Nokia phone to use in Japan?

no idea , i also cant find japanese firmware for n73.
i want them for my Japanese songs (text):tongue:

Japanese firmware must exist, because the N73 is out in Japan.

If it's just songs, you could probably get away with just Japanese fonts. You only need the Japanese firmware if you want to use Japanese text input etc.

I also would love to write Japanese with my n73, so i searched the web some time ago for this matter, but no luck. A Japanese font only won't work.

So i can't tell u if it's possible to flash your phone to a Japanese firmware. But usually Japanese cellphones don't have a sim-card slot. Maybe its a special model for japan from nokia???. Furthermore Japanese provider like NTT DoCoMo, AU (KDDI) and Softbank don't cell any SIM-cards. But roaming should be find because of umts network (but expensive for sure and pretty useless if u want to mail in Japanese). Another issue would be that they don't use SMS. Every handset is equipped with email support (much cheaper and u can type more text, SMS is so expensive compared to it). So if u want to use mail with your roaming N73, data connection will be very expensive and u can't even type Japanese.

There is a localization software for symbian cellphones but sadly only for s60 2 available. 😞
ht*p://shop.psiloc.com/en/

If u ask me, i would advise u to buy a cheep prepaid handset in japan. They only work in japan but that's OK. You can get a cheap one from Softbank already from 3000yen if i remember right (around 25 US Dollar). They all have English menu support. Of course u can still type in Japanese as well.

As far as i know NTT DoCoMo don't sell prepaid cellphones.

AU (KDDI) do ---> ht*p://w*w.au.kddi.com/english/prepaid/index.h*ml

But i prefer Softbank (ex Vodafone) ---> ht*p://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/prepaid/

I hope i could help u a bit.
And sorry for my poor English.

Bye bye

OK dude i can answer some of your q's here.

I am English and moved to Japan a few years ago. This summer i bought a Nokia N73 off 'the bay' in the UK and got it unlocked. My NTT Docomo phone (keitai) had a SIM card in it. I transfered this to the unlocked N73 and it works fine. I pick up a 3G signal here in Japan wherever I go (a Japanese college said i would not be able to get a signal in Miyoshi, but I did!!).

I can confirm (after just setting it up 10mins ago) that SMS works. It did take me a little bit to find the Docomo message centre number though.

Obviously (i think) it will not accept Japanese fonts as it stands and i have no idea whether you can install a Japanese firmware on it, but i dont want it due to the quick txt problem.

also you cannot connect (so far i think) to the Imode FOMA facility, which enables the Email option for your phone here. So SMS is the only way.

If any body knows about Imode on the N73 or how to install Japanese fonts/write txt on the eng OS then please let me know!!

So some devices use SIM-card now. Only knew that from Softbank because they sell western cellphones. But can u confirm that you can't buy only the SIM-card? Or is it now possible?

Sure u can send SMS. But the question is if Japanese keitais are able to receive those sms. If i send a SMS from Germany they can't (maybe phone specific. there are some phones which also work outside of japan, perhaps they can???)

But i wonder: You live in japan, why u want to use a crappy nokia phone if u can get one of the latest high-tech keitais with damn nice display? i really wonder... ^^

The problem with buying a pre-paid phone is that you have to have Japanese ID, such as an alien registration card. For a visitor, a passport alone is not enough.

Softbank let you rent just a SIM card (search Google for "softbank rental"😉

The web site implies that you should be able to use SMS and MMS, but does not mention iMode. I rented a handset from them last time.

I think it should be possible to make the phone work with Japanese by changing to a Japanese firmware. If I had an N73 I'd try it, but I have not bought a phone yet. The Japanese firmware should do English and Japanese, and support iMode. The only real question is if it will have predictive text in English.

First off I am pretty sure I bought a Pre-Paid phone with just my passport from Vodafone (as was), but i could be wrong. it has been known!!😃

SIMs - I don't know much about it, my work gave me a keitai as they pay for calls etc. It has to be a phone with no camera, so it's not that good:icon13: . It came with a SIM on board.:icon14:

I bought a nokia n73 because i can use it everywhere in the world i travel to (Most Jp phones only work on 3G) and it has predictive txt which, so far, i have not discovered on Jp phones (except in Japanese that is!).

As far as SMS goes, i send and receive SMS txts from my friend in the UK. I have in the past (from my old Jp phone) been able to do the same but some thing strange went on with another friend. Insofar as i was able to recive txts from him but i was not able to send to him. However i dont know if that has changed with the new phone as i've not tried!

let me know if you install Jp firmware on your N73, i would like to know if it is worth bothering with..😉

I found some product codes:

"0529822: RM-133 CUST.TRX JAPAN (Deep Plum)"
"0529827: RM-133 CUST.TRX JAPAN (Mocha Brown)"
source: ht*p://q.yesky.com/group/dsc/view.do?rvId=8931551

"the current product code for Softbank Japan's N73 is 0514867
N73 RM-133 (55.01)"
source: ht*p://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/print?board.id=swupdate&message.id=14071&page=1&format=all

With my fw-version (3.0638.0.0.1) there were no new updates available, so i could't flash it.

btw: i also bought my prepaid phone from a vodafone shop in shibuya only with my passport.

So when did you guys buy your pre-paid phones? As I understand it, they changed the rules recently so that you have to be a resident of Japan to get a phone, because people were just getting pre-paid phones and taking them home with them to be unlocked. Since the price of the phone was subsidised, the phone company lost out. Unless you paid full price for your phone (�200 odd for an N73? 40,000yen?)

My brother has an N73 so I'll ask if he can try those product codes. It's encouraging that Gumbossos says his phone had English predictive mode. It's essential to have both, otherwise English text entry is slow and Japanese is impossible.

mojo-chan wrote:So when did you guys buy your pre-paid phones? As I understand it, they changed the rules recently so that you have to be a resident of Japan to get a phone, because people were just getting pre-paid phones and taking them home with them to be unlocked. Since the price of the phone was subsidised, the phone company lost out. Unless you paid full price for your phone (�200 odd for an N73? 40,000yen?)

My brother has an N73 so I'll ask if he can try those product codes. It's encouraging that Gumbossos says his phone had English predictive mode. It's essential to have both, otherwise English text entry is slow and Japanese is impossible.

he must have the older firmware. i had the same problem until i managed to update it to v4.

So when did you guys buy your pre-paid phones? As I understand it, they changed the rules recently so that you have to be a resident of Japan to get a phone,

ah i see, i got it a while back, maybe 2 years ago. However you can get an Alien reg card on a 90 day visa if you can be bothered to go through with the hassle.

t's encouraging that Gumbossos says his phone had English predictive mode

i think you misunderstood me here. I meant my N73 has eng predictive txt, and that is why i bought it and use it over and above my Jp keitai that doesn't have eng predictive txt. So far i have not seen a phone with both eng and Jp predictive txt.

So we will have to wait and see what happens when you flash with the Jp firmware......

I asked in a Nokia shop today, and the guy said that the Nokia service centre could install a Japanese language pack, or you can download and install one yourself. He said it should do predictive in both languages.

Apparently they do quite a few for Chinese students, and the odd Japanese one.

mojo-chan, could u ask them how to download japanese language pack. i really would like to install one by myself! if u can find out any information about how to do that please let us know!

Psiloc now offers Japanese language input software for Nokia N73!
And it works like a charm!!! Go check their website at www.psiloc.com.
I've been waiting so long for this... And I'm really happy now (even though the software costs $100).

Cheers.