Telephone Service

Domestic

You can find indoor and outdoor public telephones just about everywhere in Japan. Yellow and green telephones accept both 10yen and lOOyen coins. Red phones accept 10yen coins only. Green phones also accept magnetic, prepaid telephone cards. The charge for a loal call is 10 yen per minute. A call is automatically cut off if an additional 10yen has not been inserted when the warning buzz is heard. You can make direct inter-city calls from these phones.

Domestic area codes always start with zero, and are pa- renthesized or hyphenated in telephone directories to indicate where the area code ends. The area codes are 03 for Tokyo, 06 for Osaka, 052 for Nagoya, 075 for Kyoto, 045 for Yokohama and 0476 for Narita.

     Charges for inter-city call:
     (number of seconds for 100yen; daytime rate)
        From Tokyo to Yokohama             300sec. 
                      Chiba                240
                      Nagoya                85
                      Kyoto, Osaka          85
                      Fukuoka               85

Domestic calls are cheaper at night and on Saturday, Sunday and national holidays, with the charge reduced by 20 to 40 percent for domestic calls of distances over 60 km.

All city code telephone numbers in the 23 wards of Tokyo were changed in January 1991 into 4-digit numbers. If the number you want to call starts with 3 digits (342-5526, for example), simply add another 3 to the first three digits (3342-5526).

International

You can make a direct overseas call from an "International & Domestic Card/Coin Telephone" at airports, hotels, and major office centers in big cities. The access numbers are 001 (KDD), 0041 (ITJ) and 0061 (IDC). The rates and locations served by these companies vary. For further information , dial: KDD(Kokusai Denshin Denwa): 0057(toll-free) ITJ(International Telecom Japan):0120-44-0041(toll-free) IDC(International Digital Communications): 0120-03-0061(toll-free) You can place person-to-person, collect and credit card calls only through KDD by dialing 0051 from anywhere in Japan.

Direct-dial calls are 40 percent less expensive after 11:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m.

New gray telephones with monitor screens can service you in either English or Japanese with simple instructions for use. More and more of these new phones are appearing in the cities.

To call Japan from overseas, omit the first "O" of the area code.

Time Zones

All of Japan is in the same time zone, 9 hours ahead of G.M.T. No Daylight Saving Time is practiced in Japan.

Telegram, Facsimile and Computer Networking

Facsimile machines are available at most hotels. Ask the front desk or go to the hotel's business service center.

Some hotel phones and the new gray telephones have modular sockets for computer network access.

Toll-Free Numbers

Telephone numbers starting with "0120" are receiver-paid calls under NTT's "Free Dial 0120" service. (For Japan Telecom, the toll-free numbers begin with "0088"). But calling areas are sometimes limited.

Telephone Cards

Prepaid magnetic telephone cards slipped into slots in public telephones are very popular in Japan. A 1,000yen card buys 105 calls at 10yen each. Those over l,000yen in value are not available at present. Many of the cards have attractive pictures on one side, and have become collector's items. They can also be good souvenirs to take home with you after full use, but note that the cost of some cards are more expensive than the number of telephone calls you can use it for.