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A Guide to Importing Japanese Merchandise, Part 3b: Book/Magazine Shop Guide

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In this series:

  1. General Principles, Things to Consider
  2. Shipping and Taxes
  3. Shop Guides
    1. DVDs/Blu-Rays/CDs
    2. Books/Magazines (you are here)
    3. Video Games
    4. Figures/Hobby Goods (future)

Okay, continuing the series from the other day, here’s a write-up about Japanese online stores that will ship books and magazines internationally.  I actually have less personal experience with using other vendors for books, so I would appreciate your help in filling in any blanks or providing your own experiences.  In particular, I need your advice about the “Stock/Availability” field, but also any comments you have.

b) Books/Magazines

Japanese Online Stores that will ship internationally:
Amazon.co.jp, Honto.jp, Mangaoh.co.jpCDJapan.co.jpHMV.co.jp

International Online Stores that ship Japanese merchandise:
Kinokuniya.com (international branches), Yesasia.com

Online Stores specializing in hobby books/magazines that will ship internationally:
Amiami.com, HLJ.com, 1999.co.jp, JList.com

Used Book Stores that will ship internationally:
Mandarake, Rakuten

Japanese Domestic Online Stores that accept foreign Credit Cards (and have a large/varied book store):
Rakuten

Japanese “speciality” Domestic Online Stores that accept foreign Credit Cards:
AnimateGamersChara-AniGetchu, eWonderGOO

If I’m missing anything of note, just let me know in the comments and I’ll add it! 

 

Store: Amazon.co.jp
English Interface? Yes
Stock/Availability: Very Good
Price/Discounts: Typically MSRP, minor discounts occasionally
Payment Methods: Credit Card (hold when preparing for shipment, billed at time of shipment)
Reward Program: Doesn’t usually apply to books
Shipping Methods / Costs: Commercial Courier (DHL in most parts of the world).  Per-Order Base Price (includes 1000 yen surcharge when including books) + fixed Per-Item Rate
Mature Content: Cannot be (directly) shipped internationally.
Cancellation Policy: Items can be cancelled at any time before they are dispatched for shipment using online form.
Notes: See also notes in DVD/BD/CD section.  Magazines are typically posted on the site about 7 to 10 days before the street date (keep checking regularly).

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Store: Honto.jp
English Interface? No (Fan-created Guide)
Stock/Availability: Good?
Price/Discounts: Typically MSRP
Payment Methods: Credit Card (Hold/Charge timing unknown)
Reward Program: Typically 1% points (1 pt = 1 yen), indicated on each item page; redeemable on future purchases
Shipping Methods / Costs: EMS, SAL, Airmail, Surface, plus FedEx and OCS. Calculated using standard weight-based formula at time of shipping.
Mature Content: No apparent differentiation.
Cancellation Policy: Most Items can be cancelled as long as it’s before they enter shipping preparation from the Order Management section.  (CD/DVDs cannot be cancelled.)
Notes: This is the company that took over Bk1; people can migrate their old Bk1 accounts to it.  Note that they do not claim to provide English customer service; use at your own risk.

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Store: Mangaoh.co.jp
English Interface? No (Out-dated Fan-created Guide)
Stock/Availability: Good?
Price/Discounts: Typically MSRP
Payment Methods: Credit Card (Hold/Charge timing unknown)
Reward Program: N/A
Shipping Methods / Costs: EMS. Calculated using standard weight-based formula at time of shipping.
Mature Content: No apparent differentiation.
Cancellation Policy: In general they don’t appear to accept cancellations.
Notes: They also offer a “free order” service which allows you request books for them to try to find if it’s not already on their site.  However, note that they do not advertise offering English customer service; use at your own risk.

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Store: CDJapan.co.jp (affiliated with Japanese brand Neowing)
English Interface? Yes
Stock/Availability: Decent, with clear indications of current availability
Price/Discounts: At or near MSRP.
Payment Methods: PayPal/Alipay (pay upfront), Credit Card (uses Verified by Visa/Secure Code, hold when placing the order, billed at time of shipment), Cash or Money Order (order entered once payment is received
Reward Program: Point system offers 1%+ points (1 pt = 1 yen) against future purchases.  Point coupons are also provided from time-to-time.
Shipping Methods / Costs: FedEx International Priority, EMS, Air Mail (Registered Air Mail optional), SAL (Registered, Unregistered, or Parcel Post).  All based on weight-based fee schedules.  NOTE: A 30-50% premium is added to all shipping rates compared to the Post Office Rates.  FedEx may not be available in all cases, and introduces “volumetric weight”.
Mature Content: Generally not carried much
Cancellation Policy: Items can be cancelled through an online form while the order is processing, after which it has to be done via E-mail with Customer Support.
Notes: See also notes in DVD/BD/CD section.  They offer a “magazine subscription” service that will automatically ship new magazines to you on a monthly basis.  Also has a “Special Request Shopping Service” that lets you request special items (for a significant premium).

