EDITAR: Minha resposta é baseada em informações severamente desatualizadas, por favor, aceite minhas desculpas por não ser mais completa. jpatokal tem uma resposta muito mais atualizada e precisa, por favor consulte. Agora é possível e legal possuir um SIM ativado por voz como estrangeiro em uma estadia curta.
Since April 1st, 2006, the cellphone-related law called “the Act for Identification, etc. by Mobile Voice Communications Carriers of Their Subscribers, etc. and for Prevention of Improper Use of Mobile Voice Communications Services”, or in short, “Mobile Phone Improper Use Prevention Act (携帯電話不正利用防止法）” requires anyone who intends to have a voice-call-capable cellphone service (whether it is a prepaid contract or a postpaid one) to show a proper identification which indicates that s/he has the residential (permanent) address in Japan. A hotel address is not sufficient for this purpose.
This law became necessary because Japanese authorities, and especially the law makers, consider the fraud using the cellphones became a social problem, and the police and other law enforcement agencies want the address of all the phone owners to be registered so that, if any crime is committed using a cellphone, they can find the owner and search his residence.
The official proof of residence includes
– Certificate of Residence which must be registered, and issued as a proof, at the municipal office where you reside,
– Japanese driver’s license, governmental health insurance card, or anything that will be issued with the proof of the Certificate of Residence mentioned above,
– Japanese passport, with the Japanese address (hand-)written in the address page by you,
– Proof of an alien registration for a foreign person living in Japan, again, registered and then issued as a proof of residence at the municipal office where you reside. The alien registration is issued only if you have a valid visa which permits you to stay in Japan for more than 90 days.
Além disso:
So, as a traveler to Japan, who does not possesses a valid Japanese passport (due to a dual citizenship) or does not have a visa to permit you to stay there for more than 90 days, you simply can not obtain any voice-call-capable cellphone service or a local cellphone SIM with a voice-call, whether it is a prepaid contract or a postpaid one, under your name, period.
No exceptions.
Aparentemente, o PAYG SIM não se aplica à lei, porque possui recursos de voz de dados e (leia os comentários desta resposta para o contexto). Portanto, se você deseja um serviço telefônico não baseado em dados / VoIP, pode procurar no PAYG SIM da b-Mobile. Isso fornece uma vantagem importante, pois você pode chamar serviços de emergência, o que você não pode fazer no Japão por VoIP . Poderia ser potencialmente um salva-vidas.
Estou achando difícil entender como / por que exatamente os PAYG SIMs não estão sujeitos à lei, mas agora é uma boa opção.
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