The Japanese version of Amazon, the famous e-commerce site, offers many exclusive products only available in Japan. It’s sometimes difficult to get them when you live abroad. That’s why we created White Rabbit Express, an easy-to-use proxy-buying service.
Amazon Japan can ship some of its items to more than sixty countries in the world. Unfortunately, all sellers are not using that feature. That’s especially true with second-hand resellers or small companies. They don’t always know how to ship products to the USA or in Europe. For this reason, the product you want may be ineligible for international shipping.
No problem! We've created a proxy-buying service that allows you to buy on Amazon Japan. You will have access to all its products as if you were living in Japan. Indeed, White Rabbit Express can help you shop on thousands of Japanese online stores.
Now, we will explain how to use White Rabbit Express to get your products from Amazon Japan. Even if your shipping address is in a foreign country.
First, go to amazon.co.jp
Amazon Japan design is the same as Amazon.com. Except that, at first, everything should be written in Japanese. Thankfully, you can switch the language to English or Chinese by clicking on the globe icon on the main menu. This will auto-translate the website in your selected language. Since it’s auto-translation, some texts will be wrong. That's why we recommend to only use that feature if you don't understand Japanese at all.
You can directly search items using the search bar on top of the web page. Otherwise, you can simply select the section where you want to browse by clicking on the main menu.
If you don't want to use a proxy-buying service, select “Amazon Global Eligible” filter option in the sidebar of your search page. This option is displayed on a section called “International Shipping”. Sadly, you will not be able to see all the products available in Japan by selecting this option.
That’s why we recommend to browse and see if an item you want to buy cannot be shipped to your foreign address by Amazon. If that happen, you can go to the third step to find the solution.
If one of your product cannot be shipped to your place, you’ll have to copy all the URL of the product pages. To get a product link URL, open the product page in a new browser tab. Place your mouse cursor into the browser address bar. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire address, then Ctrl+C to copy it.
Now, go to the White Rabbit Express app and put your mouse cursor into the product link field. Press Ctrl+V to paste the product URL in this field. Click on “Next”. You’ll have to repeat that action for each product you want to buy.
We will send you an email when we will receive your package. If you have another package in your mailbox, you will be able to consolidate both parcels. With consolidation, you'll save on your international shipping costs. We can also repack your if your Amazon parcel appears to be flimsy.
The very last step is to select your international shipping method. White Rabbit Express provides a wide selection of shipping methods. It includes EMS, International ePacket, FedEx, Airmail, SAL and Seamail. When you are done with this, you will only have to wait for your parcel to be delivered to your place.
This warning message pops up when you try to check out with an item that cannot be shipped abroad in your cart. Indeed, you cannot use international shipping for most second-hand or licensed products on Amazon Japan.
All Amazon Japan content is normally displayed in Japanese. But you can change that by using one of the two methods we are going to show to you.
There’s a language switcher on Amazon Japan. You’ll find it below a globe icon accompanied with “JP” in the main menu of the website. Here you can choose between Japanese, English and Chinese. By selecting English you will be able to search your products in latin alphabet.
Most of the products titles will be auto-translated in English. But the translation is not exhaustive, so you could miss few products that are not translated correctly while browsing in English. So it is recommended to search your products in Japanese, if you don’t want to miss any entry.
You also need to keep in mind that some elements are not translated at all. So sometimes, you can find descriptions or titles in their original version.
You can use Google Translate Chrome extension to completely translate Amazon Japan in the language of your choice. Even if that tool is powerful, some translations will be wrong.
The short answer is “No”. But White Rabbit Express does accept PayPal payments. So we can buy for you items from Amazon Japan, even if you only want to pay with PayPal.
We also accept credit cards like Visa, MasterCard and Discover from all around the world.
60 countries are included in the international delivery program of Amazon Japan. This means that some goods can be sent to any mailbox in these countries without using any proxy-buying or forwarding service. However, many items sold on Amazon Japan cannot be sent abroad at all. In that case, it is better to use White Rabbit Express or Blackship to get your Japanese good in your country.
Amazon Japan can ship some of its products to North America. That’s include the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, but not other unincorporated territories of the US.
The United Kingdom is part of the AmazonGlobal program. That means you can ship some products from Amazon Japan to the UK.
Australia and New Zealand are eligible destinations of the Amazon Global program. Unfortunately, all the states and territories in association with one of those two countries cannot receive parcels from Amazon Japan.
Amazon Japan can ship Amazon Global eligible products to the city-states of Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Philippines are part of the 65 countries covered by the Amazon Global program.
If your country is not listed above, it will be mandatory for you to use a proxy-buying service. White Rabbit Express can help you buy any kind of goods from Amazon Japan.
Amazon Japan has an interesting catalogue of MP3 for J-Pop fans. Sadly, it can be really difficult to buy digital media on this platform when you are not living in the Land of the Rising Sun.
To get region-locked digital content you’ll have to hide the fact you are not living in Japan. Moreover, to checkout you’ll have to create an Amazon account with a Japanese address and payment method. Your IP should also be located in Japan.
In other words, you will not be able to download any digital track by yourself if you are not connected with a VPN and using the personal data of a Japanese resident.
The easiest way to get your digital products are to use a proxy-buying service like White Rabbit Express. We can use our own address in Tokyo and we’ll pay on your behalf with one of our Japanese credit cards. Learn more about our service.
You can buy physical books the same way as other physical items. Just follow the step-by-step tutorial above.
You will have to gather four things to buy Japanese ebooks for your Kindle:
When you'll have all those elements you'll be able to register your account on Amazon Japan. After creating your Japanese account, you will have to login with that new account on your Kindle device or app. If you already registered your Kindle with an account coming from another country, you'll have to open "Manage Your Content and Devices", then click on "Settings" and change your country of residence to "Japan".
From there, you will havec access to the Japanese ebooks catalog of Amazon. We recommend you test your device by downloading a free ebook. If that works, you can start buying your ebooks as if you were in Japan.
Special Tip: You can create an Amazon account in another region and gift yourself books from your Japanese account.
You cannot use your American or British account on the Japanese version of Amazon. If you want to try to buy Japanese items by yourself, you’ll have to create a new account.
Besides, if your idea is to use your American account on the American version of Amazon while you are in Japan, you can do it. But, you will face the same import restrictions as described above about Amazon Japan.