Journey Japan eSIM Reviews 

I bought into a Japan eSim last year Sept 2025. Despite all the great talk from Chris on his Youtube channel and other kind of advertisements, the eSim was an absolute flop! I followed the instructions at that time down to the last detail possible; yet, doing so revealed a flaw for most travelers going to Japan. At that time the instruction’s best recommendation was to set up your eSim while in Japan as getting it set up in your home country would potentially cause some issues. Well, the absolute down side was that while being in Japan as a foreigner, there WILL NOT BE ANY stable public WiFi available to you. To have any kind of stable WiFi connection, you’d have to have your own home and set up or know a friend like good ol’chubs Chris Broad. I had the courage to ask for the WiFi code at a couple restaurants with stable WiFi for the set up, but was flat out refused (of course…). I ended up buying a physical prepaid sim card, with 10GB data at a BicCamera. To be fair, my brother got the same eSim and had more problems with it, even after getting a stable WiFi connection at one of the hotels we stayed at. The point is that this card absolutely lacks convenience for the traveler landing into Haneda or Narita airport and expect to use their Japan eSim immediately. Don’t test your luck. Just get the prepaid physical sim card (assuming that your phone still has the slot for one - mine did thankfully). The physical prepaid sim card from BicCamera saved the day on the success of my trip that year. Yes, this is a dated review, but I am writing it still hoping that things have improved. Please look into the instructions prior to purchasing. If the instructions are still the same, well maybe avoid Japan eSim and just get the prepaid one at the airport upon landing. Avoid even if Chris tempts you with a free drink at his speak easy like establishment. They may not be open everyday and you may be SOL even cashing in on the free or discounted drink if you purchase this tourist trap eSim.

Was super easy to install and for the first time in my life I saw 5G+, didn't even know you could have plus. Will definitely use next time I'm in Japan.

We used the e-sim on our last trip to Japan. Manly because of Chris. We love his YouTube channel and decided to support him. The sim is easy to install and we never had any issues. It will be our go to for japan trips from now on. Great work Abroad team.

Internet access was perfect all the time and really fast there were no problems connecting at all and I even enjoyed 500yen off my Too Much Volcano at Lost bar. Would buy this again.

This worked as soon as we stepped off the plane. Then worked perfectly everywhere we went, from Tokyo to Okinawa and even in rural areas. Wouldn't use anything else if we go to Japan again.

Absolutely disgusted...... that this eSIM worked so well. Damn! Installed the eSIM in the UK and then activated once I landed in Japan. Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka - not one problem with signal or data. I was hoping for a grumpy experience but never got one.

Reliable coverage, one spec mismatch — but excellent support

I used the 50GB Japan plan for a three-week family trip. Coverage was genuinely
solid everywhere we went, including rural areas, and I never ran out of data.

Two things didn't work at the start: personal hotspot was unavailable on the line,
and the usage counter wasn't updating. Support replied quickly and both were sorted.

My one real complaint is 5G. The plan is advertised as 5G / 4G & LTE, but my phone
stayed on LTE for the entire trip, while other providers used by my family showed 5G
on the same routes. LTE was fast enough for everyday use, but it wasn't what the
product page promised.

What stands out is how they handled it. They didn't brush the issue aside, they
reviewed the case properly and resolved it fairly. That level of customer service is
rare, thank you for that.

I had some initial connection issues after arriving and activating the eSim which ended up being user error by not choosing an APN (if anyone else gets this issue). However I emailed the support team at 1700 on a weekday and they got straight back to me with troubleshooting and now the service is working amazing. Thanks for the support! Highly recommend.

It just works!

My third trip to Japan, and for the first two trips we had to suffer very dodgy internet. It was so nice to just activate it and have no issues for the following weeks, at times it was even better than the WiFi. 10/10

I purchased a 15-day Journey Japan eSim for my trip to Tokyo and Kyoto in June 2026.

It worked just like you'd hope. Installed fine and provided me with problem-free connectivity.

As an Abroad in Japan Fan I'll give as unbiased a review as possible;
I brought the esim for quite a reasonable price compared to competitors, I arrived at haneda and had a bit of trouble setting it up, I believe that to be because it's my first esim but the chat team were a huge help when I messaged.
From there I genuinely have no complaints other than tunnels I did not lose connection to WiFi 1 time, hiking up mountains or across the nakasendo, across the oceans of kamakura the WiFi was perfect

It's great, when it works. Anywhere crowded, it becomes completely unusable.

When I first heard of this eSIM, it was advertised as being on Japan's best mobile network, NTT Docomo. Well the new "5G Pro" plans are on a different network, and the 4G plans are actually on IIJ, not NTT Docomo. While IIJ might use NTT's network, this is very deceptive.
Keeping this in mind, I feel like I didn't have the same experience a local NTT Docomo user would've had, waiting at a train station noticing the tourist next to me doom scrolling TikTok videos while I couldn't even get Google Maps to show the train schedule

Edit: I contacted supported after leaving this review and am giving an extra star (going from 3 to 4) based on the fantastic handling of the situation and as I believe steps are being taken to rectify the problems I had.

I just purchased my third eSIM through Journey Japan and was met with such kind customer service and help. The first time I used JJ eSIM it was the first time I had ever used an eSIM. Previously on all of my other Japan trips I used pocket wifi, but was getting tired of having to lug it around and make sure it was charged. So, I gave JJ eSIM a go and I loved it! Fast forward to this being the 3rd time purchasing an eSIM with them and I made a mistake on my own end and contacted support. They were so kind and helpful and made the situation right for me even though it was me who made an error when checking out. Their product is top notch and their customer service is too 🥹 Thank you from Seattle!!

Had an issue setting up my esim and the support team was very quick and eager to help me out.

The eSIM worked in Japan so that’s the only reason for the one star. I have been fighting your support team for nearly a month and a half now to get a refund that was promised to me. Long story short, I accidentally bought the 30 day plan, reached out to them and they agreed to make the exception and refund me the plan if I bought the 15 day plan. So at this point I had 2 plans purchased. Fast forward to today, and I’ve yet to receive my refund for the 30 day plan.

All I can say was we were 50 metres below ground, half way crossing the Kanmon Strait between Kyushu and Honshu, and we had perfect 4G reception with great speeds. I can't even get that kinda mobile reception at home. Am definitely buying JJ eSIM again.

Without a doubt the best eSIM I’ve ever used, travelling all across Tokyo and beyond it’s always fast and I’ve never had signal loss, even in the metro. It might seem a bit expensive but worth every penny, it’s truly unlimited too with no throttling.

Big fan of Chris and wanted to support him - the esim did not let me down. Between Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto, the connection performed admirably. I bought the unlimited 15-day and never experienced any throttling during my trip. One word of wisdom to folks reading this review - add your esim before you get on the plane so you can easily toggle it on when you land. You'll be connected from the jump.

Got the new expensive 5G ublimited subscription, and I was inpressed, not only did I had great speeds, kften surpassing local wifi in a hotel, but the signal was stable even in random mointan vilages and middle of nowhere parking spots. The signal vas even stable in a ahinkansen, which is impresive as I am use to lose conectivity even on a normal train.

Its procey, but probably one of the best Japan SIM experiences I had. Just wish they would sell a phisical version for folks without eSIM support.

Just did a 18 day trip to Japan, the e-sim worked great, no complaints. It was an easy process to activate on my phone and had great service throughout the entire trip!