of terminating the contract. It's just been a week, so what fee would I have to pay to terminate the contract? (since I read that the first 2 months don't count?)

Thank you!

Hi Dan! I am currently in the situation you are in and to be honest it is a relief to find an alternative to the insane amount I would have to pay. Anyway, I was just wondering how you terminated the contract after continuing the payments with your credit card. Did you have to come back to Japan for it? Or did you just phone/mailed them?