HOLASIM vs Rakuten Mobile (2026): Which One Can You Actually Use in Japan?

If you are visiting Japan, HOLASIM is the only one of these two you can actually buy — Rakuten Mobile requires a Japanese Residence Card, which makes it the better deal only if you live in Japan.

This comparison gets requested a lot, and it is usually a misunderstanding worth clearing up. Rakuten Mobile and HOLASIM are not two versions of the same product. Rakuten Mobile is a full Japanese mobile carrier with its own network, a Japanese phone number and a monthly contract. HOLASIM is a prepaid travel eSIM that gives you data in 200+ destinations with no contract and no local paperwork. The honest answer to "which is better" depends almost entirely on one question: do you have a Japanese residence status, or are you a visitor?

That said, there is a real overlap. Rakuten includes overseas roaming in its plan, so a Japan resident travelling abroad has a genuine decision to make between topping up Rakuten and buying a travel eSIM. We cover that case too.

HOLASIM Overview

HOLASIM is a prepaid, data-only travel eSIM covering more than 200 destinations, sold in USD and aimed at travellers rather than residents. You buy a plan, scan a QR code, and it works — usually within a minute. There is no credit check, no local address, no contract and no SIM to collect.

Reasons to choose HOLASIM:

• Anyone can buy it. No residence card, no Japanese bank account, no My Number, no in-store visit
• Entry plans from around USD 1.70, so a short trip costs very little
• Unlimited data plans with no daily full-speed threshold to decode
• The eSIM profile never expires. Install it once, top it up before the next trip, and keep the same profile instead of burning an eSIM slot every year
• 24/7 support answered by humans, in English, Spanish and Portuguese
• The same profile works across 200+ destinations, so a Tokyo–Seoul–Taipei trip needs one eSIM, not three
• Instant QR activation, which you can complete on home Wi-Fi before you fly

Reasons to avoid HOLASIM:

• Data only. There is no Japanese phone number, so you cannot receive SMS at a Japanese number or make standard voice calls
• The unlimited plans cost more than a small fixed-data bundle, so light users overpay by choosing them
• It is a roaming product, not a native line, so in the rare congested cell you sit behind the host network's own customers
• Less brand recognition than Airalo or Holafly, so fewer third-party reviews to read before buying

Reasons to choose Rakuten Mobile:

• Extraordinary value for residents: unlimited domestic data at ¥3,278 per month including tax, with lower tiers at ¥2,178 (up to 20GB) and ¥1,078 (up to 3GB)
• The price scales automatically with usage, so a quiet month costs less with no plan change
• A real Japanese phone number, which you need for bank accounts, government services, apartment applications and most delivery apps
• 2GB per month of overseas roaming included in the plan, usable in 107 countries and regions as of April 2026
• eSIM supported, so you can activate without waiting for a physical SIM
• Rakuten Link lets you make domestic voice calls at no extra charge

Reasons to avoid Rakuten Mobile:

• You almost certainly cannot sign up as a tourist. Identity verification expects a Residence Card or Special Permanent Resident Certificate, and short-term visa holders are generally not eligible
• You also need a Rakuten member account and a Japanese credit card or bank account
• Its own network is thinner than NTT Docomo's or KDDI's in mountainous and rural areas, with partner roaming filling gaps
• Unlimited is subject to a fair usage policy that can throttle heavy users
• The overseas allowance is small. After 2GB abroad, speed drops to 128kbps and more data costs ¥500 per GB
• Monthly billing in yen, which is awkward if you are not already inside the Japanese financial system

Head-to-head: HOLASIM vs Rakuten Mobile

	HOLASIM	Rakuten Mobile
Entry price	from ~USD 1.70	¥1,078/month (up to 3GB, tax incl.)
Product type	Prepaid travel eSIM, data only	Full carrier contract with voice and SMS
Who can buy	Anyone, worldwide	Japan residents with a Residence Card
Destinations	200+	Japan, plus 2GB/month roaming in 107 countries and regions
Unlimited	Yes	Yes, domestic only, ¥3,278/month, fair usage applies
Expiration	Profile never expires; top up per trip	Monthly contract, runs until cancelled
Hotspot	Yes	Yes
5G	Yes	Yes
Support	24/7, human	Japanese-first, with English support available
Languages	English, Spanish, Portuguese	Japanese, with English materials
App	Yes	Yes, plus Rakuten Link for calls
Top-ups	Yes, reuse the same profile	Not applicable; monthly plan, ¥500 per extra GB abroad

Coverage

Inside Japan, Rakuten Mobile runs its own 4G and 5G network and falls back to KDDI roaming where its own coverage is thin. That fallback is the honest weak point: Rakuten built out later than Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank, and in mountain valleys, on rural train lines and in parts of Hokkaido and Tohoku it is still the one most likely to drop to a slower partner signal. In Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and along the Shinkansen corridors, it is genuinely good.

HOLASIM reaches Japan as a roaming guest on one of the major Japanese networks, which in practice means the coverage footprint of an established incumbent rather than a challenger. For a traveller's itinerary — cities, tourist regions, Shinkansen routes — this usually performs at least as well as Rakuten's own network, and better in the countryside.

Outside Japan, the comparison is not close. HOLASIM covers 200+ destinations at local travel-eSIM prices. Rakuten gives you 2GB a month abroad in 107 countries and regions, then throttles to 128kbps, which is slow enough to break maps and messaging. For a two-week trip overseas, 2GB is a day or two of normal use.

