"How do I Order Something from Japan?"

Services

From my experience, the major sources for goods are: proxy services, mailbox services, and Japanese websites/companies that offer direct international shipping. This is a brief overview of these types of services and also links to some websites that offer these services.

Proxy Services: Do everything for me!Proxy process outlined
1. You find an item
2. You submit item to be bought through proxy
3. The proxy buys it for you and charges you for the item and domestic shipping within Japan
4. It arrives at their facility in Japan
5. The proxy ships it to you and charges you for the shippingProxy process explained
With a proxy, you submit an order or request to a service and they buy it for you, or you buy through their service / their website / their browser plug-in. It varies by proxy. Payment is submitted to the proxy service for both the item, and domestic shipping within Japan from the seller to your proxy. After the item arrives at their warehouse, they can combine it with other things you've ordered before sending it to you via intl shipping. They will also charge you for both combining the items together, and also the cost of international shipping.Proxies excel in situations such as Mercari Japan, anything where your IP might be restricted, auctions (they have English UIs and stuff you can use to bid), and sites that might have trouble w/your foreign credit card (for Americans - this might be... a site that doesn't have a CSC field).On the downside, you don't exactly have complete control over the purchase - something might sell out before an employee can buy it for you as business hours as regular Japanese business hours. They will also charge you per each item and/or website you buy from, and this fee can vary. I'll talk more in depth about both of these downsides later, specifically in relation to Mercari.Who is a proxy for?
If you can't read any Japanese, and/or you aren't confident with buying stuff yourself, and/or you want English support in case something goes wrong, I would strongly suggest using a proxy. This is also convenient cause if you aren't sure how to buy something, or where to buy it, you can just send their customer support a link and cry/beg/etc.Examples of proxy services
Buyee, White Rabbit Express, Zen Market, DeJapan

Mailbox / Forwarding Services: I want some autonomyMailbox process outlined
1. You sign up for a mailbox
2. You buy an item through a Japanese website and set the shipping address to your mailbox / forwarder service
3. The item is shipped domestically within Japan
4. It arrives at your mailbox
5. You can ship it from your mailbox to yourselfYou sign up for the mailbox service and receive a Japanese address. You shop and check out on Japanese websites as you would on any other website, entering in your Japanese address from your mailbox service, and entering in your own payment information. Once it arrives at your mailbox service, you can have it combined with other packages and have it shipped to you via intl shipping.Personally, I use Blackship's mailbox service the most because I can read/speak some Japanese and I feel this method gives me some autonomy. I can purchase or pre-order stuff ASAP w/o waiting on a proxy employee. The fee per item (they charge you to receive the item at their warehouse, and to pack the item before it's shipped to you) is still less than what I would pay their sibling proxy service to buy things for me. And if I need to use White Rabbit for something, they will combine items across the 2 services together.Caution Caution Caution Caution Caution
Mailbox is not for everyone. If you plan on using a mailbox, keep track of everything you order, when it gets shipped, its price, etc as you'll need to sometimes declare the contents of the package without seeing what's inside. The category or type of item doesn't have to be a precise match, just close enough. Unless 10 packages arrive from the same store at all at once, I've personally not found this to be that much of an issue, but others might be turned off by the effort, or possibly needing to navigate around Japanese. You might want to try ordering one thing to a mailbox to test the waters - see if you like how it works or if it just confuses you.Examples of mailboxes
Tenso (sibling to Buyee), Blackship (sibling to White Rabbit; will combine w/White Rabbit orders)

Direct Intl Shipping: gg ez
This is by far the easiest one. Some Japanese websites/vendors offer international shipping directly to you, allowing you to skip the proxy or mailbox entirely. These websites will also have an English version or English UI for you to use. I call it "direct" to differentiate it from what I'm going to mention after.Note that there are some restrictions based on laws, availability, whatever. For example, Amazon Japan can't ship to Australia because Australia told Amazon to fuck off before. (This is how Xythar explained it to me lol.)Examples of websites with direct intl shipping
AmiAmi, Amazon Japan, Hobby Search (1999), Suruga

