So, I'm going to Japan in June 2012 and I was wondering if there's a great carrier to have that won't cost a lot. And is a smart phone really the best thing to have...cause according to my father...it is but I don't believe him. I have a student teacher in my Japanese class from Japan and she wont use her phone at all unless she really has to. I want to figure this out before my parents are dead set on getting me a smart phone and end up costing a lot.

Well depending on what you plan to do with your phone, a smart phone may be the bes option, from my experience I don't know much of anything about phone cariers, so your on your own there,for now. But hey, take nte from your teacher, try to avoid using your phone unless you need too.

Yeah, I was thinking of doing that and just have a schedule that I can call my parents to tell them what is up and such. Plus...I think I might just down grade to a flip phone since those are cheaper and I liked them better.

Uhhhh.... im sure the carriers have a map of their signal strength areas.

i got a samsung galaxy s2 and its awesome

Best cell phone carrier in Japan:

SoftBank (popularity-wise)
DoCoMo (signal-wise)
AU (cool lookin' cell phone-wise)

>>1 Also, about the smartphone thing. Japanese smartphones are great! You can watch TV, 3D capabilities, cameras that go up to 16 megapixels and others.

But Japanese cell phones that AREN'T smartphones are expensive too. The Japanese love their cell phones, they will not go anywhere without one, generally it's the gaijin that tend to believe they do not need they're cell phone unless they ABSOLUTELY have to.

But if you're able to afford it, then try to get a phone that isn't branded with a brand that you'd see in the Western part of the world (Nokia, Casio, Dell, Huawei, Kyocera etc.) these brands of phones have limited capabilities.