Can I Use My Japan eSIM as a Hotspot for Friends?

If you're traveling in Japan and you're the only one in your group with an eSIM or data plan, you might be wondering:

Can I just share my connection with everyone else by turning on hotspot?

The short answer: Yes, you can — but there are a few things to keep in mind so you don’t get stuck with mysterious errors or wonder why it’s not working.

We’ve had customers who thought their eSIM wasn’t working just because the hotspot option wouldn’t show up. In most cases, it wasn’t the eSIM itself — it was just a settings issue.

Let’s walk through what you need to know about using your Japan eSIM as a hotspot.

First, not all eSIMs support personal hotspot

This is super important: Not every eSIM on the market allows hotspot/tethering.

Some international eSIMs (especially those ultra-cheap, global ones) don’t support hotspot at all. Even if you install it correctly and have internet, you just won’t be able to share your connection.

With CDJapan Rental’s eSIM, you can use the hotspot feature — but even then, depending on your phone (especially iPhones), some extra steps may be needed to make it work.

👉 Check out CDJapan Rental’s eSIM plans here

Getting an error like “To enable personal hotspot, contact carrier”? Here’s what to do

We had a customer contact us with this exact issue:

“I installed the eSIM and everything looked fine, but when I went to Settings → Cellular and tapped on ‘Set Up Personal Hotspot,’ I got this message:
‘To enable Personal Hotspot on this account, contact carrier.’
I wasn’t sure if it was a problem with the eSIM or something I missed during setup.”

If this sounds familiar, don’t panic — this is surprisingly common on iPhones, and it's often not the eSIM’s fault. Try the following steps:

✅ Step 1: Manually input APN settings

Even if internet works fine without any setup, hotspot often needs a manual APN configuration, especially on iPhones.

ESIM sellers usually include clear instructions and the APN info in their guide — just enter it in the “Mobile Data Network” section and the hotspot option should appear.

✅ Step 2: Turn off your other SIMs or eSIMs

If your phone has a physical SIM or another eSIM (like your usual US number), sometimes iOS gets confused and thinks it should use that line to share data — which breaks the hotspot feature entirely.

Go to Settings → Cellular and turn off any SIM or eSIM you’re not using, leaving only the Japan eSIM active. Then try hotspot again.

✅ Step 3: Restart your phone or update iOS

Yep, the classic “turn it off and on again” trick. We’ve seen cases on Apple forums where this exact error message disappears after a reboot or software update.

It seems to be a random iOS glitch sometimes — annoying, but fixable.

Will using hotspot eat up my data quickly?

Short answer: It depends on what your friend is doing.

If they’re just using maps, checking LINE or Messenger, or browsing Instagram — not a big deal.

But if they’re watching YouTube, TikTok, or Netflix? Yeah, it’ll burn through your data fast.

For example:

Streaming video can use 1–3GB per hour.
Social media and image-heavy sites still use a fair bit of data over time.

If you’re planning to share your data, make sure you’ve picked a high-data or unlimited plan — or ask your friend nicely to turn on Low Data Mode while they’re connected.