In this older post “How to Order from Amazon Japan – A detailed buying Guide”, I took the reader through a concise, step by step guide on how to purchase an item from Amazon Japan, from creating a new account, adding items to your cart, checking out and finally submitting your order.
While the post explained the technical aspects of ordering, new customers shopping for the first time with Amazon Japan might still want some additional information before they’re comfortable enough to order. To that end, I have prepared a list of some frequently asked questions for first time customers.
Q : Why should I purchase books/dvds/toys from Amazon Japan ? What are the merits ?
A : There’s a couple of good reasons to shop with Amazon Japan. To begin with, Amazon is an internationally trusted name in online shopping, with many years of experience behind them and have an excellent track record. Amazon offers very reliable service, speedy delivery of your goods, and also excellent customer support.
Inventory wise, Amazon Japan probably has the biggest collection of Japanese art book titles out there. If you know the Japanese title/name of the book you are looking for, you can almost always find it on Amazon. There are a couple of other decent online Japanese bookstores, but they mostly cater for the local market and do not ship outside of Japan.
Amazon Japan also offers the best prices for Japanese art books, because you do not need to pay for any tax. ( When you look at the back cover of a Japanese art book, the printed price is before the addition of the 5% goods and services tax. ) Shipping cost notwithstanding, you’re actually getting the book at a cheaper price than if you were to walk into a bookstore in Tokyo and buy one, which will cost you 5% more.
For movie dvds and blu-rays, prices are often discounted 10-30% off the retail price, especially if you pre-order the item before it is released.
Q : What shipping service will be used to deliver my items ? How long will it take, and how much will it cost me ?
A : Amazon Japan ships only with expedited shipping service, using either DHL or FedEx. Once your order is shipped, it usually takes a lighting fast 2-5 working days to arrive. ( excluding some select countries and the regions. )
For books, shipping cost is calculated by :
A flat per shipment fee ( cost differs on location ) + per item fee ( 300 yen).
For example, if I live in the United States and purchase a 1000 yen art book from Amazon Japan, shipping will cost :
Per shipment fee of 2700 yen ( to United States ) + per item fee 300 yen = 3000 yen. ( about 45 USD )
Therefore, to save on shipping, its a very good idea to purchase multiple items so as to leverage the per shipment fee cost.
For example, if I were to buy 10 books each costing 1000 yen shipping to the United States, shipping will cost :
Per shipment fee of 2700 yen ( to United States ) + per item fee 3000 yen ( 300 x 10 items ) = 5700 yen.
By comparison, the cost for shipping per book will only be 570 yen instead of 3000 yen.
A detailed list of the shipping costs can be found here.
Q : Where are my items ? How can I track my items ?
A : Once your item ships, a tracking number is assigned which you can then use to track via your Amazon Japan account page. To see how to create a new account, go here.
Q : What happens if my items get lost / my items don’t arrive ?
A : This very seldom happens, but in the rare occasion that it does you can contact Amazon Japan customer support ( they have a customer support page in English ) and inform them that your item did not arrive. In my experience Amazon Japan will get back to you very quickly, first checking where the item is with their freight/shipping service. Once they ascertain that the item is indeed lost, you will be given the option of either a replacement order or a full refund.
Q : Why doesn’t Amazon Japan accept my credit card ?
A : While the exact reasons why some credit cards are not accepted by Amazon’s checkout system is unknown to me, I have had folks write in to me and say that they were unable to complete the purchase because the card was rejected. In most cases, the reason why the card was not accepted was because a wrong card number or the wrong 3 digit verification number has been provided.
To best ascertain if the issue lies with the card or with Amazon’s checkout, try adding a different card. ( you do not need to complete your order and you will not be charged yet )
A : What about custom regulations ? Will my items be subjected to checks ?
Custom regulation differs from country to country, so it’s best to do some homework on your part to find out how customs screen packages in your country. Bear in mind that custom checks might delay an item that is otherwise scheduled to deliver by the stipulated date. Should such a delay occur, it will be reflected in the tracking information.
Q : The item I want is out of stock, but there are sellers on Amazon Marketplace who carry the item . How do I go about buying it ?
You can add the item you want to your cart and the checkout process is the same, but as most sellers on Amazon Marketplace do not ship outside of Japan, you will need to use a shipping redirect service like tenso.com, which provides you with a temporarily Japanese address where the item gets ship to. tenso.com will pick up the item and then ship it to you. For details, please visit their website.
Q : How do I purchase an item that Amazon Japan won’t ship outside of Japan ?
