Making International Telephone Calls from Japan

There are several ways to make international calls from Japan. You can make direct calls from payphones, buy a calling card from a convenience store, or call from a mobile phone.

Direct Call form a Pay Phone

To make an international call you must use the correct type of payphone. If you are calling from one with a gold plate then you need to follow these steps:

Lift the receiver and deposit money ----> Dial 001 -----> Country Code ----> Area Code ----> Telephone Number

If you are calling from a home or office phone then you need to follow these steps:

Dial 001 ----> Country Code ----> Area Code ----> Telephone Number

Buying a card from a convenience store

International calling cards really are an interesting thing. While every single international calling card will have instructions in English there are very few workers at convenience stores who can speak English so that you can order one. To help you out here are some useful phrases:
To say that you want to buy an international calling card: "Kokusai telefon kaado onegaishimasu"
Next the clerk will ask you which card you would like to buy. At many convenience stores this will be in the form of 1000, 3000, and 5,000 yen cards with the more expensive one giving you the most talk time.
The 1000 yen one "sen en no onegaishimasu"
The 3000 yen one "san zen en no onegaishimasu"
The 5000 yen one "go sen en no onegaishimasu"

Calling from a mobile phone

To call from most mobile phones all you need to do is dial 005345 then the country code, the area code and the phone number. Quite simple but also quite expensive.