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I just bought my first cell phone ever last weekend, for exactly the reasons you describe: my bank (in Japan) stopped letting me log in to my online account without 2FA, which can only be received as SMS. I don't need or want a phone, don't use any of the apps, but I still had to purchase one and pay the monthly subscription in order to access my bank account.

boo

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If that happened in North America, you could just use TextNow to create a SMS-capable phone number and use it out of your browser.

I think there is no such thing in Japan: a website where anyone an create a throwaway account and get a phone number in any area code. Telephony is tightly run there. There are some commercial services like that that will give you a phone number, but you have to submit paperwork proving that you're a resident of Japan.

So you mean that, banking aside, you never had problems by not having a phone number?

Landlines still exist.

Japan's quite unique in that regard.

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