Do you know about Amazon Japan? In this article, we will write a complete guide that will answer almost any question regarding the Japanese Amazon, as well as share a bit about its popularity and some curiosities.
Amazon is one of the most famous online stores in the world and officially arrived in Brazil a few years ago. Previously, we only had access to its books and ebooks, but nowadays we can buy practically anything.
Amazon Brazil is a great partner of the site. Every time you, the reader, buy something on Amazon Brazil through our site’s referral links, you help our site grow. That’s why we leave this incentive! This is one of the reasons for writing this gigantic article regarding Amazon Japan, Brazil, and the world!
Table of Contents
Amazon Prime – The best combo
Before we talk about Amazon’s journey in Japan, I want to remind you that Amazon Prime arrived in Brazil offering a combo of free shipping, Prime Video, music, books, and games for just 10 reais a month.
That’s right, you pay an alternative to Netflix, Spotify, and bookshops for just 10 reais. This is truly the cheapest service I found to enjoy the great catalog of movies and series, free shipping, and a music app all at once.
And if you want to subscribe to the annual plan, you only pay 89 reais, saving about 25% compared to the monthly plan. Amazon Prime is the true Netflix killer. You can subscribe to Amazon Prime using the buttons below:
What is Amazon? How did it arrive in Japan?
Amazon emerged in 1994 in the USA. This company is one of the first and largest e-commerce companies in the world. Currently, it operates in various areas such as Cloud, Streaming, and even artificial intelligence.
Amazon arrived in Japan in 1998 as Amazon Japan Inc. It registered the first domain of the Japanese site in 2000 as amazon.co.jp and the president and CEO at the time was Junichi Hasegawa.
Currently, Amazon holds the first place as the largest online store in Japan. This first place is unbeaten, as Amazon Japan’s sales are 10 times greater than the second place Yodobashi Camera.
The Japanese version of Amazon offers many exclusive products available only in Japan. Fortunately, it is possible to buy imported products from Japan on Amazon USA, and some sellers from Amazon Japan ship to Brazil.
How does Amazon work in Japan?
Amazon Japan operates like in any other country. The site has the same international layout, and you can change the language from Japanese to English. The services offered by Amazon are much more popular in Japan than in Brazil.
For example, it is common to find people in Japan using Fire TV, Prime Video, or their personal assistant Amazon Alexa on the Amazon Echo. Not to mention that Japanese people enjoy reading, so books are widely used on the Kindle.
Purchases on Amazon within Japan tend to be astronomically fast. It can happen that you buy a product from the store and it arrives the next day or even sooner. The store also uses a Marketplace system, where anyone can sell their items.
All of this is possible thanks to more than 13 distribution centers spread throughout Japan, in addition to other locations from other companies that co-store Amazon products. All of this for a cost starting from 152 yen (about 5 reais).
Amazon Kindle Unlimited – free books
Amazon Kindle Unlimited is a service from Amazon that is also available in Brazil. With it, you have access to various free ebooks and digital books, including mangas, light novels, Japanese books, and Japanese learning books.
We encourage Suki Desu readers to sign up and download Kindle Unlimited through our Amazon link, so we earn a small commission and you get a few months free to read all the thousands of books provided by Amazon.
It is possible to read Japanese books, mangas, and other books of your interest on Amazon Brazil itself. If you want to access the entire library of Japanese books, just go to the settings of the already downloaded app and change the region to Japan.
You can use this service on both a Kindle device and the apps for Android and iOS. Depending on the situation, you may need to use a VPN to view exclusive content from some Amazon services.
To start using Amazon Kindle Unlimited, just access the site by clicking here, enter a book, and select the option.
Fire TV – No more TV BOX and Chromecast
Many buy those devices called TV BOX or Google Chromecast to turn their TV into a Smart TV. With these devices, you can access Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and thousands of other applications and games.
The big problem is that the TV Box runs a poorly optimized Chinese version of Android, while the Chromecast only works entirely with a smartphone. The option I use is the Apple TV, which I think is very good, but it is very expensive in Brazil.
Amazon’s Fire TV does practically everything that the Apple TV does, and sometimes better, all for less than 300 reais. There is also a more robust option called Fire TV Cube that comes with Alexa and allows you to control your home and TV by voice.
With the Fire TV Cube, you can simply control your entire television instead of using a remote control. That’s why I believe that Fire TV is a much better option than a Google Chromecast, TV Box, and Apple TV that doesn’t even have a browser.
Amazon offers various services such as video streaming with Amazon Prime, a strong competitor to Netflix. In Japan and other countries, you also have Amazon Music Unlimited, a strong competitor to Spotify.
How to buy from Amazon Japan
The biggest problem with buying products on Amazon.co.jp is the high shipping costs and also the fact that not all sellers provide the option to ship products abroad. Despite the high shipping prices, their delivery is quite fast.
To buy from Brazil on Amazon Japan, you need an international credit card. With it, you can buy books to study Japanese and mangas without any fear of customs taxing them. Although it is possible to buy many books directly from Amazon Brazil.
There is not much secret to buying on this site unlike other stores; if you don’t know how to shop online through Amazon, we recommend doing some research and gaining some experience before making international purchases.
The only thing that will change is that you will need to create a new account, as Amazon does not use global accounts. We also recommend changing the site language to English, making your life easier.
When purchasing a product, you will need to enter your address. Click on “Add an International Address“, indicating that you wish to add an international address. When filling it out, do not include special characters or accents.
Make sure all the information is filled out correctly. It is only possible to buy from Brazil on Amazon Japan using international credit cards like Visa and Mastercard. Don’t forget to properly convert the product and shipping costs, and compare prices with other places to see if it’s really worth it.
I hope you enjoyed the article. If you liked it, share and leave your comments. For those who enjoy games, another store we recommend is Play Asia.
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