The best eSIM for Japan in 2026. Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Japan, priced on the same day: two weeks unlimited for $21.99, a month for $40.99, which to buy.
Prices read on 27 September 2026. Six travel eSIMs sell a Japan plan and get most of the traffic for this search. We priced all six on the same day, for a week in Tokyo, two weeks on the rail pass between Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima, and a month, and read the fine print on unlimited. Here is where each one wins.
Ringo Light: Cheapest unlimited for two weeks or a month. Unlimited data at full speed for 2 weeks at $21.99 or 30 days at $40.99, one payment each, nothing renews. Airalo asks $48 for 15 days and $69 for the month.
Nomad: Cheapest data bucket and cheapest 3 days. 10 GB for 30 days at $16, 20 GB at $23, and 3 days of unlimited at $11, on KDDI au and SoftBank.
Ubigi: Docomo coverage. One of the few brands on NTT Docomo, Japan's largest network, with KDDI. 10 GB for 30 days at $16.50.
Holafly: Simplest unlimited. Days, not gigabytes, on KDDI and SoftBank. $27.50 for a week; sharing limited to 1 GB a day.
Model: Airalo Buckets or unlimited days; Holafly Unlimited days only; Saily Buckets or unlimited days; Nomad Buckets or unlimited days; Ubigi Buckets, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light Unlimited trips: 2 weeks or 30 days.
Unlimited, 3 days: Airalo $11.50; Holafly $11.90; Saily No 3-day plan; Nomad $11; Ubigi No 3-day plan; Ringo Light No 3-day plan.
Unlimited, 7 days: Airalo $26.50; Holafly $27.50; Saily $28.99; Nomad $25; Ubigi 8 days, 5 GB a day, $25; Ringo Light No 7-day plan; 2 weeks $21.99.
Unlimited, 2 weeks: Airalo 15 days $48; Holafly 15 days $50.50; Saily 15 days $48.99; Nomad 14 days $41; Ubigi 15 days, 30 GB, then 2 Mbps, $39; Ringo Light $21.99.
Unlimited, 30 days: Airalo $69; Holafly $73.90; Saily $71.99; Nomad No 30-day plan; 21 days $49; Ubigi 60 GB, then 2 Mbps, $65; Ringo Light $40.99.
10 GB, 30 days: Airalo $18; Holafly No buckets; Saily $17.99; Nomad $16; Ubigi $16.50; Ringo Light No buckets; 2 weeks starts with 10 GB, $21.99.
20 GB, 30 days: Airalo $25; Holafly No buckets; Saily $24.99; Nomad $23; Ubigi 25 GB $32; Ringo Light No buckets; 30 days starts with 20 GB, $40.99.
Full speed on unlimited: Airalo 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps; Holafly No daily cap stated; sharing 1 GB a day; Saily 5 GB a day, then slowed; Nomad 2 GB a day, then slower; Ubigi A fixed amount, then 2 Mbps; Ringo Light No speed cap; starts with 10 or 20 GB, adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged.
Networks: Airalo SoftBank and one other; Holafly KDDI, SoftBank; Saily Not named by Saily; Nomad KDDI au, SoftBank; Ubigi KDDI, NTT Docomo; Ringo Light Local partner network.
Renews?: Airalo No; Holafly No; Saily No; Nomad No; Ubigi Monthly plans do; Ringo Light No, one payment; the trip ends when it ends.
App needed: Airalo Yes; Holafly No, QR code; Saily Yes; Nomad Optional; Ubigi Optional; Ringo Light No, the eSIM arrives by email.
Japan is a two-week trip for most people, often on a rail pass. For about two weeks of unlimited, Airalo asks $48, Saily $48.99, Holafly $50.50, Nomad $41 and Ubigi $39 for a fixed amount at full speed. For a month, $65 to $73.90. Ringo Light charges $21.99 for 2 weeks and $40.99 for 30 days, one payment each, nothing renews.
Read what unlimited means before you pick. Airalo gives 3 GB a day at full speed, then 1 Mbps. Saily gives 5 GB a day, Nomad 2 GB. Ubigi gives 30 GB for 15 days or 60 GB for the month, then 2 Mbps. Holafly states no daily cap for your own phone and limits sharing to 1 GB a day. Ringo Light has no speed cap: the 2 weeks starts with 10 GB and the 30 days with 20 GB, and when you have used 80% we add 10 GB once and charge the $21.99 top-up. A heavy two weeks with us costs $43.98, a little more than Nomad's 14 days at $41; a heavy month costs $62.98, still under every rival for the month.
