Buy from Japan: your proxy buyer for Japanese shops and auctions
A proxy buyer shops in Japan on your behalf. We find the item, buy it, receive it at our own warehouse in Toyama, pack the parcel and send it to you. Our fee is 10% of the order, minimum ¥1,000.
Why you need a buyer inside Japan
Most Japanese shops do not ship abroad and do not take foreign cards, and Mercari and the auctions will not even register you without a Japanese address and phone number. So the purchase is made by someone already in Japan: the item goes to a Japanese address first, and to you from there.
Maketto is a Japanese company with a warehouse in Toyama. Your purchases come to us: we unpack them, check them against the order, and put items from different shops into one parcel. You pay by card on the site and see every step of the order in your account.
What the service costs
Our fee is 10% of the order, minimum ¥1,000. It covers the lot: finding the item, buying it, receiving and checking it at the warehouse, holding it until the parcel is packed, and sending it off. The only separate charge is international shipping. We count that once the parcel is packed and weighed — until then nobody knows the weight.
Fishing
See all →Watches
See all →Cameras & lenses
See all →Figures & anime
See all →JDM & car parts
See all →Retro & vintage
See all →How an order goes
- 1Send us a link — to Yahoo Auctions, Rakuten, Mercari, Yahoo Shopping, Amazon.co.jp, UNIQLO or any other Japanese shop. A photo or just a name works too: we will find it ourselves, since Japanese shops only search in Japanese.
- 2We price the item with the fee, and you see the total before you pay. An auction lot has no price yet: you name the limit we must not bid above.
- 3You pay by card on the site and we buy. Shop items go straight away; for a lot we wait for the bidding to close.
- 4The purchase arrives at our warehouse in Toyama. We unpack it, check it against the order and look at the condition. If the wrong thing came, we deal with the seller in Japanese ourselves.
- 5Everything you bought goes into one parcel. We weigh it, invoice you for shipping and send it off — we ship worldwide, and the route depends on the country and on what is inside.
Worth knowing before you order
- Japanese export rules depend on where the parcel is going. Game consoles — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, old Famicom too — cannot leave Japan for certain countries at all, and other categories have their own limits. We check your list against the rules for your country before you pay.
- The post office refuses aerosols — hairspray, dry shampoo, anything in a pressurised can; liquids over 24% alcohol; loose batteries and power banks. A device with a built-in battery travels fine, a battery on its own does not.
- Customs duty is paid by the recipient, and the threshold differs from country to country. Tell us where the parcel is going and we will say in advance whether your order is likely to cross it and whether splitting the shipment is worth it.
- Purchases wait at the warehouse while you add to the order. Five items from five shops leave in one box, which costs less than five separate parcels.
- If something could not be bought, the money goes back to your balance: put it towards the next order or take it back. Your account shows every step — bought, arrived at the warehouse, packed, shipped.
Frequent questions
What does a proxy buying service do?
It buys the item for you in a country you cannot buy from directly. Japanese shops rarely ship abroad and often refuse foreign cards, and the auctions and Mercari need a Japanese address and phone number. The proxy buyer makes the purchase in their own name, receives it in Japan and sends it on to you.
Why not just use a forwarding address?
A forwarding address only receives what you managed to buy yourself — and on the auctions, on Mercari and in most shops a foreign card and a foreign account will not get you that far. We buy for you, check the item when it arrives instead of forwarding a sealed box, and talk to the seller in Japanese if something is wrong.
What do you charge?
10% of the order, minimum ¥1,000. That covers buying, receiving, storage, packing and dispatch. You see the item total with the fee before paying; shipping is counted separately once the parcel is packed. Payment is by card on the site or from your balance.
Which Japanese shops can you buy from?
Yahoo Auctions, Rakuten, Mercari, Yahoo Shopping, Amazon.co.jp and UNIQLO are open in our catalogue — search and order there yourself. Any other Japanese shop works too: send a link and we will buy it.
Can several purchases go in one parcel?
Yes, that is what the warehouse is for. Order from six shops if you like: the items sit with us until the last one arrives, then travel together. One parcel costs less than several, both in shipping and at customs.
What cannot be shipped out of Japan?
Game consoles are under Japanese export control and cannot go to some countries at all. Aerosols, liquids over 24% alcohol and loose batteries are refused by the post office. Everything else travels; anything doubtful we check against your destination before you pay.
Send a link and we will price it
We will give you the cost with our fee and say in advance whether the item is allowed to leave Japan and how it will travel.
See also: Fishing tackle