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Cancelling a Phone or Internet Contract in Japan Without the Surprise Fee

✓ Last verified 2026-09-19 Sources: 6 sites 9 min read

The short version

A one-year contract turns into a two-year contract turns into a phone number you've had since you landed, and somewhere in there the cancellation terms stopped being something you actually read. Then a job change or a move back home puts an exact date on the calendar, and the question becomes concrete: how much does walking away actually cost, and is there a window where it costs nothing? Our guide to getting a phone contract in Japan and our home internet comparison both cover signing up. This one covers the other direction — what actually happens, and what it actually costs, when you cancel.

Two contracts, two different rulebooks

The single biggest mistake in this area is assuming a figure that applies to one type of contract applies to the other. Japan's telecommunications regulator, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省, MIC), regulates mobile phone service and fixed-line internet service under overlapping but distinct rules, and the headline number people usually remember — a ¥1,000 cancellation fee — belongs to mobile phones only.

Contract typeEarly-termination fee capApplies to
Mobile phone (fixed-term plan) ¥1,000 + tax (¥1,100) at most, per a 2019 MIC rule Older fixed-term SIM plans still carrying that structure
Home internet / fiber (2-year+ plan) Up to one month's usage charge, for contracts from July 1, 2022 Major fiber providers such as NURO, au Hikari, and similar

Concretely: NURO Hikari publishes an early-cancellation fee of ¥3,740 for its two-year plan on its own site — a real, confirmed figure, and several times higher than the mobile-phone cap. If you searched "Japan cancellation fee ¥1,000" and assumed that number would show up on your fiber bill, it won't. Treat the two contract types as separate questions from here on.

If it's a mobile phone (SIM) contract

Start by checking whether your plan has a fixed term at all. Since 2021–2022, docomo, au, and SoftBank restructured their standard plans away from the old "2-year binding" (2年縛り) model, and most current sign-ups — including sub-brands like ahamo, LINEMO, and povo — carry no fixed term and no early-cancellation fee. If you signed up recently through a major carrier, there's a real chance this section doesn't apply to you at all; check your plan name and contract summary (the document you received at sign-up, or your online account's contract details page) to confirm before assuming a fee exists.

Where a fixed term still applies, whether that's an older legacy plan you've been on for years or some MVNO ("kakuyasu SIM" 格安SIM) contracts that still use the older structure, the 2019 MIC rule caps the penalty at ¥1,000 plus consumption tax, ¥1,100 total, provided your cancellation falls outside the plan's penalty-free renewal window (below). Note that carriers have also introduced separate, smaller short-term fees for newer situations unrelated to the legacy 2-year-binding penalty, such as a modest fee for cancelling a brand-new line within its first year, independent of contract-term binding. These newer fees vary by carrier and change over time, so whichever situation applies, the exact figure and whether it applies to your specific plan is something only your carrier's contract summary or support line can confirm. This guide can tell you the ceiling, not your specific bill.

If it's home internet (fiber, home router, or pocket WiFi)

Fiber (hikari) contracts are where the real money sits. Major providers commonly run two- to three-year plans, and for contracts signed on or after July 1, 2022, MIC rules cap the early-termination fee at one month's usage charge — meaning the cap moves with your plan's monthly price rather than sitting at a fixed ¥1,000. NURO Hikari's own published figure for its two-year plan, ¥3,740, gives a concrete sense of scale. Home routers (docomo home 5G, SoftBank Air) and pocket WiFi plans can carry their own separate terms; check the specific provider rather than assuming the fiber figure transfers over.

If you're mid-contract and the fee looks steep either way, it's worth checking whether your new provider — or the one you're switching to — offers a "switching support" cashback that covers some or all of an old provider's termination fee; several major fiber operators advertise this as a standing promotion, though the amount and conditions vary and should be confirmed on the current offer page before you count on it.

