Getting your Broken Phone Repaired in Tokyo

So your brand new phone slipped out of your pocket onto the station platform and now you can barely touch the screen without getting chunks of broken glass embedded in your fingers? If you’re covered by Apple Care or an extended warranty, you can take it into a big shop and get your phone back a few days later. If you’re not under warranty, you’re in a hurry, or you don’t want to back-up and delete your data, you’ll need to find a place to repair that smashed screen.

Hopefully you have another device to help you find a solution. If not, we pity you for having to squint through the screen cracks at this article.

Where to find smartphone repair shops

In your home country, you’ll remember that pretty much every mall has one of those kiosks with two or three people fixing smartphones. However, central Tokyo doesn’t really do malls. There are kiosks, but they tend to be near major stations, tiny, and easy to miss. Because of their size, there’s also a good chance that they won’t have the parts you need — unless you have the most vanilla of iPhones (Japan loves iPhones).

So popular are iPhones in Japan, that many smaller repair shops deal exclusively in fixing iPhones and they’ll turn you down before you get to the second syllable of “Android”. If you have a phone from Samsung, Google, or Xiaomi, you are better off heading to one of the larger repair shops from our list below.

How to Choose a Smartphone Repair Shop

The two main features most shops in this list offer are price and speed. Most places will be able to repair your phone really, really quickly — some claim 10 minutes, but the absolute minimum for a screen repair will be 30 minutes. However, when looking at price, something to consider is the parts they use. For example, it’s impossible to get certified iPhone parts if you’re not Apple, so the glass or screen replacement could be of varying quality. In some cases they might even replace your bright, high-contrast OLED panel with a more basic (but cheaper) LCD panel — so make sure you know what you’re getting.

Apart from price, speed, and quality, something else to look out for is a warranty. You’re unlikely to get a long warranty, but 30 day warranties on repairs are common.

With iPhones in particular, the price may vary depending on the amount of damage. For example, if it’s just replacing the glass, it’s relatively cheap. If it’s the glass and the LCD/OLED display underneath, it’s a bit more expensive.

For comparison purposes, we’ve chosen some popular flagship models and looked up the cost of replacing a broken screen. We chose the base models of the iPhone 13, iPhone 12, Samsung Galaxy S22, and Google Pixel 6. Of these, the S22 seems to be the most exotic, so when this was unavailable, we quote the repair price for the S21 instead.

Also, if you’re wondering what a “sumaho” is, it’s a conjunction of “(sumā)to (ho)n” (smart phone).

Smartphone Repair King

Smartphone Repair King has 20 stores throughout the country, with 6 stores in Tokyo. The locations are Shibuya, Ueno, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, Kitasenju, and Umejima. The iPhone prices below are for “light damage”. Replacement parts come with a 1 to 3 month warranty.

* – As of writing, they didn’t have a price listed for the S22, but it’s likely they can handle repairs.

Smartphone Hospital

Smartphone Hospital has nationwide coverage from Hokkaidō through to Okinawa. There are plenty of “hospitals” in Tokyo including branches in Akihabara, Shinbashi, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, Takadanobaba, Kinshicho, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Narimasu, Kichijoji, and Kitasenju. You should be aware that the repairs and prices offered by each branch may vary considerably.

All prices below are for what they call “light damage”. iPhone prices were obtained from the Shinbashi branch, while Android prices come from the Shinjuku branch.

* – S22 price not available as of writing

Sumaho Shūri Honpo (Smartphone Repair Mainstore)

Sumaho Shuri Honpo has branches in Ikebukuro and Shinjuku. You can also post your phone in for repairs.

As of writing, it was the only one of the repair stores to quote a price for S22 repair, so if you have a recent model Samsung phone, this might be your best bet.

* – glass only

Smapho Station

Although Smapho Station has branches throughout Japan, there are only two in the Tokyo area — in Sangenjaya and Kichijoji. They claim a repair as quick as 10 minutes, but this doesn’t seem to apply to screens. The iPhone price is for an “economy” panel. Prices and repair time varied between the Sangenjaya and Kichijoji stores, with the Kichijoji store estimating at least 30 minutes for repair and the Sangenjaya store 45 minutes.

*- S22 unavailable as of writing

iPhone Shūri Kyūkyūbin

iPhone Shūri Kyūkyūbin has branches from Hokkaido to Hyogo, including 19 in the 23 wards area of Tokyo. As the name suggests, they only repair iPhones.

Prices vary considerably from store to store and they state that they adjust prices daily. For example, when we checked, the Ebisu branch was charging ¥6,000 less for a screen replacement on an iPhone 12 than the Ikebukuro branch. So check a few branches before deciding.

Sumaho Shūri Kōbō (Smartphone Repair Workshop)

Sumaho Shūri Kōbō is probably the biggest chain on this list, with over 140 branches in every prefecture of Japan except Iwate and Kōchi. The 23 wards area of Tokyo alone has 20 branches, with most of the major stations covered.

Disappointingly though, the pricing information on their website is quite out of date. The most recent iPhone model with repair price information is the 5 year-old iPhone X. The most recent Samsung model is also the 5 year old S8. This doesn’t mean they can’t repair newer models, but it doesn’t inspire confidence!