eSIM vs SIM vs Pocket Wifi: What Actually Gets You Online in Japan
Real prices for an eSIM, a physical SIM, and a pocket wifi hotspot in Japan, plus the discount codes we actually use. What makes sense for a family of five is not what makes sense for one person.
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Three ways to get online in Japan: an eSIM on your own phone, a physical SIM card, or a pocket wifi hotspot you carry and share. For one person traveling light, an eSIM wins on convenience almost every time. For our family of five, the math works out differently, and it’s worth doing that math before you buy anything.
eSIM
No hardware, no airport counter, activate before you land. Holafly is the one we use ourselves, truly unlimited data (not a capped allowance you can burn through on a day of map-checking and photo-uploading) and a flat price regardless of how much you use:
| Provider | 3 days | 7 days | 15 days | 30 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holafly | $11.90 | $27.50 | $50.50 | $73.90 |
| Airalo | $11.50 | $26.50 | $48.00 | $69.00 |
- Holafly, code
ADAMANDLINDS: We earn 10%. Customer saves 5% on an eSIM, or 10% on a monthly plan. - Airalo, code
ADAMLINDS3: $3 off for the customer. The code alone gives us no commission, the link is required for that.
Airalo runs slightly cheaper on paper, worth a look if the few dollars matter more to you than sticking with the one we’d personally reach for. Holafly’s code is also the better deal percentage wise, 5% on the eSIM itself and 10% if you’re buying a monthly plan instead of a trip length one.
A few more eSIM providers we have codes for, less common but real: Nomad (Customer gets 10% off when purchasing through our referral link within 30 days.), Simlocal, code ADAMANDLINDS (10% off for the customer.), and Airhub (10% off for the customer when using our link, we earn 10%.). amigo eSIM, Sim Options, and Ubigi are also in the mix, though we don’t have a stated discount for those three, just the link.
Physical SIM
Less common than it used to be now that most phones support eSIM, but still worth knowing about if you’re on an older device or one that’s locked against eSIM profiles. Japan Wireless sells physical SIM cards alongside their eSIM and pocket wifi options, code ADAMANDLINDS gets 10% off for the customer. We don’t have a specific SIM only price to quote here since it depends on the data tier you pick, check their site for the current number rather than a figure that might already be stale.
Pocket wifi
One hotspot, shared across every phone and tablet in the group, instead of a data plan per device. This is the one that makes real sense for a family our size. Japan Wireless is who we use, their unlimited plan starts around $4.90 a day with no daily data cap, connects up to 8 devices (plenty of room for five phones and a couple of tablets with some to spare), and comes with a free power bank so the hotspot itself doesn’t die halfway through the day. Code ADAMANDLINDS gets 10% off for the customer.
The actual math, for us
We don’t buy individual data plans for the girls, they use tablets on wifi and the pocket wifi covers them. So the real comparison for a 7 day trip is 2 adult Holafly eSIMs versus 1 shared Japan Wireless pocket wifi:
| Option | Cost for 7 days |
|---|---|
| 2 Holafly eSIMs (one per adult), before the 5% code | $55.00 |
| 1 Japan Wireless pocket wifi (covers the whole family), before the 10% code | about $34.30 |
For a solo traveler or a couple who wants each phone independently connected, an eSIM per person is simpler and the price gap barely matters, that’s where we’d point you to Holafly. For a family sharing devices anyway, one pocket wifi is both cheaper and one less thing to set up per phone. That’s the version we actually use.
