Japan

Overview

Japan (日本) is a sovereign island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, the country lies off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland and has a total of 6,852 islands extending along the Pacific coast.

Regulatory Environment

Japan is a member of the ITU and as such follows radio frequency harmonisation principles according to ITU-R Region-3. The regulatory body governing communications policy is the Global Strategy Bureau, and the Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau is charged with regulating the country's radio frequency spectrum activities such as planning, allocations, and licencing.

5G in Japan

In April 2019 the national regulator Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) assigned spectrum in the 3.7 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 28 GHz bands to the country's four mobile network operators. Spectrum has been assigned as follows:

• NTT Docomo: 3600 to 3700 MHz, 4500 to 4600 MHz, and 27.4 to 27.8 GHz (totalling 600 MHz)
• KDDI: 3700 to 3800 MHz, 4000 to 4100 MHz and 27.8 to 28.2 GHz (totalling 600 MHz)
• Softbank: 3900 to 4000 MHz and 29.1 to 29.5 GHz (totalling 500 MHz)
• Rakuten: 3800 to 3900 GHz and 27.0 to 27.4 GHz (totalling 500 MHz)