It is now possible to order a large selection of Japanese Video games directly from Amazon Japan even if you don’t live in Japan. This is extremely convenient for those of us who want to play imports and Japanese games that never get an international release.
Many of us had to go through some expensive or fishy import sites to get our Japanese Video games before, so it’s nice to see that one of the most trusted companies in the world is now helping to solve that problem for us. And yes, Amazon Japan’s site supports English , see below.
Quicklinks
- Things to know before you order Japanese Video games from Amazon
- How to Switch the language to English on Amazon Japan
- How to create an Amazon Japan Account
- Find the Item you want to buy and add it to cart
- Proceed to Purchase
Things to know before you order Japanese video games from Amazon
The Nintendo Switch is Region Free, meaning you can import games from anywhere, they will work. Older generation Nintendo consoles (e.g. 3DS and Wii U) however are region locked. This means that in order to play a Japanese video game on your 3DS or your Wii U, you’ll need a 3DS/Wii U bought in Japan (or imported). Some of these limitations can be bypassed by hacks though. Smealum‘s hacks let you play Japanese 3DS games on a US or EU 3DS (any 3DS, really).
Sony consoles, on the other hand, are not region locked. You can buy a Japanese Sony game and play it directly on your US/EU PS3, PS4, or PS Vita. You can safely buy a Playstation game from Amazon Japan and play it directly on your console, wherever you are in the world.
If you’re an Amazon customer in your home country, the Amazon shopping experience in Japan should be pretty straightforward to you. This is the same interface and screens as in other countries.
Step 0: switch the language to English on Amazon Japan
Amazon are making it really convenient for those of you who don’t speak Japanese: you can switch the interface of Amazon Japan to English with a simple click of a button. It won’t translate the whole content of the site, but this should be enough for you to navigate the important parts of the site and buy your Video games.
- Go to Amazon.co.jp
- click on the link that says “in English” in the top navigation bar
Tadaa! (you’ll note that not everything switches to English, but enough for you to navigate the site)
Much better! Kind of
Step 1: How to create an account on Amazon Japan
Before you can order something on Amazon Japan, you will need an account. Your amazon.com, or amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, etc… account will not work on Amazon Japan, you need an Amazon Japan specific account.
You can skip this step if you already have an Amazon Japan account.
Select the “Your account” tab in the top navigation bar, a window will pop-up. click on the link that says “New Customer? Start here”
On the account creation page, fill in your details: name, email address, password.
Note on the name pronunciation field: you can put the same as your name in here. This is a Japanese specific field for Japanese people with Kanji characters in their names.
Once you have everything in there, click on create your amazon account. Done!
Step 2: Find the game(s) you want to buy, and add it to cart
You might have a hard time finding the games you want to buy. Amazon Japan lets you search in English but you’ll have mixed results. You’ll probably want to copy/paste the Japanese name of the game (you can get it from wikipedia for example) in the Amazon Search bar.
In my case, I browsed through the Amazon Video Games store.
Interesting cultural note: console games are called “TV Games” in Japan.
Important note: Once you find the game you want to buy, you might want to make sure it says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.co.jp”. This is one way to make sure you won’t have any trust issue with the seller as it is Amazon themselves. Other sellers might ship abroad, but you never know.
Some games are *not* eligible for international shipping, and in general Amazon will let you know at the purchase step.
Once you have found the game you want, click on add to cart. And add other games if you want too.
Note: if offered to go with “free expedited shipping”, click on “continue without Free shipping”. This offer is for “Prime” trial and will not work for international shipping.
Step 3: Proceed to purchase
Most of the steps below are only required for your first purchase. After that, Amazon saves your shipping address and payment method so you won’t have to enter those again.
3.1 Add to Cart
By clicking on the “add to cart” button in the step above you are now reaching your shopping cart, which contains your video game. You can now click on proceed to checkout
3.2 Shipping Address
If this is your first time shopping on Amazon Japan you will be asked to enter a new shipping address (in future purchases you can just select your address with the click of a button).
Make sure to click on “Add an international address”, otherwise you will not be able to enter the right country.
Enter all your information then click “Continue”
Note: I strongly suggest that you enter your address in capital letters, and do not enter any “special” character (I’m talking to you European guys with all your weird symbols). Limit yourself to “American” characters: capital letters ASCII. This is to ensure the Amazon Japan systems will not mess up your address.
3.3 Shipping options
The next step is to choose your shipping options. It should say something along the lines of “Amazon Global International Shipping”.
Note: This would also be the step where Amazon tells you it can’t ship to your address if you tried some Video Game that they will not export to you 🙁
3.4 Payment
Next you’ll enter your credit card information. This should be pretty straightforward. Note that Amazon might reject some international cards, but I’ve had no issue with my U.S. Debit card
There’s an additional step here where Amazon lets you choose the currency of your credit card. This means they’ll handle the conversion fee, and your bank will not charge you for some foreign currency exchange. Depending on your bank, this means you might (or might not) get a better price from Amazon by using this feature. I recommend using it anyway to avoid having weird Japanese Yen charges on your statements.
3.5 Order confirmation
Last but not least is the order confirmation page. Verify the price, check how much they’ll charge for shipping, then click on “Place your order”.
I’ve found that Amazon are charging reasonable shipping fees for some pretty fast shipping. In my example, the order would arrive within 5 days. It’s probably better to order in bulk rather than one item at a time, to save on shipping.
Step 4 – Done!
You’re done. you should get a confirmation message from Amazon, followed by a confirmation email within a few minutes. Enjoy your Japanese import games 🙂
Disclaimer: Some Amazon links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy through these links, you don’t pay anything extra but I get a small commission. This is a way to thank me for this tutorial without having to pay or do anything special on your end, thanks in advance!
