The short answer
You have an Orange Polska SIM and you are flying to Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka. I read Orange's roaming page of 1 November 2026, priced the five travel eSIM brands on 10 November and added Ringo Light, for a long weekend, a fortnight and a month. Orange is cheaper for two weeks and a month if 10 GB is enough. For a short trip, or a heavy phone, I would buy Ringo Light.
Unlimited data at full speed, 3 days at $9.99, 2 weeks at $21.99 or 30 days at $54.99, nothing renews. Airalo asks $48 for 15 days and $69 for the month. Orange is cheaper than all of them for a light user.
10 GB for 30 days at $16, 20 GB at $23, and 3 days of unlimited at $11, on KDDI au and SoftBank.
One of the few brands on NTT Docomo, Japan's largest network, together with KDDI. Its 10 GB for 30 days is $16.50.
You buy days, not gigabytes, on KDDI and SoftBank. A week is $27.50, and sharing is limited to 1 GB a day.
Prices read on 10 November 2026: Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Orange Polska, Ringo Light, European Central Bank on their own sites or listings, Ringo Light from its catalogue. All in US dollars unless stated. Treat every number as a snapshot.
See the full price index for every country.
Travelling further? Compare the best eSIM for Asia and the eSIM for Asia-Pacific.
The prices, charted
US dollars, 10 November 2026. Ringo Light sells 14 days, the others 15. Nomad's unlimited now stops at 10 days. Ubigi's 15 days is 30 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps.
The 30-day plan at each brand. Ringo Light is unlimited data at full speed. Ubigi's month is 60 GB at full speed, then 2 Mbps. Nomad stops at 10 days.
Holafly sells no buckets. Ringo Light sells no bucket either: its 2 weeks is unlimited, and lasts 2 weeks, not 30 days.
Side by side
Swipe to compare →
Get Ringo Light for Japan, from $9.99.
Installed once, next to your own SIM. Your eSIM arrives by email in seconds.
- 3 days $9.99
- 2 weeks $21.99
- 30 days $54.99
We sell data eSIMs for now to fund the full Ringo service. Ringo is self funded. Every plan bought here pays for the build of one plan that works everywhere.
Want to keep your own number abroad?
That is the full Ringo service: one plan that works everywhere, with your own number included.
It is a separate product from Ringo Light and it is still being built, so it is not on sale yet. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
What to see in Japan, and what your phone needs for it
Eight places most first trips to Japan include, from Tokyo to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Miyajima, with the one thing your data does for you at each. Roaming or eSIM, the phone does the same job.
Roam with Orange Polska, or buy an eSIM
Japan is outside the EU, and Orange Polska's roaming page names it for its packs. I read the page on 1 November 2026. Pakiet Roamingowy GO 10 GB is 79 zł (about $20) for 10 GB over 15 days. Bezpieczny Roaming is 15 zł (about $4) for 1 GB over 24 hours, so three days come to 45 zł (about $11). The page shows no monthly plan, so 30 days is two GO packs, 158 zł (about $40).
Orange Polska's GO 10 GB pack is 79 zł (about $20) for 15 days and two packs are 158 zł (about $40) for a month, against Ringo Light's $21.99 for 2 weeks and $54.99 for 30 days, so Orange is $1.99 cheaper for a fortnight and $14.99 cheaper for a month, and Ringo Light is $1.01 cheaper for 3 days at $9.99.
Against the travel brands, Ringo Light is cheapest for unlimited. For two weeks I read Ubigi at $39 for a fixed 30 GB, Airalo at $48, Saily at $48.99 and Holafly at $50.50. For a month the rivals run $65 to $73.90. For 3 days Nomad asks $11, Airalo $11.50 and Holafly $11.90.
What Orange wins is real. Your Polish number stays on, with calls at 0.99 zł a minute and texts at 0.50 zł, which covers the bank code and the hotel that rings back. Nothing needs installing, and a handset without an eSIM slot works. For train apps, maps and messages, I think 10 GB lasts a fortnight, and I would take Orange. For a hotspot, video calls home or a phone that works all day, I would buy Ringo Light.
Networks in Japan, and what changes for a visitor from Poland
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, and Ubigi is the one brand in the table that names Docomo. For Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima I would not worry about the network.
An Orange pack is started by you, in the Mój Orange app, by texting GO10GB or BR to 80060 (80214 on a card), or by calling *100. Contracts signed after 20 January 2024 already have Bezpieczny Roaming switched on, while older ones and cards must switch it on. I would check in the app before the flight.
