Shopping guide: where and how to buy things from Japan

Now I bet some of you are asking, “Reikon, where and how do you get all this awesome stuff?” Well, I’m here to tell you the best sources I’ve found for buying things from Japan. No longer will you have to scour shady stores, Ebay, anime cons, or the guy with the trenchcoat in the alley. No longer will you have to pay insane markups!

This guide will assume you know how to read Japanese or at least figure out how to navigate through a Japanese website. If there’s enough demand, I’ll make a guide with step by step pictures for stores in Japanese only.

If a store sells items at above MSRP, it will not be listed.

Last updated: May 16, 2010

Books and magazines

bk1
Ships worldwide. This is the best place to get Japanese books. All books are sold at MSRP anyway, but bk1 often has coupons or bonus point rewards. The best thing about bk1 is they ship via surface mail, which is pretty reasonably priced, though slow. For me, typical delivery time to the west coast of the US is 6-8 weeks. The only bad thing is that their magazine selection isn’t that great. They lack eroge magazines and other general hentai ones from what I’ve seen.

Hobby Search (English)
Ships worldwide. EMS and small packet SAL. They stock most magazines, so that’s really the only point in using them. EMS is too expensive for getting books in bulk. They have small packet SAL now, but that’s still expensive for books compared to the book rate (see bottom of this post for details). Update: now pretty much useless since they don’t sell ero magazines anymore.

Eroge/Galge/Visual novels

There are a bunch of retail stores that sell eroge too, but they’re almost always more expensive than Amazon. There’s no reason to use them other than to get preorder bonuses, which Amazon usually doesn’t have. Remember that stores often have different preorder bonuses, so check multiple stores.

Amazon Japan (disclaimer: affiliate link. Use it if you want to support me )
Does not ship worldwide. They offer pretty competitive prices for new eroge, but obviously the biggest problem is that they don’t ship worldwide. A solution is at the bottom of the article. One downside to Amazon is they never seem to get special preorder goods.

Amiami (English)
Does not ship worldwide for adult items. Since Paypal doesn’t allow adult items, payments must be done by bank transfers or other Japan-only methods, so you must use a shopping service or a friend to buy eroge. The main reason to shop here instead of Amazon is because they get preorder bonuses.

Getchu
Does not ship worldwide. One of the most famous sites for eroge. Their prices are generally competitive with Amazon, but they don’t have free shipping. They have preorder bonuses though.

Hobby Search (English)
Ships worldwide. Their prices aren’t really competitive, but they ship directly worldwide, so it might be more convenient. They stopped selling adult items worldwide after they started accepting Paypal.

Media Land
Does not ship worldwide. Does not accept credit cards. They generally have the cheapest price by a few hundred yen, but there’s no free shipping and they don’t accept cards, so Amazon usually ends up being cheaper. They get preorder bonuses.

Toranoana
Does not ship worldwide. Prices are pretty much the same as Getchu. Maybe a little bit more expensive, but there’s free domestic shipping for orders over 10,000 yen. They also get preorder bonuses.

Games

Amazon Japan
Does not ship worldwide. Really, there’s no site that competes with them on price on a regular basis. If you don’t live in Japan, just go to Amazon.

Amiami (English)
Ships worldwide. Paypal only. Now that they started selling selling internationally, they’re a good source for games. Their prices are pretty good and they often include preorder bonuses. Remember to click here to change the site to English or else they don’t ship internationally.

HMV Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. If you really insist on having games shipped directly to you, you can try HMV Japan. Their prices will almost always be higher than Amazon or Amiami. They ship using only EMS, and I’ve heard their shipping rate calculator isn’t that accurate. There’s really no reason to be using them unless you’re buying DVDs/Blu-rays in the same order.

Doujinshi/other doujin stuff

Toranoana
Does not ship worldwide. They’re one of the biggest stores for doujinshi and related stuff.

Mandarake
Ships worldwide. EMS only unless you ask otherwise. Their site doesn’t seem to be organized at all, so it might be hard to find what you’re looking for.

Melon Books
Does not ship worldwide. Another major doujinshi shop. I don’t like their website, so I’ve never used them. They seem to have a good variety of items though.

White Canvas
Ships worldwide (sorta). They don’t ship adult items worldwide. Their site is sorta crappy. Their selection seems okay.

Figures and other character goods

Amazon Japan
Does not ship worldwide. They have lots of stuff, though it’s much harder to browse for items. Use them only for items you know the name of. Use other sites to find those items.

Amiami (English)
Paypal only. This is probably one of the biggest figure stores online. They often have significant discounts, but they don’t have free shipping within Japan. They ship via SAL and EMS outside Japan. But those aren’t normally free. They claim they don’t ship some items outside Japan, but they don’t say what specifically. Seems like adult stuff and some other random items.

CDJapan (English)
Ships worldwide. Their selection isn’t that great, but with coupons and points, the prices might be better than HLJ or Hobby Search.

HobbyLink Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. Prices are generally MSRP, but HLJ’s site is easy to use since it’s in English.

HobbySearch (English)
Ships worldwide. EMS and small packet SAL. Prices are slightly less than MSRP. Maybe worth looking into now as an HLJ alternative since they offer small packet SAL.

CDs/DVDs

Amazon Japan
Ships worldwide. They usually have the biggest discounts on DVDs. Need I say more?

bk1
Ships worldwide (sorta). They apparently ship CDs worldwide but not DVDs. The prices are around MSRP. Adding a CD or something to a book order could be a good idea since Amazon isn’t really cheap for CDs either.

CDJapan (English)
Ships worldwide. Prices are roughly MSRP. They have coupons, which can lower prices a good amount. Their points are better than Amazon’s. They have more shipping methods, so they may be cheaper than Amazon.

