Where to find out about cell phones currently sold in Japan?

[aphex]

The University is flying my brother to Japan the end of next month to present his Thesis and he will probably take 2-3 weeks travelling around Japan, Korea, and Australia.

Thought he might be able to bring me back a cell phone...

Where is the best place to check out whats available over there right now?

 

[aphex]

Came across this, http://www.nttdocomo.com/

Anything else?

 

[aphex]

^

 

[shilala]

Why don't you PM MAME? I'm not sure if he's still over there (or even if he went yet), but I believe he's pretty Japan-savvy.

 

[Sketcher]

Haven't given it much thought, but when one of our Reps was moving to Europe I called our primary cell provider who provided me info on what's available (put me in contact with International Cust Svc who in turn gave me email links and mailed brochures to our office).

 

[MobiusPizza]

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley/5223/

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%E6%90...9%B1&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[aphex]

hmmmm

 

[Mark R]

Be careful with buying cell phones in Japan for use elsewhere in the world. Japan primarily uses a mixture of proprietary Japanese cell systems, rather than GSM/UMTS or one of the US systems. As there is no GSM coverave in Japan, the more popular GSM phones from the large manufacturers aren't readily available.

You will have to make sure that the phone supports the system and frequency in use in your area. Even now, you can still find Japan only phones. Most offer some sort of international capability (usually non-US GSM) but very few offer full world compatability.

E.g. NTTDocomo only offer 1 handset that is tri-band GSM compatible - the N900iG (but note that tri-band GSM coverage is not sufficient for parts of the US or certain networks).

 

[Kipper]

http://www.au.kddi.com/
http://www.vodafone.jp/top.htm
http://www.kddi.com/tu-ka/

Enjoy...I live in Tokyo right now.

DoCoMo is operated by NTT, the Nippon Telelphone and Telegraph company.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Mark R
Be careful with buying cell phones in Japan for use elsewhere in the world. Japan primarily uses a mixture of proprietary Japanese cell systems, rather than GSM/UMTS or one of the US systems.

You will have to make sure that the phone supports the system and frequency in use in your area. Even now, you can still find Japan only phones. Most offer some sort of international capability (usually non-US GSM) but very few offer full world compatability.

E.g. NTTDocomo only offer 1 handset that is tri-band GSM compatible - the N900iG (but note that tri-band GSM coverage is not sufficient for parts of the US or certain networks).

There's also the bit that many of them will only display in Japanese...