AU contract phone into prepaid?

[esoterica]

I bought an AU SH001 last year on a contract then cancelled it to get an iPhone with Softbank. I've still got the SIM card and all that other stuff though.

A friend of mine is coming to visit Japan and I was wondering if there is any way I can take my old phone and turn it into a prepaid one without a contract? Like, would putting a prepaid AU SIM card into it do the trick? Or could I reactivate it using my old SIM?

Thanks!

[BigInJapan]

As far as I know, you cannot get prepaid SIM cards in Japan.
- It seems that Docomo stopped its prepaid service in 2005.
- Softbank offers 6 prepaid models, with voice, normal e-mail, and data communication.
- AU only offers two models of prepaid phones, with voice, C-mail only, and no data communication. On the English AU site it does say that you can use a current AU phone with a prepaid card (it's not a SIM), but I would assume that the phone has to be already registered with AU.
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[esoterica]

Thanks for the info

I saw that on the AU site too, which is why I was wondering if it'd be possible to use a phone that was once registered with AU and that I still have the original SIM card for, because it doesn't say anything about that.

My friend is under 20 and so am I, so getting a prepaid phone from Softbank seems to be out of the question.

[aquamarine]

Tell your friend to rent a phone+sim at Narita Airport's SoftBank shop. My buddy rented one and it was 'reasonably' priced.