The three-month window that avoids the fee entirely

For both contract types, MIC's consumer-protection rules require providers to open a penalty-free cancellation window of at least three months around each renewal point: the final month of your contract term, plus the two months that follow it. Cancel inside that window and no early-termination fee applies at all, regardless of the cap. Miss it, and the contract renews automatically for another term — but the provider is also required to notify you in advance that an automatic renewal is coming, along with the term length and the fee that would apply if you cancelled outside the window. That notice is usually a postal mail piece, an app notification, or an email a few weeks before the renewal date; it's easy to miss if you've moved or changed your registered email since signing up, which is the single most common reason people find out about a fee after the fact rather than before.

Cancel inside the window

Check your contract start date, add the term length (commonly 24 months), and mark the resulting month plus the following two on a calendar. Cancelling anywhere in that three-month stretch skips the fee entirely.

No fee, either contract type
Cancel outside the window

The fee cap applies (¥1,100 for a fixed-term mobile plan, one month's charge for fiber), and the contract auto-renews for another term if you don't act — starting the clock over.

Fee applies, but capped by law

MNP: keeping your number when you switch carriers

Cancelling a mobile plan outright loses your phone number. If you're switching to a different carrier rather than leaving Japan, MNP (mobile number portability, 番号そのまま乗り換え) lets you take the number with you instead.

Switching carriers without losing your number

  1. 1 Request an MNP reservation number from your current carrier Available through the carrier's app, online account, or support line. Docomo, au, and SoftBank customers can typically do this without visiting a store.
  2. 2 Use it within 15 days The reservation number expires 15 days after issue, inclusive of the issue date. Your old contract isn't actually cancelled yet at this point — it ends only once the new carrier activates your number.
  3. 3 Sign up with the new carrier using that number Some carriers charge a receiving-side handling fee, commonly cited around ¥3,000, though many MVNOs and sub-brands waive it — check the new carrier's fee page before assuming either way.
  4. 4 Confirm the old line is closed Activation with the new carrier automatically terminates the old contract. Check your old carrier's app or a final bill to confirm there's no dangling charge.

On the fee side, an MIC guideline revision pushed carriers to make the MNP handling fee itself (distinct from any early-termination penalty above) free or close to it at the outgoing carrier, capping what a store or phone-support transaction can charge at ¥1,000 before tax where it still applies. If you're leaving Japan entirely rather than switching carriers, MNP doesn't apply — you'd cancel the line outright instead, and a number, once released, isn't guaranteed to be recoverable if you return.

Where this guide stops

This page explains the general regulatory caps and windows that apply across the industry. It doesn't know your specific contract's start date, term length, or fee schedule — those live in the document you signed and your carrier's account portal, and they're what actually governs your situation. For a number you can't find, or a fee that looks wrong on a final bill, your carrier's support line is the direct answer; the Japan Consumer Hotline (消費者ホットライン, dial 188) is a general-purpose escalation point if a provider's explanation doesn't add up, not a substitute for reading your own contract terms first.

Related guides

If you haven't signed up yet and want to avoid a long lock-in from the start, our phone contract guide and home internet comparison both flag which providers and plan types carry fixed terms versus month-to-month flexibility. And if you're leaving Japan for good rather than just switching providers, our guide to shipping belongings home when you leave and our guide to disposing of furniture and appliances before move-out cover the other end-of-lease timing that tends to land in the same few weeks as a phone or internet cancellation.

This article provides general information only and is not legal or telecommunications advice. Early-termination fees, renewal windows, and MNP handling charges are set by each provider within the regulatory caps described above and can change; confirm your contract's exact term dates and fee schedule with your own provider before cancelling. See our disclaimer for more.

Sources

Confirmed via web search on 2026-09-19. Direct fetches of some official soumu.go.jp pages were blocked by this working environment's network policy while writing this article; the MIC rules below were cross-checked against multiple independent reporting sources (Nikkei, Impress Watch's ケータイ Watch) describing the same ministry documents, plus NURO's own published fee page.

Related guides

Everyday Essentials The My Number Card in Japan: A Guide for Foreign Residents Everyday Essentials Opening a Bank Account in Japan as a Foreigner Everyday Essentials How to Get a Phone Contract in Japan as a Foreign Resident Everyday Essentials Converting a Foreign Driver's License to a Japanese License (Gaimen Kirikae)