Whilst internet access has not yet been written into the Geneva convention on human rights, us gaijins have pretty much come to expect it at the workplace. Welcome to Japan, where the schools don't quite get it and 'Every JET situation is different' (yawn!). Unfortunately this is very much the case when it comes to getting online at school. It is the Japanese governments aim to have all schools connected to the internet but this has, thus far only been implemented to varying degrees.

Nevertheless the internet is a valuable information source and can be used to good effect in your classes, to gather information and other teaching resources, to pass time at school and to stay in touch with friends.

Your school may have state of the art machines that cannot connect to the internet, or they may have ancient machines that can, or vice versa. The computers may be in a special room for staff to use, they may be in the middle of the staff room or in front of the principal's desk. Maybe they are in a school lab requiring an armed teacher escort to use outside of lessons. Who knows until you get there? So don't stress.

Topped with some utterly bizarre usage rules which your school or Board of Education might implement, you are not sure of a 24 hour a day internet orgy. Some schools use internet filters which block access to certain sites such as Hotmail and Yahoo and even ask to screen all your outgoing and incoming email (no joke, although this was a rare case).

It may be the case that your school has the equipment, a great connection and open access. In which case you might be prudent to show that you are using it constructively, or at least come across that way. If they think all you do is surf and email they may restrict your access. If they feel that you are using it as a teaching tool or to practice your Japanese then you will be left alone. So print out a picture of a giraffe with accompanying text every now and then and show it to someone important and repeat "intaneto!". They might just get the message.

However, your life will be made considerably easier and your productivity will rise if you buy and use a laptop. You can then work away at your desk at school no problem whenever you want. Be prepared for people standing behind you looking at your screen to see what you are up to. They are not checking up on you, they just don't understand the concept of privacy and probably are interested in what you are doing.

If you have a computer at home or are thinking of getting one you will no doubt want to get online. There are a wide variety of choices in getting online in Japan. They are as follows:

You will need to consider what kind of connection you require based upon your useage. The difference between all these methods is speed and cost. Some of these services may not be available in your area, for example cable and ADSL on the whole are not always available in rural areas although the network is expanding.

REGULAR 56K CONNECTION

If you only intend on checking e-mail and surfing occasionally then you may be happy with a regular internet connection or to pick up a mobile internet card. Ultimately, you may in fact be tied to this connection option as your local telephone exchange may not support the ISDN or ADSL standard. However, as telephone calls are expensive in Japan this can easily add around ¥8,000 to ¥10,000 to your standard phone bill in connection charges in addition to the charge you pay your ISP (which can be around ¥2,000 yen per month). It is also important to find an ISP that has an access point which is within a short-distance phone call.

THE MOBILE CARD

The mobile internet card incurs slightly higher call charges than a fixed line but it offers you the freedom of 64k or 128k access from anywhere you like without having to plug into a phone jack. This is the perfect solution if you bring your laptop into school as you can get online from your desk. Using mobile phone technology, the card slots into the PCI slot of your laptop and connects to the internet using the cellular network. You will need to check coverage in your area to use it and some rural areas will not offer coverage. You can pick up these cards at mobile phone shops

and despite the protestations of the person in the shop, the cards are compatible with English language Windows. All you need do is install the driver which comes with it and then dail up to your ISP which will have special PHS access points for you to dail into. You will need identification to buy these cards in the same way you do to buy a cellular phone. Some companies now offer unlimited 24 hour access for a ¥70,000 flat fee per year.

ISDN AND THE NTT FLET'S SERVICE

NTT invested heavily in supporting ISDN and with the emergence of ADSL and Cable it lost a great deal of money. If you are not able to pick up a high speed internet service in your area then this may be the next best thing. The service allows for 128k connection which is faster than a regular modem, and allows voice and data to share the same line so you can still use your telephone or fax whilst you are online. The service area for ISDN is wider than that of ADSL. Note that if you have your telephone line upgraded to ISDN you will not be able to hook up to ADSL at a later date as this requires a regular analog telephone line. To get an ISDN line does incur a monthly or one off cost, the details of which are explained here.

NTT East and NTT West offer a fixed fee ISDN service for Internet connection, called "FLET'S ISDN." This service allows ISDN users to dial-up to their Internet provider for a fixed monthly fee of 3,600 yen per month. Note that NTT's basic charge for ISDN usage (currently 2,830 yen) still applies. Your will need to be registered with an ISP that is included in the FLET'S ISDN connection service (which Asahi Net, details below, is).

Once you register for FLET'S ISDN you will connect to to one of NTT's FLET'S ISDN access points for as long as you like. This is a cost effective option for internet conneciton, especially if your internet use is medium to heavy. As you are not dailing up your ISP's access point you can choose the cheapest pricing plan, i.e. with the least hours per month as you will not use any of them. You can of course still dail up your own ISP's access point.

You will pay NTT's FLET'S ISDN service fee of 3,600 yen per month to either NTT East or NTT West, i.e. this is the fixed ISDN fee. In addition you will pay your ISP your standard monthly fee for the pricing plan you have chosen, logically the cheapest.

You may use NTT's FLET'S ISDN service in all the areas in which NTT have released it. Contact NTT's English Customer Service telephone number (tel. 0120-364-463) to confirm that the service is available in your area and to ascertain if there is a waiting list for the service.

APPLYING FOR THE SERVICE

You will of course first need an ISP, both JENS SpinNet and AsahiNet offer good value and English language customer support and are registered for the FLET'S service. To use NTT's FLET'S ISDN service it is first necessary to apply to NTT for it. NTT's English Customer Service telephone number is 0120-364-463: contact NTT for details about the service and whether or not you live in an area in which the service is available. In some areas there are waiting lists for the service.

