I just discovered recently that it’s now super easy to order products from Amazon Japan and it’s opened up a whole new range of kawaii we can buy!
Amazon Global lets you use your usual Amazon login to order selected products from 75 international Amazon sites. It converts everything to your default language and currency and your address and billing info is automatically entered as usual. They even estimate customs charges and add it to your order so you won’t have to wait and pay those huge admin fees to get your parcel. Here’s Amazon’s guide to ordering from Japan.
On Amazon Japan, you may still need to enter character search terms in Japanese but you can look them up online (Wikipedia is a good start) and copy and paste the text. Here’s a few SCK favourites to start you off.
Neko Atsume (ねこあつめ) brings up tons of adorable things including comic books, gashapon figurines, bags, phone cases and lots of cute plushies.
San-X don’t ship outside Japan, but Amazon has lots of weird and wonderful Rilakkuma (リラックマ) items for the home and kitchen including these pudding moulds.
You’ll also find tons of amazing Gudetama (ぐでたま) items. Is this the greatest suitcase ever made?
Totoro (トトロ) and all Studio Ghibli (ジブリ) characters are well represented. You can even pre-order products like this cute figurine.
Did you know there are Japanese Sumikko Gurashi (すみっコぐらし) DS games? They’re town building games and look so kawaii! You’d have to figure out how to play it in Japanese but could be easy enough. UPDATE: I didn’t realise 3DS games are region locked now. That’s so sad as many cute games don’t make it out of Japan. You would now need a Japanese 3DS to play them.
Try it out yourself! Just be sure to check the AmazonGlobal Eligible box on the search results page to avoid disappointment. I ordered a few things for Nicolette’s birthday, which arrived just 4 days later by DHL so I’m very impressed and will definitely be using it again.
Marceline is the co-founder and editor of Super Cute Kawaii and the author of The Super Cute Book of Kawaii. She lives by the seaside in Scotland in a flat full of kawaii, creating cute character goods as Asking For Trouble, working on endless craft projects and playing Nintendo.
4 Comments
Emmie
August 12, 2016 at 10:52 pmThat’s so cool! I really wanted to get one of the Sumikko Gurashi games, until I learned that they’re regionally coded and won’t work on an American 3DS. :/ Do you know if there’s a way around this?
Marceline
August 13, 2016 at 10:25 amYes, I just discovered that too. It never used to be the case and is a real shame as Japanese games are so cute and fun. You would need to buy a Japanese 3DS to play them.
Wendy Sparkman
August 13, 2016 at 11:37 amThank you for the info! I tried it out and was able to fill most of my Neko Dango/Tori Dango wish list (17 USD shipping), as well as pre-order the October releases (22 USD shipping). Do look at the shipping breakdown carefully though, 2 others I wanted were listed through the global program from a vendor other than AmazonJP and shipping for just those two small plushes came to $70! It’s a good idea to check out with each vendor separately so you can make an informed decision regarding costs. Another thing I found I needed to do was apply a language change to English for the site – the preference is in the footer next to the small globe symbol. (FYI – For my Neko Dango search, I used the Japanese for the company San-ei 三英 then followed item links)
Marceline
August 16, 2016 at 12:42 pmGlad it was helpful!