3G (the third generation of mobile telephony) arrived in 2001, when NTT Docomo launched FOMA, the world's first commercial 3G service. Data was far faster than on 2G, and that headroom made i-mode mobile internet, Chaku-uta ringtone downloads, and video calling practical. Speeds were modest at launch; a later extension of the standard (HSDPA) lifted the headline figure to 14 Mbps downstream. That figure is a theoretical ceiling, and real-world speeds came in below it depending on signal strength and how many people shared the cell.
3G was the backbone of Japan's feature phone heyday. Osaifu-Keitai payments, One Seg TV, and infrared transfer all grew up on 3G networks. Voice calls ran over circuit switching, handled separately from the data side.
The 3G shutdown is complete at all three major Japanese carriers: au switched off in March 2022, SoftBank in April 2024, and Docomo on March 31, 2026. As of August 2026 no 3G network is running in Japan. Docomo's i-mode service also ended on March 31, 2026. Once the networks went dark, 3G-only feature phones stopped working, so users had to move to a garaho or a smartphone.
One trap is easy to miss: some handsets supported 4G for data yet still relied on 3G circuit switching for voice. Those models kept their data connection but lost the ability to place calls once 3G was switched off. Phone numbers themselves were untouched, so the same number carries over to a new handset. The users hit hardest were those who had stayed with a feature phone for years, and carriers pushed the migration along with replacement guidance and in-store support. See also the history of telephone equipment and the difference between 090, 080, and 070 numbers.