Importing into Japan

Just a quick question, as I am going to Japan for a relatively extended period of time there is gonna be some good ol english stuff that I will miss while away.

To combat homesickness for ol blighty,

1) The biggy, anyone know a online shop which will sell and post UK Pal DVD to Japan. I know I could get a matrix of english mates on the case, but it would be so much easier to do it direct if possible.

2) Silly one, anyone know a place in Japan that would carry British newspapers. One of my best mates writes for a tabloid and I do miss crap papers when away from the UK. Would be nice to just have one once in a while.

 

Have not used them, so cannot vouch for them, but sendit.com came up when I was looking at importing PAL stuff to the US. They do appear to ship worldwide. The site looks oddly familiar, though the name isn't to me - wondering if they used to be called something else...

 

Yeah Sendit looks a safe-ish bet. They don't let you enter addresses in Japanese but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Hopefully.

 

Yep, I thought they looked familiar - they used to be blackstar.co.uk. No idea why the name changed.

Hadn't thought about how to enter a Japanese address - I guess that you'd have to convert it to romaji.

As for newspapers, could you use one of the online editions? Not the same as ink on paper, I know...

 

I can vouch for Sendit, though I've never had them deliver to Japan. UK -> USA is fine though, very efficient.

 

Any Amazon store ships DVDs worldwide. It's very reliable and not so expensive if you order a few items at once.

See here for shipping rates UK -> Japan.

 

Oh, wow. I hadn't realised that - I've spent too much time looking at the games section on amazon.co.jp, where they don't appear to ship outside Japan.

Do you know if separate accounts are needed for each amazon country?

 

Yes, only books, CDs and DVDs are shipped worldwide. And yes, unlike e.g. ebay you need separate accounts.

 

I bought magazines and newspapers at Book 1st. Was one of the few places I could buy 'When Saturday Comes' probably the best football magazine ever, couldn't find that in the states. If you can speak a little Japanese or take a friend with you then they can order what ever you want. Newspapers can be expensive though...

 

For the 3 to 4 PAL DVDs I've bought over the years, I got them all from amazon.co.uk. Just don't expect to get any games with the same purchase.

 

Play.com used to deliver internationally too. Might be worth checking them out.

 

Huh, sorry I must confess my stupidity! I tried to order a copy of Suikoden of Amazon.com ages ago and they refused. So I just assumed they would not send DVDs. Sorry that was pretty foolish.

Cool, can't live without British comedy for any length of time. Last time I was studying in Japan I went into BookOff and got the entire series of Thin Blue Line and Red Dwarf 5/6/7 on VHS for 100 yen a shot. That really kept me going!

 

gave me a bit of an idea though how viable it is I dont know - would be cool to open up a shop in, say, Tokyo, that caters primarily to gaijin. having grown up in the UK but belonging to a smallish Argentine/latin american community over there, it would have been great to have had that type of a shop.

 

Well in London there are Japanese supermarkets, Japanese only hairdressers and of course the Japan centre in picadilly.

Seems like it "should" work in Japan. I mean when I have stayed at decent hotels in Japan they have got me british papers so it cannot be impossible. But at the end of the day any big Japanese book store tends to stock English books, audio CDs, journals, mags, etc. Maybe foreigners are already pretty well taken care off?

 

yeah I know what you mean, but how about if you want a can of baked beans? or a crunchy? I dunno it would be fun to do.

 

Do you really think that the Japanese wouldn't have had the same idea already? In Hiroshima I know at least three medium to large import food stores where you can get a variety of snacks and food from Europe, the US and Asia. Baked beans, Thai curry mix, German mixed pickles, Swiss muesli? Anytime. One of the stores is part of the Kaldi chain that I've seen in Tokyo too. So, I'm afraid this market gap has already been bridged.

 

There are not enough foreigners to cater only to them. Foreign population is no more than 1%, and most of those are Korean and Chinese. A much more successful business is something like Kinokuniya or National Azabu...both rather pricey super markets which carry Japanese and import goods.

 

It helps that the Japanese themselves are eager to try and buy import stuff including food. Otherwise the import supermarkets would not pay off.

 

Yeah, that is the thing, food alone would defo not work. It is surprisingly easy to get Birtish ale or stilton in Japan. Where I used to live near Osaka there was a posh little supermarket that dealt mostly in french and Italian imports.

And outside food is hard to think of something that would be viable. The only items that I send to Japan (for profit) are fashion labels and jewel brands that you cannot get in Japan yet.

 

thanks for the explanation but why the ? a little rude don't you think?


anyway being Argentine my best bet over there would be opening an Argentine or Italian restaurant, the one's that are already there are popular enough from what I've heard.
never going to happen but for the sake of discussion, it's quite interesting, in so far as successfully penetrating the Japanese market from outside is definetly a challenge.