Proxy Intl Shipping: It's kind of deceptive
I think it's also worth mentioning that some Japanese websites tell you they offer intl shipping, but then it turns out the shipping is through a proxy service (rather than directly shipped from them). This is really no different than using a proxy, and more like a semantics thing, but I'm noting it because I feel it's a biiiiit misleading for websites to advertise having "intl shipping!" and then it turns out to be Buyee and whatnot.Example of websites with this
Mercari Japan (affiliated w/Buyee), Booth (affiliated w/Buyee), Toranoana (affiliated w/Aocs), Otamart (affiliated w/From Japan)With the exception of Mercari, just because these websites are affiliated with certain proxies does not mean that's the only proxy you can use if you want something from them. And it's not impossible to get stuff from Mercari w/o Buyee either, just... might cost you a bit more and/or be annoying. See the Mercari section for more about this.

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Shipping

No matter what kind of service or website you use, your goal is to ultimately have something shipped to you internationally from Japan. I'm going to briefly explain the international shipping options I've seen offered.

Japan Post [$ - $$$$$]
Japan's post system. Check the official Japan Post webpage for service availability per country. Webpages will offer you their shipping options, such as:- Surface: Cheapest but also slowest method of shipping. It also takes 2-3 months. If you pick it, your stuff will show up after the boat arrives in Los Angeles and finally clears customs.
- SAL (Economy Air): Airmail but with lower priority and cost than regular airmail.
- Air (Airmail): A bit pricier than SAL, but also faster.
- EMS (Express Mail Service): Most expensive and fastest option. I discuss this below in comparison to DHL and Fedex. Before the pandemic, it took like a week to get things, but now it takes longer.DHL [$$$$$]
I believe most websites/companies I mentioned up above offer DHL. At least I get the impression it's very common. DHL is a private shipping company that isn't affected by Japan Post's closures to the US and other countries. From my experience, they're a couple days slower than Fedex, but it'll depend on where your item arrives for customs.Fedex [$$$$$]
Same company you might be familiar with from the US, but they also offer shipping out of Japan, and some services allow you to select Fedex. Like DHL, Fedex is a private shipping company that isn't affected by Japan Post's closures to the US and other countries. I've gotten stuff next day from Japan via Fedex, so for me they're the fastest, but it'll also vary based on where your item arrives and clears customs.Note that if you want to order Japanese cosmetics or sunscreen (me, I'm talking about me) or have cookies from a collab cafe sent to you, you HAVE to use DHL or EMS.

EMS vs DHL vs Fedex
Currently, SAL and Air are not available to the US, so if you want your package to get flown on a plane, then you are left with EMS and other commercial mail services. EMS's pricing has gone way up since it returned in June 2021. To make a long story short, here is what I have observed since EMS's return in June. (Please note that what I observed is regarding shipping to America.)- EMS seems to be cheapest if you have a light (e.g. under 1500 grams) package.
- Fedex and DHL seem very similar in price. For me personally, I've seen estimates on my packages where Fedex was cheaper than DHL and vice versa.
- If you are ordering something that is available on Amazon Japan and international shipping is available to you, there is a very high chance that the cheapest way to ship it is to buy it from Amazon Japan with their special DHL shipping partnership.Overall, due to the limited availability of Japan Post, the price of international shipping to the US really sucks right now due to the pandemic, and there's really not much we can do about that.

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Websites

It's not possible for me to list every website where you can buy Japanese stuff, but here's some to get you started on this journey through burning your wallet. As I mentioned in the opening, I think you can cover a lot of ground if you just visit Buyee and AmiAmi.

Proxy Services
- Buyee: Has a browser plugin for adding to your Buyee cart on various websites. You can also contact support w/links to things you want to buy if you need help. Allows you to buy from Mercari (this can be extremely valuable) but with some disclaimers. I have had success buying R-18 through them before, but others have not.
- White Rabbit Express: This is definitely expensive compared to everything else on this list, but you get the service you pay for. They will buy whatever you want including R-18, they aren't blacklisted by Yahoo Auctions as some other proxy websites are, their storage time is like 90 days compared to Buyee's 30 days, etc.
- Zen Market: This is certainly another option if you don't want to use one of the others, but if I'm being honest, this is not my top recommend because a lot of sellers on Yahoo Auctions say "I don't sell to Zen Market" in their profiles and they won't buy from all websites. No idea about their R-18 policy.
- DeJapan: Also another proxy option. I've not used this personally, but a friend in Canada uses it and mentioned they don't charge much for consolidation. No idea about their R-18 policy.

