You can now import Japanese games directly from Amazon Japan – here’s how
In 2016, Amazon Japan updated their offers so that you can now order Japanese Video Games directly from Amazon Japan.
This is huge for those of us who like to import games, as it could reduce the prices of imports (Amazon have reasonable shipping fees) plus it removes some of the trust issues you might have with some less known websites.
This could be a huge blow for many video game import sites, but this is great for gamers.
People have reported that this does not work for all games, only a selection of games sold and shipped by Amazon, but that’s already a huge list. I tried and it worked with my US Address and US Debit card.
As a reminder, Sony games are not region locked so you can buy Japanese games for your PS4/PS3/PS Vita and play them right away on your console. For Nintendo consoles , The Nintendo Switch is also Region Free, meaning you’ll have no issue there either. For their former consoles (including the 3DS and Wii U), you’ll either need an imported console from Japan, or a region free hack on your console.
And yes, fear not, Amazon Japan have an option to switch the site’s language to English.
If you’re a fan of imports and want to give Amazon a try, I’ve written a comprehensive tutorial here: How to order Japanese Video games from Amazon Japan.
Enjoy, and feedback on the tutorial is welcome!
first
Liksang, lol
I thought many games say for sale in Japan only, I would imagine that should be enforceable in Japan right?
Or is that message 100% meaningless?
Money makes the world go round. Money also makes many restrictions meaningless, IF the price is right…
It was a complete *** story they made up to blame some other *** they would’ve been involved in. Illegal to grey import? LMAO and yet their competitors like Play-Asia didn’t lose any sleep over it.
Does this also work for JPN PSN codes? Because sometimes finding a site that didn’t charge literally an arm and a leg for one is also quite the feat. Ended up paying almost double the currency value for a JPN code to buy My Stylist a while back when it looked like that was going to be the one and done exploit game everyone needed to have..
i live in japan and have a american debit card. it dosent. i have to go to 711 to add funds to my psn. or use pay pal
Lame, alright well thanks for sharing!
Good new …. But you guys can read Japanese in the game?
Some can, but for those people think that being able to import games magically makes them translated into english or whatever I say let them learn that the hard way haha…
I played J-Stars Victory Vs in Japanese, it took me a while to figure it out. :p
Typo, I think.
“Amazon Japan have an option to switch the site’s language to English.”
I think have should be has.
British English bias 🙂
Those shipping fees will turn you off about this whole thing and the prices are steep for what you want.
Can we order 64gb vita memory cards ?
What exactly has changed?
I live in Japan and have been ordering games, etc. from U.S. Amazon for years. Amazon and/or partners refuse to ship some things, but not all.
I always assumed the reverse was also true. What happened when you tried to do this in the past?
This was blocked for most titles from Japan to rest of the world. I have lived in Japan too, and can confirm what you say, that from US to JP it has been working this way for a long time.
Nintendo Switch, however, is region free, so maybe it’ll work for those games too?