HMV Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. See previous entry for more details. They’re in-between Amazon and CDJapan for prices, but they ship using EMS only. They might be cheaper than Amazon if you’re only ordering a few items since Amazon’s shipping is ridiculous. Amazon’s lower prices usually makes up for it in larger orders though.

Foreign exchange fees

This first part about credit cards is focused on the US, but the general concepts should apply to Europe too. Most credit cards charge a foreign exchange fee if you buy something using foreign currency or from a store located outside the US. It tends to be 2-3% for most cards. Excluding credit unions, there basically only two common companies that don’t have foreign transaction fees. Capital One and Schwab. For normal people, Capital One is a lot easier to get. The Schwab card also has 2% cashback, making foreign purchases 4-5% cheaper than other cards, but it’s a much harder card to get.

If you pay by Paypal, you won’t get hit with a foreign exchange fee by your bank, but if you’re paying in another currency, Paypal has their own fee. I hear it’s 2.5%, but I haven’t confirmed it. I confirmed it’s 2.5% in an email I got from them. It’s included in the exchange rate you get. You can change it so they just charge you in the original currency, which is good if you have a card that doesn’t card you fees.

For a list of foreign exchange fees for each bank in the US (maybe worldwide since lots of banks are international), go here.

Buying from stores that don’t ship outside Japan

If you noticed above, I listed a bunch of stores that don’t ship outside Japan. If you don’t have a friend in Japan who’ll buy/ship things for you, you can use a company that’ll do it for you. Even with their service fees, it usually ends up cheaper than going through a reseller. These companies act as a proxy. Some of them allow you to ship items to them you buy yourself while others will buy the items for you. The former is usually much cheaper.

I’ve combed through a lot of companies, and honestly, there are only a few with reasonable prices. All the sites are of course in English.

The reason why I listed above whether a company accepts credit cards or not is that you wouldn’t be able to buy something yourself and ship it to one of these companies if the store only accepted bank transfers. Keep that in mind.

Dankedanke
The main reason to use them is to ship your packages to them for them to reship to you. Prices start at 1300 yen for packages <2 kg. They really only have two reasonable shipping services: EMS and sea.

When you sign up for their service, they give you an address with your customer ID in it. You ship packages to that address and list that package on your member page. They’ll ship it to you after that.

Payment is by Paypal.

Goody Japan
This company only buys items for you. You can’t ship to them for them to reship it to you. If you’re ordering low value things, they may end up cheaper than Dankedanke. Their fee is around 15% (750 yen minimum) of the order value + 300 yen bank transfer fee. They have pretty much every Japan Post shipping method there is, so shipping can end up quite a bit cheaper than other places. You must note your shipping method in your comments when ordering or else they default to EMS.

Payment is by Paypal.

Tenso
I’ve never used them before, but they work like Dankedanke. They ship using EMS only. One caveat is that they open your packages to inspect it before shipping it to you. If you’re not comfortable with that, use Dankedanke. Right now, they have a promotion that makes them cheaper than Dankedanke.

If anyone has any stores to add, feel free to list them. If I forgot any categories, feel free to ask me to add them.

Shipping methods

This is probably a confusing topic for some people. There are 4 different international shipping methods using Japan Post (in descending speed): EMS, air mail, SAL, surface. Furthermore, air mail, SAL, and surface are divided into three main subcategories (in descending price): parcel post, small packet, and printed matter. There should be no difference in speed among the subcategories.

Parcel post is used for big packages, dimensionally or by weight. Small packet is used for packages less than 2 kg and that have a (width + height + length) < 90 cm. Printed matter is obviously for printed matter. Small packet and surface mail cannot be insured. They can, however, be registered for 410 yen, which requires a signature upon delivery and provides tracking if shipped to the US (not sure about other countries). Parcel post can be insured and includes tracking.

EMS, of course, is the fastest and most reliable method. Insurance and tracking are included in the price. It gets the high priority and is delivered using the fastest method once it arrives in your country (Express Mail, i.e. overnight, in the US).

The list of rates can be found here. Letter-post is for small packet/printed matter. Here’s an Excel table with a summary of the rates to the US.

For the people who were too lazy to read the above, here’s my attempt at summarizing it (while cursing WordPress’s lack of a table function in its editor):

Delivery times are to the west coast of the US.

• EMS
  ~3 business days delivery time
  Insured
  Trackable
  EXPENSIVE

• Air mail
  ~3-5 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Moderately expensive

• SAL
  ~10-14 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Reasonably priced

• Surface
  ~30-40 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Cheap

Package types (for air mail, SAL, and surface mail):

• Parcel post
  Insurance optional
  Trackable
  For large packages >2 kg.
  Not worth using with SAL or air mail (prices are as high or higher than EMS). Surface is reasonable.

• Small packet
  No insurance
  Tracking optional
  For small packages <2kg.
  Best delivery method for non-printed stuff.

• Printed matter
  No insurance
  Tracking optional
  For printed stuff, obviously
  Best delivery method for printed stuff

So to summarize it, my recommendation is either small packet air mail or small packet SAL for small shipments of non-books. For large shipments, just use EMS.

But hey, you often don’t get a choice (except with the middle men/proxy/whatever companies listed above). Here’s a list of what stores in the above list use when they ship internationally:

• Amazon
  Fedex, DHL

• Amiami
  EMS
  Small packet SAL (tracking required)

• bk1
  EMS
  Printed matter air mail/SAL/surface (no tracking)

• CDJapan
  EMS
  Small packet air mail/SAL (tracking optional)

• HLJ
  Fedex, EMS
  Small packet SAL (no tracking)

• HobbySearch
  EMS
  Small packet SAL (tracking unknown. If someone finds out, leave a comment)

• HMV Japan
  EMS

• Mandarake
  EMS by default, others by request

• White Canvas
  EMS