The packs have a ceiling. When the day's 1 GB is spent, the page says data stops until you text DOKUP for another 1 GB at 15 zł. For the 10 GB pack it does not say what happens when the gigabytes are gone, so I would not lean on it for a hotspot. The page prints no rate per megabyte for Japan.
If you want a data bucket: Nomad, Ubigi or Orange
- 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. Its 20 GB is $24.99. Every Saily price here is on saily.com.
- Airalo, $18 for 10 GB. The Moshi Moshi plan, with 20 GB for $25 and buckets from $4 for 1 GB.
- ✓Orange GO 10 GB, about $20. Ten gigabytes over 15 days on your own number. It costs a little more than the $16 buckets and asks for no install.
- ✓Ringo Light, no buckets. Its 2 weeks is unlimited for $21.99 and its 30 days unlimited for $54.99. For a fixed 10 GB, Nomad, Ubigi, Saily and Airalo are all cheaper. Their 20 GB buckets, $23 to $25 for 30 days, now cost more than Ringo Light's 2 weeks, though they last 30 days. I would buy Ringo Light for unlimited, not for a bucket.
What Ringo Light is
I write for Ringo, so weigh my picks with that in mind. Ringo Light is its 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 three trips, all unlimited data at full speed: 3 days at $9.99, 2 weeks at $21.99 and 30 days at $54.99. Nothing renews. The eSIM arrives by email in seconds and installs in one scan, no app.
It is data only, so your Orange SIM stays in the phone next to it. The Polish number still rings, and calls and texts on it are billed at Orange's rates. The card to buy Ringo Light is further up this page, just after the side-by-side table. For a city stop, I would read /blog/best-esim-for-tokyo, /blog/best-esim-for-kyoto and /blog/best-esim-for-osaka.
Pick by trip
I would buy Ringo Light, 3 days, $9.99, a little under three Orange day packs at about $11. Nomad's 3 days is $11.
I would take one Orange GO 10 GB pack, 79 zł (about $20), on your own number. That is $1.99 under Ringo Light.
I would buy Ringo Light unlimited, 2 weeks, $21.99. Ubigi asks $39 for 15 days and the others $41 to $50.50.
I would buy Ringo Light unlimited, 30 days, $54.99, if you need no ceiling. Two Orange packs, about $40, are cheaper if 20 GB is enough.
I would buy Nomad, 10 GB for 30 days at $16, or the Orange pack if you want to keep one bill.
I would keep the Orange SIM in and add Ringo Light for data. Calls at 0.99 zł a minute add up, so I would use messaging apps.
Frequently asked questions
How we compared, and our sources
Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi, Orange Polska, Ringo Light, European Central Bank, Ringo Light
We priced Airalo, Holafly, Saily, Nomad, Ubigi and Ringo Light for Japan on 10 November 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.
- Airalo: www.airalo.com/japan-esim?currency=USD, unlimited in dollars on the site, read 10 November 2026; buckets from esimdb.com/japan/airalo, listing dated 4 October 2026, not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Holafly: esim.holafly.com/esim-japan/, prices in dollars on the site, read 10 November 2026
- Saily: saily.com/esim-japan/, prices in dollars on the site, 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Nomad: www.nomadesim.com/japan-esim, prices in dollars on the site, read 10 November 2026; 10 GB and 20 GB on sale at $16 and $23; unlimited now sold for 3, 5, 7 and 10 days only
- Ubigi: cellulardata.ubigi.com/data-plans-and-coverage/ubigi-esim-data-plans/?destination=JPN, prices in dollars on the site, 25 October 2026; not readable on 10 November 2026, figures kept from 25 October
- Orange Polska: www.orange.pl/roaming, roaming page, read 1 November 2026: Pakiet Roamingowy GO 10 GB, 10 GB for 15 days at 79 zł; Bezpieczny Roaming 1 GB for 24 hours at 15 zł; Japan on the non-EU country list; calls 0.99 zł a minute and texts 0.50 zł for subscription customers. The page prints no rate per megabyte for Japan. The address orange.pl/roaming/cennik was not fetched
- Ringo Light: ringoesim.com/japan, the catalogue the checkout charges, read the same day
- European Central Bank: www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/eurofxref/eurofxref-daily.xml, euro reference rates of 30 October 2026, the latest published on 1 November 2026, used for the dollar figures (1 euro = $1.1172 and 4.4038 zł)
- Ringo Light: our own catalogue, the prices the checkout charges on 10 November 2026.
Written and priced by the Ringo team. Prices change often; if you spot one that has moved, tell us through the contact page and we will update the table.