Mailbox Services
- Tenso: Sibling to Buyee, but no idea if you can combine with Buyee orders.
- Blackship: Sibling to White Rabbit. You can combine with White Rabbit orders.

Recommended Anime/Game/Etc Merch Stores
- AmiAmi EN: Store with a proper English version - you can search in English and should have 0 issues. Can ship individually or send you everything you ordered for a month. You can use the Buyfriend tracker to get notices for stock.
- Hobby Search (1999): Tbh, I've never used them, but friends have and I know they're legit. They are also an English-friendly store. I'm not sure how the products offered differ from Ami Ami, but if something is sold out on Ami Ami, it might not yet be sold out on Hobby Search. You have options!
- Hobby Link Japan: Another English store. I've also never used this one, but have been told you can contact them and ask about whatever you need.
- Animate Japan: Big national anime store. Sometimes there are Animate exclusive pre-order bonuses. There is also an animate USA shop, but the item selection is different than the Japanese shop.

Recommended for Fan Made / Doujinshi Merch
- Booth: A Pixiv product where fan creators can sell items. Not just books, but also keychains and stickers and stuff. I don't recommend searching in English UNLESS the creator or topic is also English-friendly. Stuff like VTuber merch, you are probably fine to search for in English. Some VTubers also use Booth to sell their own merch.
- Toranoana: No English UI. For doujinshi and other related goods like covers/slips for your doujinshi. I believe there are guides in English on how to use Toranoana, but don't search in English. Pairings and series names are written in Japanese. For assistance with this, check the Searching section.

Recommended for More Specific Purchases
- Amazon Japan: Since books weigh a ton and Amazon has special low cost global shipping through DHL, I would recommend going here first if there's a book you're interested in. For example, the special Jujutsu Kaisen manga volume 18 bundle. You can certainly order a lot more from here and also get it shipped directly to you. They have a properly translated English UI, but some of the search results seem hit or miss when you search in English (I think product data is machine translated).
- Mercari Japan: Market for users selling to one another, like American Mercari or eBay. You can find new stuff here, but also older stuff people are de-stashing. I think Mercari excels for finding finding pop up store items, special cafe items, people reselling their BD bonuses, etc. Don't search in English.
- Super Groupies: Another Pixiv product, which sells lowkey anime inspired merch, like purses and jackets. Has an English site, but the selection is different than Japan.
- Good Smile EN: For Nendoroids and other Good Smile produced figures.

Recommended for Used Goods
- Suruga EN: Need to find something older? Honestly, try here, Mercari, and Mandarake. This is going to sound insane, but I don't recommend searching in English, even on the English website. You can search in Japanese on the Japanese Suruga website, then edit the URL and it'll re-direct you to the English website lol. I go in-depth about why in the Searching section.
- Mandarake EN: Lots of used goods. IIRC, this is a good site to get used figures that are in great shape.
- Otamart: Another site where you might be able to find older goods and doujinshi books. I've not used it before, but Twitter friend brought it to my attention.

Buyer Beware
- Aitai Kuji: Per the testimony of multiple people, Aitai Kuji is fine for stuff that is easy to get, e.g. stuff you could get on Ami Ami or any other site too. However, they will often put up sales for more exclusive and harder to get items - ones with limited quantities, cafe items, etc. When it comes to these harder to obtain items, they are not as reliable, and poor at communicating "we can't actually get this" to the buyer. I know people who've had to do chargebacks on these kinds of items after not getting much support from their staff.

