How can minors make a regular contract with a major mobile carrier?

I stumbled on a question from Yahoo! Answers about how minor foreign exchange student can make a contract with a Japanese major mobile carrier

I am an exchange student in a college in Japan. I am a teenager. I don’t have mobile now but I want to newly contract with a mobile carrier. However, when I googled about how I could make a contract, it has turned out that I must need my parents’ agreement for new contract becuase I am a teenager.

But my parents live in my country. It is impossible to let them sign a consent form. Moreover, a mobile carrier required me to submit my parents’ identification documents. I don’t have my parents’ passport or resident card. How can I make a contract with a mobile carrier in this situation?

Why are minor applicants refused making a contract alone?

Because in general, mobile carriers look minors as dependents having insufficient solvency.

They don’t trust teenager’s solvency at all.

Mobile carriers in Japan require minor contractees to ask their parents for a guarantor on the premise that they become insolvency sooner or later.

Simply talking, it is obvious that mobile carriers pay seriously attention to contractees’ firm solvency. In other words, what they really fear about on a contract is contractee’s overdue payment

To prevent the risk of contractee’s insolvency. mobile carriers persistently require minor applicants to involve their parents to let them take care of their overdue payment just in case minor contractees become insolvency. So mobile carriers include letting applicants’ parents sign on in a contract as one of the conditions to conclude the deal.

Even maturities are harassed by a flood of questions from mobile carriers

Even maturities are harassed by a flood of question as one of contract screening in order to check solvency instead of finding a guarantor. When I made a contract with one mobile carrier, I was asked

• “Where is your office?”
• “Tell me the address of your office.”
• “How much is your annual revenue?”
• “Are you in debt?”
• “Are you single?”
• “Are you married?”
• “Tell me your familly structure.”

At any rate, they really seem to want to reduce their risks caused by new customer’s solvency as much as possible.

Why do mobile carriers stick to avoiding the risk of contractee’s insolvency?

This is because most of mobile carriers in Japan adopts post-payment in general. “Post-payment” is a payment concept in contrast to “pre-payment”. Under post-payment, you pay charges of amount used later generally in the end of the month in contrast to pre-payment that you buy in advance the data amount you’re going to use.

In case of later payment, mobile carriers naturally burden communication costs in advance for at least a month until a contractee make a payment. Depending on the way you think, It is quite likely that a contractee disappears with empty savings account and blocked credit card . This is why mobile carriers strongly stick to stable solvency.

How can foreign minors make a regular contract with mobile carriers

Acquiring stable connectivity and sufficient data amount with flat rate charge, you make 2 year contract with a major mobile carrier. This is ,what I call, regular contract.

If you can’t make your parents to sign on a contract as a guarantor because your parents don’t live in Japan, a guarantor who supports your living or school life makes a contract with a mobile carrier as a payer on behalf of you.

In short, primary contractee of a mobile communication is your guarantor nominally. But you are obliged to make contractual payment. Your savings account information needs to be told to a mobile carrier for monthly direct debit.

If you come to Japan for educational purpose, your guarontor may be a school or university you go to or a mediator who look after and support your school life.

If you don’t have the above people who are willing to become your guarantor, you need to find someone you can ask for as a guarantor by yourself.

To tell the truth, it is really troublesome and uneasy to ask somebody to become your guarantor to make a contract unless the case that your educational institution has a system to look after your mobile contract. So before stepping forward to a regular mobile contract, you just check the checklists down below.

• Do you plan to live in Japan for more than 2 years?
• How many months is it until you become 20 years old? Is it too long for you to wait without regular mobile contract?
• Can’t substitute pre-paid mobile for regular post-paid mobile until you become 20 years old?

If no guarantor support you to look after your regular mobile contract

If you are an exchange student and home-staying, your host-family will manage to give a solution to getting a mobile in Japan but if you are a teenager and came to Japan for working holiday, you don’t have no backup from anyone but you have to take care of yourself one by one.

If you can’t rely on anyone to ask for a guarantor, you cannot help buying pre-paid SIM.

Mobile functions, connectivity and usability of pre-paid SIM is drastically more restrictive than a regular one. For example, only the function you can use is internet communication. No call and no SMS are generally available.

If you really want to change to regular SIM (regular contract), you should accept this situation until you become 20 years old. There are two ways to use mobile communication without making a regular contract which are to buy pre-paid SIM or to use public wifi LAN.
Please refer to the posts down below

• Japanese Cheap Pre-paid Sims’ functions and price lists
• How to get your contact means by public wifi router and wifi spots in Japan

Conclusion

In Japan, in a general sense, people who are less than 20 years old are regarded as dependents taken care of by their parents. Until they become 20 years old enough to fly the nest, decision authority depends mostly on their parents.

And mobile carriers think that there is no way those dependents have solvency because they are still supported by parents. Mobile carriers make contract conditions on the basis of this kind of thought.

I know there are a lot countries where a person who is more than 18 years old are recognized as adult. But in Japan, until you become 20 years old, so many restrictions are to become persistent obstacles to your contract things regardless of mobile contract because dependents are thought to be not trustful to fulfill contract.

It is my too outspoken opinion but even if you come to Japan for studying something or working, you should postpone your visit until you become 20 years old. Your range of your activities in Japan is stupidly restricted if you are a teenager.