Pocket WiFi Rental Options in Haneda Airport [HND] in Tokyo, Japan
Next in our series on Pocket WiFi rental options at major airports throughout Japan: Haneda Airport! Odds are if you are headed to Japan, you are going to make your initial stop in Tokyo. There are two major airports servicing the Tokyo, Narita [NRT] and Haneda [HND]. Haneda is the smaller but older of the two and is located closer to the actual city.
Again, as always, our advice is that you order your Pocket WiFi online before you arrive in Japan. It's cheaper, more plan options, and you don't need to walk around / wait in line at a rental booth at the airport. Below is a comprehensive guide on online Pocket WiFi rental we encourage everyone to read.
Marcus Loffredo
This post is mainly geared toward those of you who did not have time to order their device online or didn't realize it was an option to do so.
Our goal here for this blog is to break down piece by piece, portable WiFi rental provider options at Haneda Airport, and to compare their rates as well as give the ranks based on their English ability. All rates and interactions with staff members in this article are based on my actual interactions with each store at the airport.
The official Haneda website offers a map and description of each company and location within the airport. However, their website layout is confusing and hard to navigate, so we hope that this article can provide some clarity on the issue.
Here is a list of all the companies and their locations in the airport.
Haneda Airport - International Terminal
- AnyFone Japan – Arrivals 2nd Floor
- Mobile Center (Telecom Wi-Fi) – Arrivals 2nd Floor/ Departures 3rd Floor
- Ninja WiFi (Global WiFi) – Arrivals 2nd Floor
- Softbank Global Rental – Departures 3rd Floor
First, right off the bat, I will say that in the entire airport, there are really only three solid options for portable WiFi rental in the entire airport. All in the international terminal, AnyFone Japan, Mobile Center, and Softbank Global Rental are the only three that provided both good information but also had competitive pricing. So let’s start our breakdown with these three.
Mobile Center (Telecom Square Inc.)
Location: This counter is located on the second floor, arrival of the international terminal.
Hours of Operation: 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM
At this Mobile Center, there are two different options when it comes to portable WiFi. The unlimited data plan and the 500 MB plan.
The unlimited data plan is the cheaper of the two options. Although the woman at the counter kept assuring me that this specific unit was "true unlimited WiFi" I have my sincere doubts. Those doubts were only furthered by the fair usage policy that was written in fine print on the price list I was shown. As we have previously written about in our blog, most companies have data caps that will start throttling your speed after you pass a certain limit.
The 500 MB data plan has better coverage (also why it costs more) and is better suited for those who will be traveling to remote locations and what to be sure they can still have working internet.
[Unlimited Data]
Base Price:
1Day - 1296 JPY
7Days - 5,500 JPY (864 JPY/Day)
15Days - 9,720 JPY - (648 JPY/Day)
30Days - 12,960 JPY (430 JPY/Day)
[Wide Type - 500 mb]
Base Price:
1Day - 1,512 JPY
7Days - 10,584 JPY
30Day - 16,200 JPY (540 JPY/Day)
Insurance:
Standard (216 JPY/Day) - Only covers 85% of total cost
Premium (324 JPY/Day) - Covers 100% of total cost
Service/English Ability: Great
The English ability of the staff at this location was very good. They were able to converse with me freely and answer most of my questions.
Pick-Up/Return Options:
Both pick-up and drop-off of rentals can be done at this counter.
AnyFone JAPAN
Location: This counter is located on the second floor (arrivals) of the international terminal
Hours of Operation: 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM
Breakdown
AnyFone JAPAN has a pretty straightforward online rental process. The website looks nice and sharp. There are really two options for routers if you ask at the airport counter. But it seems that they really only encourage rental of the first type. They didn't even show me the 5GB second option until I asked about it.
[Unlimited Data - 501HW]
Base Price:
- Stay under 2 weeks: 970 JPY/Day
- Stay 2 weeks or more: 840 JPY/Day
[Wide Type (5GB/Day) - 601HW]
Base Price: 840 JPY/Day
Insurance: 220 JPY/Day (flat rate)
*Insurance plan only covers half of the total cost (around 21,600 JPY)
*In the case of no insurance, the renter is responsible for the entire cost of both the item and applicable accessories (case, charger, etc.)
*Full cost (around 43,200 JPY)
Additional Costs: One time Administration fee of 315 JPY
Service/English Ability: Great
The English ability of the staff at this counter was fantastic, not only that there was a foreigner employed there (more common in Tokyo), who was very helpful in answering some of my more in-depth questions. When I asked her about fair usage policy and if my data would be slowed she told assured me that it would not be. However, a closer look at the companies website reveals that they do in fact have a fair usage policy.
This just proves the point that all Pocket WiFi providers, whatever they may tell you at the airport counter, have some form of fair usage policy that can throttle your data use.
SoftBank Global Rental
Location: This counter is located on the third floor (departures) of the international terminal.
Hours of Operation: 6:30 AM to 11:00 PM
SoftBank Global and Anyfone are actually considered to be part of the same company. This means they have the same offerings when it comes to Pocket WiFi.
[Unlimited Data - 501HW]
Base Price:
- Stay under 2 weeks: 970 JPY/Day
- Stay 2 weeks or more: 840 JPY/Day
[Wide Type (5GB/Day) - 601HW]
Base Price: 840 JPY/Day
Insurance: 220 JPY/Day (flat rate)
English Ability: Good
The staff here were very cheerful and helpful. However, their English ability was not the greatest. They were able to communicate me the basics of their offerings but mostly referred me to the pamphlet that had all the information written on it.
Ninja WiFi (Global WiFi)
Hours of Operation: 6:30 AM - 11:45 PM
Location: The location of Ninja WiFi is really hard to locate on a map. From the best of my ability the location is on the 2nd floor (Arrivals) tucked way in the back by a dental clinic. Here is a map of the location in the airport taken from Ninja WiFi's website.
Here is what the entrance to that hallway looks like.
Just follow it down.
And viola! Tucked into a tiny corner to your left is Ninja WiFi!
Breakdown
Ninja WiFi at Haneda airport is almost exclusively for online rental pickup. They don't even show it on the map on the website. I'm including this store in the list because the staff there did have good English ability and you can technically rent pocket WiFi from this store, for an extremely high price.
Base Price:
Unlimited : 1 Day - 1188 JPY
1 Month - 6200 JPY
English Ability: The English ability of the staff behind the counter was great. However they did not seem like they wanted to interact with me. The gentleman behind the counter kept saying that the counter was mostly for pick-ups for online orders.
This was the only information he could give me on the options in the store. Both of these options were also substantially more expensive than the other companies we looked at so far.
Conclusion
Haneda is a large airport. But for such a large airport it doesn't really have that many options for pocket WiFi rental. Again this just guarantees that renting your Pocket WiFi unit online before touching down will help you save on time. Cost-wise, after comparing all the pricing from the providers at the airport, it ends up being far cheaper to rent online as well.
This is why we, here at eConnect Japan, are dedicated to providing the most streamlined, hassle free way of booking your WiFi hotspot cheap and effectively, online. Whether you're at home planning for your trip, or even if you are already here and can survive with no WiFi for one day (the amount of time it would take us to get it to your hotel or nearest post office), we would encourage you to check out our website and compare for yourself.