Pricing and value

For a resident, Rakuten Mobile is very hard to beat. Unlimited domestic data for ¥3,278 a month including tax is cheaper than equivalent plans from the big three, and the tiered structure means a light month automatically bills at ¥1,078 rather than requiring you to downgrade. Add a Japanese number and free domestic calls through Rakuten Link and the value is obvious.

For a visitor, the comparison is moot — you cannot buy it. If you could, a one-month contract for a ten-day trip would still be poor value against a travel eSIM, before counting the cancellation admin.

For a Japan resident travelling abroad, the maths is more interesting. Your first 2GB overseas is already paid for. Beyond that, Rakuten charges ¥500 per extra gigabyte, which at current rates is roughly USD 3 to 3.50 per GB. HOLASIM's entry plans start around USD 1.70, and its unlimited plans remove the per-gigabyte question entirely. So the sensible pattern for a Japanese resident is to keep the Rakuten line active for your number and domestic service, and add a HOLASIM profile for any trip longer than a few days.

Unlimited data

Both offer unlimited, but they mean different things by it.

Rakuten's unlimited is domestic unlimited, at ¥3,278 per month, and is subject to a fair usage policy that allows speed restrictions for extreme consumption. For normal heavy use — streaming, tethering a laptop, video calls — it holds up well, and it is one of the genuinely cheap unlimited plans in a developed market.

HOLASIM's unlimited is a travel product with no daily full-speed threshold to read in the small print, which is the main thing that separates it from several competitors whose "unlimited" plans quietly drop to 512kbps after a daily cap. The honest counterpoint, which we would make about any unlimited travel eSIM: if you use 3GB on a week-long trip, a fixed-data plan is cheaper and you should buy that instead.

Support and user experience

Rakuten Mobile is built for a Japanese-speaking customer base. There is English-language material and English support, and plenty of foreign residents use it successfully, but the default assumption of the sign-up flow, the billing system and the support channel is that you read Japanese. Several steps in the online process are Japanese-only, and the identity verification is designed around Japanese documents.

HOLASIM is built for the opposite case. Support is 24/7 and staffed by people, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, which matters most at exactly the moment things go wrong — an activation that will not complete, at an airport, at night, in a country where you do not speak the language. Setup is a QR scan you do at home before departure.

Which should you choose?

Backpackers and short-term visitors: HOLASIM, without hesitation. Rakuten is not available to you, and even if it were, a monthly carrier contract for a two-week trip makes no sense. Buy a fixed-data plan if you are light on data, unlimited if Japan is a long stop.

Business travellers: HOLASIM. You need it working the moment you land, tethering to a laptop without a daily cap, and a support line that answers in your language. A Japanese carrier contract is not something you can set up on a three-day trip.

Families: HOLASIM, one profile per phone. Fixed-data plans for the kids' devices, unlimited for whoever is doing navigation and photo backup. Rakuten would require a separate resident contract per line.

Digital nomads in Japan long-term: This is where Rakuten wins, and it is not close. If you have a Residence Card and are staying months, Rakuten Mobile at ¥3,278 for unlimited plus a Japanese number is better than any travel eSIM, because you need the number for banking, apartments and services anyway. Keep a HOLASIM profile alongside it for trips out of the country, since 2GB of roaming will not carry you far.

Japanese residents travelling abroad: Both. Keep Rakuten for your number and the included 2GB, and add HOLASIM once a trip runs past a few days or you need tethering.

FAQ

Can a tourist sign up for Rakuten Mobile?

Generally no. Identity verification expects a Residence Card or Special Permanent Resident Certificate, and short-term visa holders are typically not eligible. You also need a Japanese payment method. Visitors should buy a travel eSIM instead.

Does HOLASIM give me a Japanese phone number?

No. HOLASIM is data only. Your home SIM stays active for calls and SMS, so two-factor codes still reach your usual number. If you specifically need a Japanese number — for a bank, a rental contract or some delivery apps — a travel eSIM cannot provide that.

Is Rakuten Mobile's unlimited really unlimited?

Domestically, it is unlimited data at ¥3,278 per month including tax, subject to a fair usage policy that permits speed restrictions in extreme cases. Overseas it is not unlimited at all: you get 2GB a month, then 128kbps unless you buy more at ¥500 per gigabyte.

Which has better coverage in rural Japan?

A travel eSIM roaming on an incumbent network usually has the edge. Rakuten built its own network later than its competitors and leans on KDDI roaming where its coverage is thin, which is most noticeable in mountains, on rural rail lines and in parts of Hokkaido and Tohoku.

Can I use both at the same time?

Yes, if your phone supports dual eSIM or eSIM plus physical SIM. This is the recommended setup for a Japan resident travelling abroad: Rakuten for your number, HOLASIM for travel data.

What happens to my HOLASIM eSIM between trips?

Nothing — it stays installed. The profile does not expire, so you top it up before your next trip instead of installing a new eSIM and using up another slot. That is one of the clearest practical differences from most travel eSIM competitors.

Verdict: these two products answer different questions. If you are visiting Japan, HOLASIM is the answer by default, because Rakuten Mobile is not open to you and a monthly carrier contract would be wrong for a trip anyway. If you live in Japan, Rakuten Mobile is excellent value and we would recommend it over any travel eSIM for domestic use — then add a HOLASIM profile for travel, because 2GB of included roaming runs out fast.