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Mercari

Mercari gets its own special section because god dammit Mercari.Japanese Mercari is similar to American Mercari - you can resell stuff to other people. Whether it's anime stuff or not, you can find a pretty wide range of stuff there. However, it requires you to be in Japan in order to sign up and use the service, so you'd need to use a proxy to buy stuff from Mercari.I recommend it specifically for video game and anime stuff because:
1. People will sell exclusives like cafe goods that don't ever get put on stores like AmiAmi
2. People will sell their blind box items they don't want (e.g. you like character A, they don't like A, so they sell character A's keychain)
3. People will sell their bonus / "not for sale" / pre-order items
4. People will sell stuff that is long discontinued or has been out of stock for a long timeThat you can find all of this on one site is rather convenient.

Issues with Mercari
To date, only one proxy service has an actual partnership with Japanese Mercari, and that would be Buyee. This is why when you're on Mercari, you see the "Buy this on Buyee!" links. However, this partnership has caused some issues that can be annoying to people who are using proxies...#1: Buyee's Mercari Caching
I mentioned up above that one of the downsides is that there's a delay between you placing an order and a proxy employee being able to buy something for you. There's also a delay before you can buy Mercari items on Buyee. Buyee's system must cache the items available on Mercari first, which is why some items on Mercari say, "This item is only available in Japan". This typically lasts 2-3 or so days. You can check back a few days later and hope someone else didn't purchase it first. This sucks, but Buyee has a monopoly on Mercari, so...#2: Using non-Buyee Proxies
Buyee and Mercari are partnered, so what happens when you want to buy something on Mercari through a non-Buyee proxy? Welp, as I mentioned before, proxy services will have some kind of fee for websites you ask them to buy from. Mercari will get suspicious if you use multiple addresses and warn you (this is something we know from experience). You can still buy from non-Buyee proxies, but you're paying them a premium for whatever method it is they use to circumvent the Buyee/Mercari partnership (and if I had to take a wild guess, I think their employees get your stuff sent to their personal / residential address). This can be annoying if say... you want to buy 10 things from Mercari, and a service charges you like $6 per Mercari item or something due to the inconvenience.

Ideal Mercari Usage
To be honest, I think the ideal way to get something from Mercari is to beg someone who lives in Japan to buy something for you, then send it to a mailbox for you.

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Searching

In the website part, I mentioned there are some websites you should not search for using English. This is because the website machine translates the product names so it isn't reliable, or the website product listings / descriptions don't include English, so an English search just wouldn't work. To get the Japanese search terms, I would recommend just copy/pasting them from Wikipedia.

Finding Japanese Titles and Names
You can find Japanese titles and characters on Wikipedia thanks to contributors adding Japanese titles and names for works that were originally published in Japanese. Here are a few random examples.

Why do I have to search in Japanese?
To illustrate, here is a search for 神羅カンパニー on Mercari, and here is a search for Shinra Company on Mercari. The 神羅カンパニー search brings up FF7 products. But there were 0 English "Shinra Company" results and it instead shows me newly listed products.Here's another example using a website with an English UI, but not a fully English userbase. Here is a search for エメトセルク on Booth and here is a search for Emet-Selch on Booth. The 6 "Emet-Selch" results are because 6 of them use the English Emet-Selch tag on Booth, but this is far less than the 190+ results I get with the Japanese search.Though you can probably get away with searching in English on Booth if you're looking for like... HoloEN VTuber things. A search for Mori Calliope turns up more results than 森 カリオペ. If you want Coco, probably stick to Japanese. Or just search in every language because you're a simp idk.

Suruga
Suruga's English website also machine translates their products, meaning their English search results aren't as good as the Japanese search results. I would recommend searching on the Japanese website then editing the URL to take you to the English cart lol.Let's say I want to buy this cup:
https://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/992006106
I can change the URL to this:
https://www.suruga-ya.com/en/product/992006106
And it will bring up the English Suruga and I can add it to my cart.You can search in Japanese on the English Suruga website, but the search results still seem to be different, so I would still recommend just searching on the Japanese website.One last note about Suruga that I don't know where to put: They have items listed from non-Suruga stores. I am under the impression you cannot get non-Suruga store items shipped to you from the English website, but you can get them sent to a Japanese mailbox if you checkout through the Japanese website.

