Hello everyone there is a big possibility that I will be a student in Japan starting this spring.
My phone has been letting me down on many occasions and I plan to buy a new one. It will be a Samsung model from 2022.
I plan to take pictures in the classroom, library, and scenery pictures from train travels. As someone disturbed by phone sounds and sensitive to sudden audio, I also don’t prefer to have my phone make any shutter sounds while taking photos. I saw information mostly targeted to iPhones, but not much for android phones.
I have some specific questions,
1 – Does your android phone bought outside Japan, used with a Japanese sim card start to emit the shutter sound when in Japan?
2 – If you bought your android phone in Japan. When you are out of Japan with a non-Japan-based sim card, does the shutter sound continues?
I would appreciate any kind of life examples and extra details like where you got your phone from, the model, etc., thanks in advance!
8 comments
My very old Samsung phone bought outside of Japan made shutter sound in Japan. My old Samsung phone bought outside of Japan don’t. My current Sony phone bought inside Japan doesn’t make sound outside Japan.
> As someone disturbed by phone sounds and sensitive to sudden audio.
Note that most people around you will have their phone make shutter sound, so you may need headphone when in public area.
As far as I know, only android sold for japan market make sound.
And for inside train, there are many silent camera app you can use. But I usually make sure I don’t point my phone to people face ( and I usually keep my camera covered – built in from phone case).
In the classroom, you only take pictures when sensei allows you to. So no problem when everyone taking pictures at same time.
TL;DR just use silent camera app. (if you stay long term, you might want to buy phone sold in japan. Being able to use mobile suica is a fair trade off for the shutter sound).
I have a Pixel 5 bought in America and it makes the shutter sound. Can’t turn it off. Probably switched when I changed my account location to Japan.
By law, any device able to take pictures in Japan must make a sound to indicate it is doing so.
Of course, my Japanese-made phone sold only in Japan doesn’t. Because Japan is a *very* logical country.
Try to avoid taking pictures with people in them who aren’t your subject. I don’t know if it’s still a law, but it used to be that you could not take identifying pictures of someone without their express permission, which is a large part of why Japanese YouTubers typically blur out anyone’s faces in their videos.
As for sound, Japan is a noisy place. Good luck.
I always thought the shutter sound lock was tied to your sim card. In other words, if you’re using a Japanese sim, you probably can’t disable the shutter sound. I guess there can be some exceptions, but that’s the way I’ve always understood it.
There are third party camera apps that work around this, one in particular is called “Pix”.
Others have addressed the phone question, but there’s something else here you need to think about:
>As someone disturbed by phone sounds and sensitive to sudden audio
If you’re sensitive to sudden audio you are probably not going to have a good time in Japan. There is ***constant*** noise in pretty much any urban area in Japan. Political loudspeaker trucks. Pachinko parlors. Random advertising from storefronts and hawkers. Nuclear-level announcements from the neighborhood loudspeakers.
Sudden loud noises are *really* hard to avoid.
If your android is rooted, you can replace the shutter ogg file with some blank sound file I think.
I have a Flip3 I bought in Australia and use a DoCoMo sim card. No shutter sound.
Before that I used a S10+ bought from Malaysia with iijmio sim card. No shutter sound.