You will need to engage a shipping redirect service like tenso.com, which provides you with a temporarily Japanese address where the item gets ship to. Please visit their website for more details.
Q : Help ! I didn’t find the answer to my question in this post !
No problem, simply write your question in the comments section for this post and I will try to get back to you the first chance I have.
Q : Ok, I’m good now. Where can I start shopping ?
A : If you know what you’re looking for you can start right off from Amazon Japan’s main page. If you’re looking for a Japanese art book, you can try looking through my bookstore.
How to Order from Amazon Japan – A detailed buying Guide
April 3rd, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I was wondering how long does it take to receive the confirmation email. I just placed my order not to long ago and I never received a confirmation email and it doesn’t show up in my order history and the price for the order never got take from my bank account. please help me
April 4th, 2011 at 12:42 am
Hey there Aaron, the confirmation email usually arrives immediately after you have placed an order. From what you described it doesn’t seem as if the order has been picked up Amazon, because it should always be reflected in your order history. Perhaps you might want to try ordering the item again. Hope that helps !
May 31st, 2011 at 1:33 am
The site says that it can’t deliver to my address. What do I do now?
May 31st, 2011 at 11:45 am
Sarah – If Amazon Japan doesn’t ship the item to your country, you will have to engage a shipping re-direct service like tenso.com. Do check out their website for more details.
July 15th, 2011 at 3:44 am
Hello.
I stumbled upon your site when I was looking for guides on how to buy from Amazon Japan.
I have a question about combined shipping and Amazon Prime.
How does one qualify for combined shipping? I was told that you had to buy from the same seller and they would ship your items together for a discounted shipment price. I don’t want to buy multiple items from a seller unless I know that they can do combined shipping (since shipment costs are very expensive to the US).
Also, can one sign up for Amazon Prime on the Japanese Amazon website if he or she lives in the United States? I saw a link for “Free Expedited Shipping for Amazon Prime users” and wanted to know if I registered for it that I could use it to get free shipping on the items I want to buy.
Thank you so much in advance! Your guides have been very helpful! =)
July 15th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Hey there Tikikata, i’m glad my guides have been of some help.
I can’t be sure about the combined shipping, but what if you tried adding 2 or more items from a same seller ( i’m assuming you’re talking about marketplace sellers here ) and see if it combines shipping ?
For free expedited shipping for Amazon Prime, I’m fairly sure that’s just for domestic, ( ie within Japan ) but I’ll have to double check to be 100% sure.
Thanks for visiting !
July 26th, 2011 at 2:10 am
Hello! I contacted customer support on Amazon.co.jp for a problem that I am having with my order and I wanted to know that when (or if) they respond where would I see that they did?
The entire site is in Japanese, even when I choose “In English” only some of it is in English and I don’t see a obvious place where it would show that my message has been replied to.
Thanks for your time!
July 26th, 2011 at 2:24 am
Winston – Amazon Japan has a dedicated team of support staff that respond to emails from English customers, they will be contacting you via the email address used for your Amazon account.
Just to be sure, did you contact them via the “help in english” page ? If not, you should do so :
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1039576
Hope that help !
July 26th, 2011 at 2:37 am
Yeah, I chose the “Help in English” page before I sent them the message. Thanks for your speedy reply!
October 10th, 2011 at 4:30 am
Hello,
I really love your site and have been following it for a while. My wishlist from amazon.co.jp has become pretty long and I’d like to order some books but we here in the EU have a lot of problems with customs. Only when your order is under 25euros they let it pass and if higher you’re automatically charged 21% VAT and some extra custom fees since FEDex and DHL used by Amazon give the official invoice of your order to customs. I’ve been looking at tenso.com, have you had any experience with them or are there other alternatives.
October 11th, 2011 at 1:29 am
fluppeco – Hey there and thanks for visiting my site. I am surprised that the purchase limit is only up to 25 euros ! That’s really quite a small amount.
I’ve unfortunately not used tenso’s service before and cannot vouch for the quality of their service, but it does seem like a viable option for you. Do check out all the details of the shipping process if you do intend to use it. I’m sorry I cannot be of more help !
April 18th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
hi..can you tell me another website. because tenso.com can ship to my country (indonesia)
thank
April 26th, 2012 at 1:11 am
Hi… I was wondering, can I enter an american amazon gift card into amazon.co.jp? In other words, will the $15 giftcard automatically convert into yen?
May 17th, 2012 at 5:40 am
if i purchase amazon prime japan will i get free shipping to the USA?