Toranoana
I've been trying to think of how to tell non-Japanese speakers to search on Tora, and uh... Wow this is probably not the best way but lmao.1. Copy/paste a characters name written in Japanese from Wikipedia
2. Go to the search on Toranoana or Ladies Club (see below for more links to Toranoana search pages)
3. Look for the 2nd to last field キャラクター (Character - For books where they appear as a major character) or the last field カップリング (Ship - for results where the character is in a relationship and that's the focus of the book)
4. Copy/paste the character name into the desired search field
5. If you'd like to narrow down the search to a specific series (maybe there are characters who use the same kanji or characters with common katakana names), I would try putting the desired series in the 2nd field from the top, フリーワード (Keyword)
6. Hit the button at the bottom to search

When I do a ship search for 神道愛之介 (Ainosuke Shindo) on Ladies Club, it gives me this search result, which brings up 10 all ages / non-horny doujinshi results.Then you can submit links to your proxy, or add items to your cart to be sent to your mailbox. If you do mailbox, Toranoana has multiple shipping options where it will bundle books you've ordered together and ship out in certain intervals. Check the delivery dates on the books you're looking at, and you might get what I mean. Since mailboxes charge per package received, use this to your advantage if you are buying multiple doujinshi books.

Additional Toranoana Search and Sorting Links
There's Toranoana, then Toranoana _{Ladies Club}. Both of these have all ages and R-18 versions, plus digital counterparts that sell e-books.

Merch Keywords to Copy/Paste
Here are some non-series/character keywords that might be useful. You can copy/paste a character name or series name and a keyword like the ones below to get a more specific search. If I'm looking for a Madoka Nendoroid, then searching for ねんどろいど 鹿目 まどか (Nendroid Madoka Kaname) on Mercari gives me these search results. If you're looking for something from the Sk8 Cafe event, then search for カフェ SK∞ エスケーエイト rather than just SK∞ エスケーエイト.

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I'm looking for...

We've kinda went over the types of services you can use, how shipping works, why Mercari is a shit show, and websites you can buy stuff from, but... how do you use all this to find something really specific? Not really an easy way to answer this. Sometimes you might just wanna ask fellow fans in whatever fandom you're in. If they give you a link to a Japanese website where it's being sold, that's enough for you to put in a request to a proxy. (Imo, this is the part where being able to read Japanese is extremely useful.)

Official Merch
If it's an official thing, and it seems to be a new release, the easiest place to figure this out is to say... follow the brand or series or store on Twitter or other social media. Even if you have to Google Translate it, they typically will tell you where you can buy stuff. For example, the official Code Geass anime Twitter account retweeted this post about new products, which includes a link to the store.

If you Google Translate a tweet and it doesn't list a store or have a link but says something about "anime shops", you should be able to check a store like AmiAmi in a day or so. Another Code Geass example, but the official account also retweeted these finger puppets. No store is listed, but Google translate renders the last line as, "Reservation acceptance will start at anime shops nationwide!" (Btw, "reservation acceptance" seems to be Google trying to translate 予約受付. It just means you can pre-order!)By now, I've mentioned anime stores like AmiAmi a few times. So if you go on English AmiAmi and search Code Geass, sure enough you will see the finger puppets available for you to pre-order.

Sometimes it will list a shop, but it's like a cafe or something where you have to buy it in person. This is where Mercari becomes useful, as someone might be re-selling whatever they got at the cafe. There is also the possibility of sending someone as an in-person proxy to buy whatever it was you wanted.

Fan Made / Doujinshi Merch
For fan made / doujinshi merchandise, I think the best way to get something specific is just to follow the creator or artist on Twitter or some other social media. They will usually tweet to advertise their new stuff, and provide links directly to it wherever it's being sold. I believe they will also announce if something is being reprinted or restocked.

Older / Discontinued / Ancient Merch
If you're looking for something very specific but older, I would recommend focusing on sites like Mercari, Suruga, Mandarake, and Yahoo! Auctions (through a proxy). Mercari is people re-selling their things, which can include older items, Suruga and Mandarake have a lot of 2nd hand / used / older goods, and Yahoo! Auctions is an auction site that will have [whatever] people put up. This applies to both officially licensed and fan made / doujinshi goods, as I do see lots of doujinshi comics being sold on Suruga.