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Store: HMV.co.jp
English Interface? Yes
Stock/Availability: Decent to Good (depending on type)
Price/Discounts: Often have “multi-purchase” sales with discounts up to 26% off when purchasing 2 or more of the same type of item
Payment Methods: Credit Card (hold when preparing for shipment, billed at time of shipment)
Reward Program: Point system offers at least 1% points (1 pt = 1 yen) against future purchases, with special “point multiplier” deals offered from time to time.
Shipping Methods / Costs: EMS. Calculated using standard weight-based formula at time of shipping.
Mature Content: No differentiation for what they carry
Cancellation Policy: Items can be cancelled at any time before they are dispatched for shipment using online form.
Notes: See also notes in DVD/BD/CD section.

 

Store: Kinokuniya.com (international stores, available only in certain countries)
English Interface? Yes (in certain countries)
Stock/Availability: Poor/Decent
Price/Discounts: Converted/Imported rates (may be inflated from MSRP)
Payment Methods: Credit Card (Hold/Charge timing unknown)
Reward Program: N/A
Shipping Methods / Costs: Ships from local stores; local postal shipping (see individual site for rates)
Mature Content: Depends on what they decide to import into each local market.
Cancellation Policy: Contact the individual store you’re ordering from.
Notes: These are “international branch offices” of the Japanese bookstore chain that offer online shipping in their local regions.

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Store: Yesasia.com
English Interface? Yes
Stock/Availability: Good
Price/Discounts: Converted/Imported rates (may be inflated from MSRP), sometimes with displayed discounts
Payment Methods: PayPal, Credit Card (Hold/Charge timing unknown), U.S. dollar base pricing
Reward Program: N/A
Shipping Methods / Costs: Standard & Express (SAL & EMS???); Per-order & per-item rates by “shipment unit” (based on weight), vary by country/region; free standard shipping in certain regions after crossing a price threshold
Mature Content: Do not sell?
Cancellation Policy: Through online form prior to shipment preparation, or contact Customer Service
Notes: See also notes in DVD/BD/CD section.

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About Books/Magazines available at Hobby Shops: You’ll notice that I also mentioned in the opening section about Hobby Shops that also sell books.  I’ll discuss these shops more when I get to the figure/hobby section of this series.  These companies typically have a limited selection of books/magazines related specifically to things their customers would generally be interested in (especially hobby/anime magazines, artbooks, and certain other manga and books).  However, due to publisher arrangements, sometimes these shops offer books that you can’t actually find in normal book stores.  So depending on the sorts of books you’re looking for, it may be worth trying them out.  Some of them offer shipping methods besides EMS, which helps save money on heavy items like books.

As a special note, Jlist (like CDJapan) offers a magazine subscription service that may be worth considering if there’s a certain magazine you want to have automatically delivered from month to month.

About Used Book Stores: Used book stores are rather common in Japan, and worth considering if you’re willing to accept “second-hand” and can find what you’re looking for.

When you might want to order from domestic shops: I didn’t include many “general” bookstores here, though I am sure there are many more (let me know if you know of any that are noteworthy).  The main reason to use these stores is, of course, stock and selection.  Likewise with the “speciality” stores — they may not generally have a large book selection, but for certain specific types of items they might be your only choice.  In some cases, I’ve also seen the speciality stores have store-specific bonuses for certain books (some artbooks, special limited book releases).  So depending on the type of book you’re looking for, it may be worth poking around.

Overall Recommendations: The main thing with books is that they can be very heavy, and this can make international shipping very expensive.  If you’re not careful, you can quite easily end up spending more on shipping than the actual cost of the books (especially with things like magazines or artbooks).  In particular, Amazon can be almost out of the question if you’re only looking for one book, as their base shipping price has a 1000 yen book premium.  It can end up working out if you’re buying a whole lot of heavy books (since the pre-item price is rather low), but for large orders of light books (like manga/light novels) it won’t work out.  So finding a store that offers cheaper shipping (particularly SAL, but even FedEx is cheaper than EMS) is good plan for big-time book importers.  That’s why I see a lot of book importers recommend Bk1.jp.  But as always, the issue is availability.  Sometimes you end up taking the hit on shipping simply because of who has the item in stock.  I’ve had good luck finding stock of certain manga and artbooks at HMV, even though that’s EMS shipping (but still cheaper than going though a re-shipper like Tenso).  The “free order” feature on Mangaoh might be useful if you’re looking for some rare/obscure book.  With the free standard shipping in certain countries over a certain threshold, YesAsia may be a decent choice for large book orders, if you can find what you’re looking for.

I can say that I personally generally order all my books at Amazon as part of existing monthly orders for Blu-Rays, so this defrays the cost and generally works out.  But that wouldn’t be the cheapest way for books on their own, for the occasional book purchase, or large manga/LN purchases.  I’d be interested to get the feedback from other frequent book importers on their experiences; let me know in the comments!

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Next time, I guess we’ll do games/eroge (not sure yet if it’ll be one post or two, since they’re similar but different), and then we’ll follow with figures/hobby goods.  (Any other categories I should cover?)

Updated [2011-11-12]: Added JList as a hobby store that also carries books/magazines.

Updated [2011-11-18]: Added SAL Registered and SAL Parcel Post as options for CD Japan.

Updated [2011-11-19]: Added eWonderGOO as one of the Japanese domestic shops.

Updated [2012-03-31]: Updated Amiami URL.

Updated [2012-08-16]: Replaced Bk1 with Honto information, updated CD Japan with shipping rate notes.


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