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Pocket Wi-Fi rental in Japan: 5 for a week, with the real total
Approximate, at the rate on 2026-10-02. You pay in yen.
- Pocket wifi rental in Japan: five routers, ¥4,873 to ¥9,960 for seven days
- Pick-up differs: airport counters, Akihabara same-day, or delivery only
- Only Japan Wireless promises no throttling, and it answers in English
The five
| Best for | Where to get it | Score | Seven days, total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counters at ten airports, and genuinely uncapped on four networks — if you can’t decide | WiFi Rental Dotcom Get it |
90/100 | ¥5,965 (seven-day rental, total) |
| Same-day pickup in Akihabara, and you keep it until 8am the next day | Wi-Fi Rental Ya-san Get it |
80/100 | ¥5,780 (seven-day rental, total) |
| The cheapest week here, and twenty-odd networks to choose from | NETAGE Get it |
78/100 | ¥4,873 (seven-day rental, total) |
| No shops, no counters, lower prices — WiMAX 5G unlimited | WiFi Rental Honpo Get it |
77/100 | ¥5,710 (seven-day rental, total) |
| The only one that promises not to throttle you — and it answers in English | Japan Wireless Get it |
73/100 | ¥9,960 (seven-day rental, total) |
These are Japanese services. Where a plan needs a Japanese address, a bank account or a residence card, we say so on the row itself.
Counters at ten airports, and genuinely uncapped on four networks
- Longest-running number one in Japanese domestic Wi-Fi rental by users
- Flagship K4 plan has no daily cap
- Returns by courier, airport, postbox, convenience store or collection
Why it made the five
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Collect and return at 18 counters across 10 airports — Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Itami, Komatsu, New Chitose, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Naha
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Connects automatically to whichever of four carriers is strongest
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If you keep it past the end date it extends automatically — you are billed to the day you actually return it
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Ordered by 16:00 ships the same day, arriving next day at the earliest
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Right for: Collecting at an airport, or travelling somewhere you are unsure of coverage.
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Not for: Getting the same router for the least money.
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Worth knowing: Even on the uncapped plan, heavy use can be slowed at busy times. Collection costs ¥550 and return ¥517–800 depending on method. Credit cards only — no debit or prepaid cards.
Score breakdown — 90/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | A cloud-SIM router switching between SoftBank, au, Docomo and Rakuten, with no daily cap; speeds may be managed at peak times after sustained heavy use |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥5,965 for seven days — rental ¥4,590, collection ¥550, postbox return ¥517, cover ¥308 |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★★ | 18 counters at 10 airports, plus convenience stores and delivery; five ways to return it |
| Trust | ★★★★★ | Vision Inc., listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime market. First for cumulative users in domestic Wi-Fi rental eight years running, and 25 million group users |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | The most airport counters here, and an automatic extension that needs no call if your plans slip |
Same-day pickup in Akihabara, and you keep it until 8am the next day
- Run from an office in Akihabara, plus airport counters and airport post offices
- Prepaid Letter Pack return has the latest deadline in this guide, so the final day is yours
- Damage cover is ¥550 once, not per day
Why it made the five
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Same-day collection at the Akihabara office, five minutes from the station
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Return by dropping a Letter Pack in a postbox by 8am the day after
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Sites in English, simplified and traditional Chinese; bookable from abroad
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Ordered by 17:00 ships the same day
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Right for: Needing Wi-Fi today, using it until the last minute, or visiting from abroad.
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Not for: Needing to collect late at night — the shop closes at 19:00 on weekdays, 18:30 at weekends.
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Worth knowing: Postage both ways costs ¥1,100 (¥1,430 for a home router) on top, and airport collection another ¥550. At airport post offices nobody can collect on your behalf.
Score breakdown — 80/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | UQ WiMAX unlimited with no daily cap; the site notes temporary slowing after very heavy use. Docomo and SoftBank routers also available |
| Value for money | ★★★★☆ | ¥5,780 for seven days — rental ¥4,130, postage both ways ¥1,100, cover ¥550 |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★☆ | Eight collection points — JAL ABC counters at Narita, Haneda, Chubu and Kansai, New Chitose airport post office, two Fukuoka courier counters — plus same-day collection in Akihabara |
| Trust | ★★★★☆ | J-Field Inc., founded 2013. 1.2 million rentals as of December 2025; product reviews 5.00 from 1,997 ratings |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | The latest return deadline here — 8am the following morning — so the final day is still yours, and multilingual sites for visitors |
The cheapest week here, and twenty-odd networks to choose from
- Run from Tsukiji in Tokyo
- Hardware: SoftBank, au, Docomo, Rakuten, WiMAX or cloud SIM
- Collection is by delivery or the Tsukiji shop only
Why it made the five
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The lowest seven-day total we found
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More than twenty router and network combinations to choose from
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Invoice billing for companies, with quotes generated online
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Translation devices and iPads can be rented alongside
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Right for: Keeping the cost down, having somewhere to receive a parcel, or billing a company.