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Payment

These are some things I found notable about paying through a Japanese website.Proxies
When using a proxy, you pay the proxy to buy your item, so you don't need to worry about any issues with Japanese websites not accepting your card. Based on a friend's personal experience with Buyee, I would strongly recommend you use PayPal with a proxy in case something bad happens and you need to do a PayPal dispute.Paying on AmiAmi
AmiAmi has a format where you can pre-order things months in advance and not get charged until the item comes out. Take this as a friendly warning that you can totally pre-order like a $300 figure and forget about it for a year. There are some other websites like this as well.Japanese Payment Methods
Most websites will accept credit cards. The option will be written as クレジットカード on the payment page. Some websites that are setup for foreign business (AmiAmi, Booth) will also accept PayPal. Afaik, you can't purchase R-18 with PayPal. Other payment methods, like "pay at convenience store", are for locals.Amazon Pay through Amazon Japan
Are you somehow in a situation where your credit card is not accepted? You can sign up for Amazon Japan, set your address to your Japanese mailbox, and set up Amazon Pay. Per testimonies by friends, it might take a few tries to go through.No foreign transaction fee credit cards
If you have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, remember to use it when buying on Japanese websites. It seems that using any credit card through PayPal circumvents this (tho maybe I'm misunderstanding?), but not every website will accept PayPal. If you pay using a credit card that does have foreign transaction fees, then you'll have to pay a few dollars every time you buy something from a foreign website.Why doesn't my credit card work?
So, there's 3 scenarios I can think of where this happens.If you're American and a Japanese website doesn't ask for the CSC / security number on the back of your credit card, your credit card is probably not going to work on that website. Off the top of my head, Pixiv Booth had this issue, but they fixed it early on in 2021. I believe this will also occur on NicoNico.Another thing to watch out for is if you put in the security code, but your payment still doesn't go through. Check your phone / text messages for a fraud alert from your credit card provider. If your provider texted you about "Hey we noticed your credit card got used on this foreign website and we thought it was suspicious", reply to confirm that it was really you then try processing that same credit card again.The third scenario is that the website, by choice, purposely does not accept foreign credit cards for whatever reason.

Mailbox Help

To reiterate what I said before, mailbox is not for everyone and I strongly suggest having some Japanese ability if you plan on using a mailbox. While you can definitely get by without being able to read very much Japanese while using a mailbox / forwarding service, you still won't have much support if something goes wrong with your order.If you understand that risk, then by all means proceed w/a mailbox service. I feel like I wield Absolute Power when I can order stuff myself, especially if something is high in demand or has limited stock.

Customs Declaration
Be sure to note everything you order and where it's from so you can fill out the package information for your mailbox. On Tenso, I believe you are told the sender of the package you received then have you fill out the package info. On Blackship, you're given a picture of the address label and you have to fill out the package info.

Japanese Address
For Blackship, check out Blackship's guide to filling in your address.
For Tenso, check out Tenso's guide to filling in your address.If you need to enter your name in Japanese characters, you can convert it into katakana using this online tool recommended by Blackship. It's okay if your name is a little fudged in this process. Blackship associates your package with your mailbox using the KXXXXXX in your address. Tenso uses the TSXXXXXX in your address.

Registering to shop on JP websites
In order to shop on sites, sometimes you will end up registering for an account, or just using Guest Checkout. If you want to register, these are some other form fields that you will probably encounter while registering.- ID: Your username. Some websites this is just your email address, but on others you can specify a username. E.g. on Felissimo, they ask you to input a "フェリシモID", which means "Felissimo ID".
- メールアドレス: Email
- パスワード: Password
- 生年月日: DOB (Y/M/D order)
- 性別: Gender (男: Male, 女: Female)

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tl;dr

The end. Idk what else to add. Like I said in the beginning, I think the average person will be fine just signing up for AmiAmi and Buyee, and I use Blackship because I can read/speak some Japanese.ALSO, if you want to register for Blackship you should totally use my referral code so I can achieve Whale status.

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