It’s all-in the name. StartBuyingInChina.
But what about Japanese Online Stores???
This week I will focus on Japan online Stores or better Japanese online stores.
When I started this site 3 years ago I knew several Chinese stores. And I saw this market growing. Since then I visited over 2 or maybe 3 hundred different stores. All Chinese, focusing on the worldwide markets. Shipping to the smallest places in the world.
Sometimes I search for other countries stores like India and Korea. The number of online stores is very limited or these stores only focus on their own country and do not ship worldwide.
Top 15 Japan Online Stores and Agents
Let me start by saying that the Japanese online shopping market is completely different than the Chinese market. In China there are hundreds, maybe thousands of online store written in English that sells wordwide.
In Japan most sites are dedicated to the Japanese public. They are written in Japanese and do not have and English version. To help you, there are many different agents that do the shopping for you.
How an agents works
This is pretty much the same as when you want to buy from Taobao. I wrote a blog about Taobao before, follow this link.
In short:
You search on their site for your products, you place your order, you pay. Now the agents buys the products, receives the product and ships the products to you.
Disclaimer: I didn’t buy anything at any Japanese store. I cannot tell that one store or agent is better than the other. If you want to proceed to buy from Japan, do it with the normal care. Start small and see if the agent or store satisfies you. The list below is random. There is no order in this list for quality, service, prices or what so ever.
Here we go! 15 Online Japanese stores
This site is showing up in Google at first. It’s an agent. A bidding site. They do the buying on any Japanese site, with or without shopping cart. That’s great.
But that’s all the service the offer. You cannot cancel, return, change the products and you can not get compensation. Unless the seller accepts these options. This is unclear. There is no buyers protection like AliExpress.
A typical screaming and colorful Japanese website. Mainly Food, Kitchen, lifestyle products. Daiso is the online store for the Daiso stores (Japan: 2.680, USA: 29, Middle East: 37, Africa 2 stores).
A real online Japan store focusing on the oversea markets. It has its prices written US dollars. The number of different products is limited to approximate 4.000 pieces. But… what you can get is really great!
Umbrellas with a build in fan
. Cotton Wife and Husband Hug Pillows.
Worth a try, just to see very strange products as ‘Face Slimmer Exercise Mouthpiece” iiiieeeeeeuuwww!
Jshoppers is clothing for women, maternity & baby, kids, teens, men etc. Prices are in JPY. I cannot find if they have international shipping, but the payment systems includes Credit Cards, Paypal and AliPay so I guess they do.
Tenso is another forwarding service like fromjapan.co.jp. They claim to be the cheapest, that they have many shipping options, have a fast warehouse en have quality support. With the non-returning options from the first one, quality support is a quick win for Tenso.
Another forwarding service that delivers to 120 countries wordwide. They have a price comparison service. You can use multiple payment systems including CC, Paypal and AliPay. Their site is written in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
BuySmartJapan costs 10% of the item price for its services. And they have EMS insurance for free.
Japamart is also a service company. They support an auction and shopping service. Its costs are incremental with the total purchase price.
Japamart has auction categories in all kind of products like; computer, books, fashion, food, anime.
Japan-shop is an online mall specializing in Japanese goods and services for people living outside of Japan. It is not a fancy website. More a 10 years old version. The site is online since 1996, so this could be true.
As you look at this one, it is not really a mall, but a redirect service.
Despite the old website, it is a great place to find all kinds of Japanese stores. (The offer somewhat the same service as I do: Information about online stores. In this case Japanese stores.)
Akazuki sells all Japanese goods for sushi, bento and tea. They ship everywhere (as they say). Prices are in US dollars. If you are looking for Sushi stuff and tea, start here!
Wow, the names of these Japanese stores are great. This one is no different. In simple words, Japan-Shopping is a shipping service using PayPal and EMS. I think you get the point by now.
Hoyoyo is an online store for apparel, bags, auto parts, electronics, home & garden, toys, watches from Japan AND China!. When I click on this site on the China part, it only gives a search bar for Taobao. But… It doesn’t work. So, no China here!
Well, the site doesn’t work on the Japanese part too. It keeps loading. Sorry, missed your chance guys…
Japonica market is another auction site. Useful to buy at real Japanese stores.
- JRunway – OUT OF BUSINESS
This is one of the more modern sites that focus on worldwide shipping. Situated in Singapore, JRunway sells streetwear for women and men. More fancy and bolt and sexy. JRunway sells all kind of Japanese brand products like: Bonica Dot, Emoda, Ikumi, Legenda, StarStar, Vanquish and more.
Uniqlo sells also fasion for women, men and kids. A very professional looking site. With easy to access shopping info about returns, deliveries, cookies etc. If you are looking for clothing, then this is a must try!
And at last another shipping agent. They offer services for the Japanese versions of Yahoo Auctions, Rakuten, Amazon. See the links below. The site is modern and clean. Something I really like.
This is it!
I’m really curious if you have ever bought something from Japan? If you do, please let me know in the comment box below. Tell us where you bought and what and if you were satisfied.
The following list is for stores written in Japanese
The agents above buy from Japanese written sites. Here is a list below. I cannot give any check on these stores, simply because my Japanese speaking language is one word big and my reading skills are completely none. You can use this list as you wish. Google translate can be your friend!
Fashion
Electronics
Groceries
- Yoyo Market
- Seiyu
Summit- Co-op
I do not think I will start a StartBuyingFromJapan. The market isn’t that big and is dominated by agentes that will do the buying process for you.
I hope you liked this article.
Please share it with your friends. Like us on Facebook or Twitter it.
See you next time!
Bastiaan
PS. Don’t forget to leave a comment. Have you ever thought about buying from Japan? And do you have an experience? Please share!
7 replies to "Top 15 – Japanese Online Stores"
Hi
I realy want to know what online japan stores can be good platform for selling unique art jewelies from Israel, as this market is iportant
Thanks
Yoel
I’ve used Tenso Japan forwarding service before, but i think they’re too expensive to me,
My friends recommended me this one called 【Transbang】https://goo.gl/zLtxi2
They’re reliable and easy to use, the pricing is reasonable, I am pretty satisfied with their service.
How do you think about this web site?
https://dokodemo.world/en/?dokodemo1
here is another Japan forwarding service called Transbang, i think they perform better than others on you list, they are internationally shipping from japan and shipping rate is cheaper, packing is always within one day so you can get your package in a pretty short time. https://goo.gl/cRiyMq here is the link for you to check it up.
Hi,
You forgot lots of good japanese online store I think.
I work with a japanese team for http://www.kyotokitsune.com
It’s interesting because you can find exclusive products from Kyoto
I never considered Japan as a new area to shop. But indeed, they have some funny stuff and a totally different culture that provides new ideas. I guess they have great products for people involved in cosplay or manga drawing etc. I do not know if the produce good filters for photography but its worth a look! Thanks for this nice insight.
Well at least they are the creators of very good cameras like Nikon, Canon and Sony.