For a short trip, Ringo Light sells no 3-day or 7-day plan. Nomad sells 3 days of unlimited at $11 and a week at $25.
Japan has three big networks: NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank. All three cover the cities and the Shinkansen lines well. Docomo reaches furthest into the mountains and rural Hokkaido. Most travel eSIMs ride SoftBank or KDDI; Ubigi is the one brand here that names Docomo. For Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima, any of them works.
Nomad, $16 for 10 GB. The cheapest 10 GB and the cheapest 20 GB at $23, on KDDI au and SoftBank with 5G.
Ubigi, $16.50 for 10 GB. On KDDI and Docomo, the widest coverage of the six.
Saily, $17.99 for 10 GB. 20 GB at $24.99. Its listing is from July; saily.com would not load for us.
Airalo, $18 for 10 GB. Its Moshi Moshi plan, 20 GB for $25, buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
Ringo Light, no buckets. Our 2 weeks starts with 10 GB for $21.99 and our 30 days with 20 GB for $40.99. For a fixed amount of data, Nomad, Ubigi, Saily and Airalo are all cheaper in Japan. Buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket. We would rather you read that here than at checkout.
Ringo Light is our own data eSIM, sold to fund the full Ringo, one plan that works everywhere with your own number ported onto it. For Japan it sells two trips, both unlimited data at full speed with no speed cap: 2 weeks at $21.99, starting with 10 GB, and 30 days at $40.99, starting with 20 GB. Each adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged at $21.99. One payment, nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
A plan over $10 makes you a Ringo Pioneer with €5 off the full Ringo at launch. The card to buy it is just below this article.
A few days in Tokyo. Nomad unlimited, 3 days, $11. Ringo Light sells no 3 days.
Two weeks on the rail pass. Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $21.99, less than any rival charges for two weeks. Nomad 14 days at $41 if you will stream every evening.
Two weeks, light use, budget first. Nomad 10 GB for 30 days at $16.
A month, working from cafés. Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $40.99, starting with 20 GB and adding 10 GB once for $21.99. Ubigi at $65 for 60 GB at full speed on Docomo if you leave the cities.
You need your own number to keep ringing. None of these travel plans does that. The full Ringo, which Ringo Light funds, ports the number you have.
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Japan on 27 September 2026, all on the same day, in US dollars. Each rival's price comes from its own website where it showed dollars, otherwise from an esimdb.com listing, and every source and its date is listed below. Ringo Light's prices come from the catalogue our checkout charges.
We compare the trips people actually book: a week, two weeks and a month of unlimited data, and a 10 GB bucket. We read each brand's fair use and speed rules and quote them as the brands state them. We did not run speed tests, so this page makes no speed claims for any brand.
Ringo Light is our own product. We put it in the table on the same terms as everyone else, and where a rival is the better buy the page says so.
Left out: Maya Mobile, we could not read its own prices for this country on the day, so it stays out rather than being guessed.
Source for Airalo: https://www.airalo.com/japan-esim?currency=USD (unlimited in dollars on the site; buckets from esimdb.com/japan/airalo, 23 September 2026).
Source for Holafly: https://esim.holafly.com/esim-japan/.
Source for Saily: https://esimdb.com/japan/saily (listing dated 1 July 2026; saily.com refused the fetch).
Source for Nomad: https://esimdb.com/japan/nomad (listing dated 20 September 2026; networks from nomadesim.com/japan-esim).
Source for Ubigi: https://esimdb.com/japan/ubigi (listing dated 16 September 2026; networks from cellulardata.ubigi.com).
For two weeks or a month of unlimited data, Ringo Light: $21.99 for 2 weeks and $40.99 for 30 days on 27 September 2026, against $48 for 15 days and $69 for 30 days at Airalo. For 3 days, Nomad at $11. For a 10 GB bucket, Nomad at $16.
Airalo rides SoftBank, Holafly and Nomad KDDI and SoftBank, and Ubigi KDDI and NTT Docomo. Saily does not name its network on its listing. All cover the cities and bullet train lines.
Every brand has a limit somewhere. Airalo slows you after 3 GB a day, Saily after 5 GB, Nomad after 2 GB, Ubigi after its fixed full-speed amount. Holafly states no daily cap for your own phone. Ringo Light has no speed cap: it starts with 10 or 20 GB and adds 10 GB once at 80%, charged.
Pocket Wi-Fi routers cost about $5 to $10 a day, need picking up and returning, and run on a battery you have to charge. An eSIM costs less for any trip over a few days and lives inside your phone. Pocket Wi-Fi still makes sense for a group sharing one connection.
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