The Start of a Number Gives It Away
When a call arrives from a number you do not recognise, a glance at the opening digits is enough to tell you what sort of telephone is at the other end. Japanese phone numbers are arranged so that the leading digits determine what the number is for.
Knowing this lets you form a rough judgement before you even pick up: this one is a mobile, so probably a private individual; this one begins 050, so it may well be a business; this one begins 0120, so it is a company's toll-free line. Learning to read the start of a number is also the first step in protecting yourself from nuisance calls and fraud calls.
Mobile Numbers: 090, 080 and 070
Numbers for smartphones and mobile phones begin with one of 090, 080 or 070, and run to 11 digits in all.
- 090: the oldest of the mobile prefixes, in use since 1999
- 080: added in 2002, once 090 numbers began to run short
- 070: originally reserved for PHS handsets, known colloquially as pitchi, but used for mobile phones as well since 2013
None of this means that a 090 number belongs to an older person and a 070 number to a newcomer. Because number portability, or MNP lets you keep your number when you change mobile operator, the opening digits tell you nothing at all about the owner.
Taken together, incidentally, the 090, 080 and 070 ranges hold a capacity of roughly 270 million numbers. Japan's total population is about 123 million, on a July 2026 estimate, so on paper there looks to be plenty of room. In practice, 090 and 080 have already been allocated to carriers in full and 070 is past the 90 per cent mark: many people hold more than one number, and numbers are assigned to devices such as tablets as well, so demand runs far ahead of the population. A change to the numbering plan in December 2024 added a 060 range for mobile use, though as of August 2026 it has not yet entered service. If you would like to know more about how mobile phone numbers work, see our article on the differences between the 090, 080 and 070 ranges and how they came about.
Landline Numbers: 03, 06, 045 and the Rest
Landlines - the telephone at home, or the one in a shop - begin with an area code, and run to 10 digits in all.
- 03: the 23 wards of Tokyo
- 06: the city of Osaka
- 045: the city of Yokohama
- 052: the city of Nagoya
- 011: the city of Sapporo
- 092: the city of Fukuoka
The area code tells you which part of the country the call is coming from. A call from a region you have nothing to do with is quite likely to be a sales call. For more, see our guide to looking up an area code and identifying the region.
How many digits an area code runs to varies from place to place. Large cities such as Tokyo (03) and Osaka (06) have two, Yokohama (045) and Nagoya (052) have three, and towns and villages in the provinces have four or five. The shorter the code, the more telephone users the area has. Because a landline runs over a fixed telephone line, its number is tied to a place, which is not true of a mobile.
IP Phone Numbers: 050
A number beginning 050 belongs to an IP telephone. These run over an internet connection, and their distinguishing feature is a low call charge. They run to 11 digits in all.
Because 050 numbers are cheap and easy to obtain, they are used not only by corporate call centres but sometimes for nuisance calls and fraud calls as well. An incoming call from an 050 number you do not recognise is worth treating with a degree of caution.
IP telephones use a technology called VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. Put simply, the voice is converted into digital data and sent over the internet. The big point to watch with 050 numbers is that they cannot reach emergency numbers such as 110 or 119. Emergency calls go through from mobiles, from landlines, and from IP telephone services that use an ordinary area code such as 03 or 06, Hikari Denwa among them, but 050 services are not in that group. In an emergency, call from a mobile or a landline instead.
Toll-Free Numbers: 0120 and 0800
Numbers beginning 0120 or 0800 are toll-free, or Free Dial. The caller pays nothing for the call; the company receiving it bears the charge.
They are commonly used for corporate customer desks and support centres. The only difference between 0120 and 0800 is the number of digits; the mechanism is identical. For more, see our article on the difference between 0120 and 0800.
Toll-free numbers cost a company money, but they are adopted so that customers feel free to call. Bear in mind, though, that they are sometimes configured so that calls from 050 IP telephones and from certain mobiles will not connect. If your call fails to go through, try looking for the company's ordinary number, one beginning 03 or 06.
Navi Dial: 0570
Numbers beginning 0570 are Navi Dial numbers. The arrangement is the reverse of toll-free: the caller bears the call charge. Worse, these numbers fall outside the unlimited calling plans offered for smartphones, so the charge is billed separately.
They are often used for corporate support desks, so take care: a long call becomes an expensive one. With NTT Docomo Business's Navi Dial, a call from a mobile costs 11 yen including tax for every 20 seconds as of August 2026, so being kept waiting for 30 minutes comes to about 990 yen. Even when a 0570 number is the only one you can find, a search of the company's official website will sometimes turn up an ordinary number beginning 03 or 06. An ordinary number is covered by an unlimited calling plan, so using it saves you the charge.
Emergency Numbers: 110, 119 and 118
There are special three-digit numbers as well.
- 110: emergency calls to the police
- 119: emergency calls to the fire and ambulance service
- 118: emergency calls to the Japan Coast Guard
These are worth committing to memory. They are the numbers that save lives when it matters. Calls are free of charge, and can be made from a mobile, a landline or a public telephone alike. For more, see our guide to the emergency numbers.
Where the matter is not an emergency but you would still like to consult the police, there is #9110, and where you cannot decide whether to call an ambulance, there is #7119. Should you dial an emergency number by mistake, do not hang up: simply say "Machigaemashita" (I dialled by mistake) and all will be well.
Calls From Abroad: Numbers Beginning With +
A number written with a leading plus sign, as in +81, +1 or +44, is in international notation. +81 is Japan's country code, so such a call originates within Japan, whereas +1 (the United States), +44 (the United Kingdom), +86 (China) and the rest come from abroad.
An incoming call from a foreign number you have no reason to expect is very likely an international nuisance call. Returning it can incur a large call charge, so ignoring it is the safe course.
Turning a number with +81 in front of it back into an ordinary number is easy: replace the +81 with a 0. So +81 90-1234-5678 is the same number as 090-1234-5678. Your phone's contacts may save numbers in the +81 form automatically, but for use within Japan either form will place the call without difficulty.
Points to Watch When Judging by the Opening Digits
Reading the start of a number to work out what kind it is comes in useful, but there are several things to bear in mind.
- Beware of spoofed numbers: fraud gangs sometimes falsify the area code so that the call appears to be coming from a local number. Never conclude that a call is safe from the number alone
- IP telephones can use area codes too: some services, NTT's Hikari Denwa among them, are IP telephones and yet use area codes such as 03 and 06. A number beginning 03 is not necessarily a landline
- The effect of number portability: for anybody who has switched operator using MNP, the opening digits no longer match the operator actually providing the service
Summary - A Quick Guide to the Opening Digits
- 090, 080, 070 - a mobile phone
- 03, 06, 045 and the like - a landline, and the region can be identified
- 050 - an IP telephone, that is to say an internet phone
- 0120, 0800 - toll-free, free to the caller
- 0570 - Navi Dial, charged to the caller and outside unlimited calling plans
- 110, 119, 118 - emergency calls
- A leading + - international notation
Keep this quick guide in mind and you will be able to judge a call from an unfamiliar number without any fluster. Get into the habit of reading the start of a number, and use your phone with confidence.