After application for NTT's FLET'S ISDN service is complete, you will be given instructions by your ISP to configure your computers for connection to NTT's FLET'S ISDN service via the access point number supplied by NTT.

If you can't connect, check that you've got a touch-tone phone line. If when you dial your phone you hear a series of clicks and no tones, you have pulse dialling. Either upgrade your line to touch-tone or set your computer to pulse dialling in the appropriate control panel.

ADSL has swept Japan in the last few years offering incresaingly fast internet access. If you are a heavy internet user it will bring cost benefit to subscribe to a high speed service. This will allow you to surf the internet, download music files and watch movie trailers at the blink of an eye. High speed ADSL or Cable services allow for unlimited high speed access from around ¥3,000 per month. As with ISDN, you can use your telephone line whilst you are online. To hook up to ADSL you will need to own an analog phone line into which you will plug your ADSL modem and your regular telephone.

This service is not freely available outside of urban areas and you will need to check with providers whether you live in the service area. You can easily check whether you are within a service area at the ODN website, click on 'JDSL Personal' and type in your phone number. The response is instant and the sentence 'service available' or 'service not available' will appear on your screen. Should you wish you can also sign up to ADSL through their website.

There are not too many providers in Japan that offer English language customer support and in addition to this some require Japanese software to run on your computer to manage your connection. This will run you into problems if you are running an English language version of Windows.

Both JENS SpinNet and Asahi-Net have many years of experience in serving the international community and offer comprehensive internet services and English language customer support. They are both very JET friendly too. You can sign up to JENS SpinNet with a zero yen sign up fee (and claim a free gift) by visting the DealZone.

For more information on ADSL visit the Asahi-Net or the JENS Spin Net website. Another convenient ADSL service on offer is the ubiquitous Yahoo BB. However be mindful that there are many reports of poor customer service and staight up cock-ups. This is understandable considering their rapid growth and customer base, one would hope that they catch up in the vital areas of customer support for when things go wrong.

	Courtesy of a national blitz of offering modems and sign ups on the spot they are now Japan's largest internet provider. They offer a range of connection speeds from 12MB upwards from around ¥3,000 a month.
You will need to register in Japanese so you may need some assistance. Once you receive the modem you simply plug it in and go. Visit their website for more information.

Cable access cuts out the need to deal with NTT as the cable company will provide you all you need. It offers lightning quick 100Mbs access but is not widely available outside of dense urban areas and is the most expensive option. If you already have cable TV then the setup is relatively easy. If you do not then there are installation fees involved. Visit the J-Com website for more information on cable and to sign up.

INTERNET SECURITY

If you do sign up to cable or ADSL we recommend that you invest in some firewall software as you are effectively opening up a 24/7 portal to your computer and inviting a legion of hackers and snoopers into your personal folders. These packages such as BlackIce Defender and Norton Security are a sound investment and you will be surprised at how many 'attacks' they pick up an block.

If you are going to set up a dail up 56k or ISDN connection an important factor when choosing your ISP is their access point network. The telephone charge required to make the dial-up connection between your computer and the access point is payable by you to your telephone company. So if this call is a local call you will be spending far less than if it is out of your locality. If you do not have a dial up access point within your area you can use the NTT Area Plus scheme to make the have the call charged at the same rate as a local call. It is also worth signing up for the NTT Time Plus scheme to get more online time for your yen. The table below shows the call charges to expect for your internet connection if your are dailing a local number for your connection. (Visit our 'telephony' section for more details). With some ISDN services you may also opt for a permanent ISDN connection which offers unlimited access for a fixed fee, (details above).

Finding an ISP in Japan is quite easy and there are now several Internet service providers or ISPs who offer English support. Expect to pay between ¥1,500 and ¥3,500 per month, plus telephone costs. Most Japanese ISPs do not offer unlimited access, meaning that your online time is restricted to a certain amount of time a month, some restrict the size of email attachments you can receive and some charge set up fees. There are however a select few ISPs who do not place these restrictions on you and that have English support.

JENS SpinNet, as mentioned earlier, have extensive experience in serving the international community and offer comprehensive internet services and English language customer support. They are one of the original big ISPs in Japan and are JET friendly. You can sign up to JENS SpinNet with a zero yen sign up fee (and claim a free gift) by visting the DealZone where you can sign up through the special JET sign up pages.

Asahi Net offers a full English service and whose prices compete with all the other ISPs in Japan. Asahi Net offers dial-up connection throughout Japan, mobile access, as well as broadband (ADSL and FTTH) in many areas. There is no membership sign-up charge.

The Asahi Net support line opens from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday (English line : 03-3569-3522 Fax number : 03-3569-3501) or you can e-mail: .

A company called Livedoor also provides free Internet access, excluding the cost of the dial up connection. There are a couple of drawbacks to this service. When you go online with Livedoor there is a small window that is always open running adverts, which can be quite annoying.

Also their access point network is not so developed and if you live outside of any major town or city you will not have a local access point number to call. You can order the setup file by phone on 03-5770-8117 from 12:00 to 21:00. Signing up is very easy, you will need to download a little program from their website which configures your PC for the free access. Once you have downloaded the file you simply run the program and it does everything for you. This file is also available for download from Jetset for PC windows users.

It is possible to use a payphone in the street to get online in Japan. If you have a laptop, all you need is the modem cable and a suitable phone. Look for the dark grey phones, which say international phone on the phone box. These phones have data communications ports enabling you to plug your laptop into the phone (there are both analog and ISND jacks available). Choose the English language option and then press the data communications button. Insert your money and then dial up as normal from your laptop, as you would do at home. Whilst online, an indicator on the phone shows you how much time you have left. Once you are finished, just pull out the plug and off you go.