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Not for: Wanting to collect it the moment you land.
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Worth knowing: No airport counters, convenience stores or airport post offices. Orders on Sundays and public holidays ship the next working day. Credit cards only for personal rentals.
Score breakdown — 78/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | SoftBank unlimited, up to 300 Mbps down, 15 devices, 20 hours of battery, with no daily cap. Faster WiMAX and Docomo routers are available |
| Value for money | ★★★★★ | ¥4,873 for seven days — rental ¥3,465, delivery ¥550, return envelope ¥550, cover ¥308. The cheapest of the eight we compared |
| Easy to live with | ★★★☆☆ | Delivery or the Tsukiji shop only; same-day dispatch if ordered by 17:00 on weekdays |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | Mobile Planning Inc., Tsukiji, Tokyo. Invoice billing for companies; no rental figures published |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | Twenty-plus network options, so you can pick the carrier that covers where you are actually going |
No shops, no counters, lower prices — WiMAX 5G unlimited
- Delivery-only operation: 5G-capable WiMAX router with no data cap from ¥580 a day
- For airport pickup it is delivered to the post office inside the terminal
Why it made the five
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Delivery only, which the company states is how the price stays low
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With cover taken, a replacement router for poor reception is sent free
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Return by Letter Pack into a postbox by 10am the following morning
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A docking station adds a wired LAN port
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Right for: Having somewhere to receive a parcel, and wanting unlimited data cheaply.
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Not for: Wanting to collect from a person at a counter.
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Worth knowing: Postage both ways costs ¥1,100 and is charged even for same-day collection in person. Airport collection is delivery to the terminal post office, plus ¥550. Loss and theft are not covered — you pay for the router.
Score breakdown — 77/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | UQ WiMAX with 5G SA support and no data cap; cloud-SIM routers at 50 GB or 10 GB a month also available |
| Value for money | ★★★★☆ | ¥5,710 for seven days — rental ¥4,060, postage both ways ¥1,100, cover ¥550. The second-cheapest unlimited plan here |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★☆ | Airport post offices at Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Itami and New Chitose (¥550); next-day delivery if ordered by 16:00; same-day collection at Ogawamachi by prior arrangement |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | Aida Inc., Kanda, Tokyo. Site reviews 4.39 from 3,401 ratings; first in three categories of a 2021 brand-image survey. No rental figures published |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | Delivery-only by design, with a flat ¥550 cover that also makes a replacement router free |
The only one that promises not to throttle you — and it answers in English
- Renting pocket Wi-Fi to visitors since 2012
- Same-day airport collection and hotel delivery
- Prepaid return envelope included
Why it made the five
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States it applies no fair-usage cap and no throttling, with a refund if it does
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A power bank included free
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English-language support seven days a week
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Pays by credit card, PayPal, Google Pay or Apple Pay
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Right for: Not speaking Japanese, using video or tethering freely, or sharing one router between several people.
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Not for: Keeping the cost down.
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Worth knowing: ¥9,960 for seven days, well above the domestic operators. The return envelope must be posted by noon on the day after your rental ends or you are billed further. The price of Device Protection is shown at checkout.
Score breakdown — 73/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | ‘Truly unlimited’ — no fair-usage cap and no throttling, stated outright, with a refund promised if speeds are managed. Eight devices, 8–10 hours of battery |
| Value for money | ★☆☆☆☆ | ¥9,960 for seven days, about ¥1,423 a day — the most expensive here, though the daily rate falls on longer rentals |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★☆ | Same-day airport collection at Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka and New Chitose, plus hotel and address delivery, a Shimbashi office, and partner counters in Osaka and Kyoto |
| Trust | ★★★★☆ | Inbound Platform Corp., operating since 2012. Over 1.6 million users; site reviews 4.93 from 28,534 ratings; English support seven days a week |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | The only service here that promises in writing not to throttle, with a battery pack included and same-day free replacement if the router fails |
Know before you buy
- Collection is the thing that varies most: some have counters at ten airports, some will only post it to your hotel.
- Returns are usually a prepaid envelope into a postbox. Deadlines run from 8am to noon on the day after your rental ends, which is a whole extra day of use if you pick well.
- ‘Unlimited’ means different things. Some cap you at 3 GB or 10 GB a day; some slow you at busy times; one states plainly that it never throttles at all.
- Damage cover is charged either per day or once per rental. Over a week that difference is a few hundred yen; over a month it is thousands.
- Most will not take a debit or prepaid card — a credit card is usually required for personal rentals.
- If only one device needs to be online, an eSIM is lighter and cheaper. Rent a router when several people or several devices are sharing it, or when a phone cannot take an eSIM.
