The Mark

Apparently it technically was illegal a bit ago until now, but only if you are staying less then 90 days? Can anyone confirm?
 
meiji said:
Huh? It's never been illegal to use a non-Japanese phone in Japan to my knowledge. It was just until maybe 6-7? years ago there wasn't the technical capability to use a US phone roaming overseas. It's also stupid-expensive.
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Actually, I recently went through this. Long story short, I bought a phone in Thailand, needed to go to DoCoMo and found out that it's illegal to use a phone(or any other device which transmits radio waves) in Japan which doesn't haven't have a giteki mark, 技適マーク . This is an old law which most people haven't heard of. The original poster was correct about the new law exempting tourists who stay less than 90 days.
The fine for breaking that law is quite high. Though having said that no one will know weather or not your device has a giteki mark unless they take a look at it or you tell someone that your device was purchased overseas.

Here are a couple of related articles. If you Google in Japanese or English you'll find a ton of other articles.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/20...rted-mobile-devices-may-illegal/#.WIPsJmc0OCQ
http://eng.blogfromamerica.com/archives/60
 
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Is there any links showing where the new law is in effect saying where foreigners can use a unmarked phone if staying less then 90 days? I have only found 1 link.
 
Ok awesome. I can use a prepaid data sim on my non Japanese phone and be at ease. Do you recommend buying on amazon before hand or at airport?
 
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I live here. I've done neither. I've bought phones in Japan and as I mentioned bought one in Thailand, because I wanted a dual sim phone with one of the Sims being Thai.
 
Well, yeah, it's illegal in the US to do that too, but I believe it's only illegal if you are attempting to utilize radio frequencies not registered for such, ie, since Japan has a different set of radio frequencies for Wi-Fi, using a Japanese wireless access point would be illegal.

I'm actually pretty surprised that this was illegal up until recently given that they've sold SIM cards for foreign phones at the airport for years and years now.
 
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Every country or area has their own wireless certificates so in theory it has always been illegal to use cell phones from another country that don't have the certificate. Before 2000 you needed a different certificate for every country in Europe, after that there is one for EU.

In practise this has effect only if you are trying to sell the phones in another country, I have never heard them going after the individual users anywhere.
 
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MikeH said:
In practise this has effect only if you are trying to sell the phones in another country, I have never heard them going after the individual users anywhere.
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Yes, absolutely. It's totally impractical to go after individual users. Though in my case it had the annoying effect of DoCoMo not giving me the smaller size Sim I needed when I switched phones.
 
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meiji said:
Huh? It's never been illegal to use a non-Japanese phone in Japan to my knowledge. It was just until maybe 6-7? years ago there wasn't the technical capability to use a US phone roaming overseas. It's also stupid-expensive.
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It's actually been illegal up to now - though largely unenforced. It's the same laws that regulate walkie-talkies and other transceivers.

Cell phones were always able to fly under the radar because they don't actively transmit on frequencies not in use by a provider's tower, which is why they've now been exempted.

I've known adventure tourists who've come through Japan who've had walkies and portable short-wave transceivers seized at customs.
 
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I have no legal opinion or knowledge on that, but it's quite interesting that this is illegal given all the shops in Akihabara selling sim free phones. At least the one I bought came with power devices for Europe only.
 
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RandomTokyoGuy said:
I have no legal opinion or knowledge on that, but it's quite interesting that this is illegal given all the shops in Akihabara selling sim free phones. At least the one I bought came with power devices for Europe only.
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They still probably have the certificate; many companies nowadays get them all (FCC, EU, Giteki) as standard procedure. The fact they had EU plugs just tells you someone in Akihabara found a cheap lot meant for Europe and grabbed it.
 
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Is this at all related to buying locked vs unlocked phones?

My unlocked iPhone 6 was more expensive, but it will take a SIM card from any country, whereas a locked iPhone won't.
 
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Jbagz said:
Is this at all related to buying locked vs unlocked phones?

My unlocked iPhone 6 was more expensive, but it will take a SIM card from any country, whereas a locked iPhone won't.
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No, not related at all. The locked phones are locked by the big operators and those phones might as well have all the certificates anyway.

The locked phones in general are cheaper because the operator is subsidising the cost.
 
I have a US iPhone 6 with sprint and it works perfectly fine here. Apparently sprint bought SoftBank.
 
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