How we chose: theme, conditions, scoring
How we chose
- Candidates: 13
- Met every condition below: 10
- Kept: five, each the best at something different
Conditions (all of them, not most of them)
- A pocket (or home) Wi-Fi router for use in Japan, rentable by the day
- The price for a seven-day rental is published
- How you collect it and how you return it are published
- The data allowance, and what happens when you exceed it, are published
- Accepting new personal bookings as of September 2026
Scoring
Five criteria, one to five stars each, weighted to one hundred points. Every star says where the number came from.
- Quality30 pts
- Set by how many networks it reaches and any daily cap. Four carriers with no daily cap, or a stated no-throttling policy, is five stars; one major carrier with no daily cap four; unlimited without a stated network, or a 3–10 GB daily cap, three; a monthly cap two.
- Value for money25 pts
- The seven-day total — rental, delivery, return postage and seven days of damage cover. ¥5,000 or less is five stars, ¥5,800 four, ¥6,000 three, ¥8,000 two, above that one.
- Easy to live with20 pts
- How easily you can collect it. Counters at ten or more airports is five stars; five or more airports, or same-day collection in person, four; delivery only, three.
- Trust15 pts
- The operating company and the record it publishes. A listed company or its group publishing an independent first place is five stars; a listed company’s subsidiary, or a million-plus rentals or users, four; a named operator with no figures, three.
- Only here10 pts
- How useful the thing only this company does is to someone who needs the internet for a few days. Our judgement, with the reason stated.
What we dropped
| Candidate | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| e-ca | Runner-up (88/100) | The score is high enough, but its character overlaps with the five |
| WiFi Tokyo Rental Shop | Runner-up (68/100) | 68 points, below the lowest of the five (73) |
| Imoto no WiFi (Japan plan) | Runner-up (56/100) | 56 points, below the lowest of the five (73) |
| Global WiFi (Japan plans) | Runner-up | The most collection points of all — 39 at 20 airports — but its Japan plan is 4G unlimited at ¥1,287 a day, against ¥960 for the fully unlimited plan at WiFi Rental Dotcom, which the same company runs. |
| NINJA WiFi | Runner-up | A visitors-only service from the same operator, Vision Inc. Its fully unlimited SoftBank plan is ¥1,980 a day, more than WiFi Rental Dotcom. |
| ZEUS WiFi | Failed a condition | A monthly service with no daily rental rate, and a ¥3,300 set-up fee. |
| Chat WiFi | Failed a condition | Also monthly, with no daily rate and a ¥3,300 set-up fee even on the no-contract plan. |
| Donnatokimo WiFi | Failed a condition | Its own site states it has stopped taking new customers. |
Questions visitors ask
Which can I collect at the airport?
WiFi Rental Dotcom and e-ca share 18 counters across ten airports — Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Itami, Komatsu, New Chitose, Fukuoka, Kagoshima and Naha. Wi-Fi Rental Ya-san has eight points, including JAL ABC counters and airport post offices. Japan Wireless covers six airports with same-day collection. NETAGE and WiFi Tokyo Rental Shop have no airport counters at all.
What does a week really cost?
Priced the same way — an unlimited pocket router, delivered, returned the cheapest way, with postage and damage cover included — NETAGE came to ¥4,873, WiFi Rental Honpo ¥5,710, e-ca ¥5,770, Wi-Fi Rental Ya-san ¥5,780, WiFi Tokyo ¥5,808 and WiFi Rental Dotcom ¥5,965. Japan Wireless was ¥9,960, largely because it is aimed at visitors and includes English support. Dropping from unlimited to 3 GB a day cuts all of these substantially.
Is ‘unlimited’ actually unlimited?
It depends on the company. WiFi Rental Dotcom’s ‘fully unlimited’ states that sustained heavy use may be slowed at busy times. Several plans carry a daily cap of 3 GB or 10 GB. The WiMAX-based plans at Ya-san and WiFi Tokyo warn of temporary slowing. Japan Wireless is the only one here that states it applies no fair-usage policy and no throttling.
Can a visitor from abroad rent one? In English, with a foreign card?
Yes. Japan Wireless supports English seven days a week and takes PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay as well as cards, with same-day airport collection and hotel delivery. Wi-Fi Rental Ya-san has English and Chinese sites; WiFi Rental Honpo runs a separate visitor site. NINJA WiFi is visitors-only. The usual catch is payment: most take credit cards only, not debit or prepaid.
How do I return it, and what if I am late?
Usually a prepaid envelope into any postbox. Ya-san’s deadline is 8am the morning after, Honpo’s 10am, Japan Wireless noon. Dotcom and e-ca let you choose courier, airport counter, postbox, convenience store or collection, each at a different fee. If you are late, Dotcom, e-ca and NETAGE extend automatically and bill to the day you actually return it.
Should I rent Wi-Fi or buy an eSIM instead?
An eSIM if one phone needs to be online: nothing to collect, nothing to return, nothing to carry, and usually cheaper. A pocket router if several people or several devices are sharing, if a phone is too old for an eSIM, or if you want something you can hand to someone else. We have a separate guide to eSIMs for Japan.
Changes
- 2026-10-25 First published. Scored from 13 candidates.