Anime fan? Fashionista? Here’s how to enjoy Japan’s Black Friday online

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White Rabbit Express

5 min readNov 17, 2017

As with Halloween — which has become hugely popular in Japan in recent years — the land of Pokémon and cat cafes is getting onboard with Black Friday sales. Unfortunately most Japanese online shops aren’t so foreigner-friendly. We’ll give you some tips on how to buy nearly anything from Japan right from your home!

Falling on the day-after-Thanksgiving, Black Friday is one of the most anticipated events of the year in the United States. Marking the beginning of a three-day commercial carnage, this annual event is slowly being adopted in Japan too. “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia back in the 50’s, when both big and small names in the retail industry started playing a part in the event. Over six decades later, Black Friday events have sprawled around the the globe.

Despite the ease of cross-border shopping online, most Japanese resellers tend to focus solely on their home market creating difficult barriers for foreign consumers who enjoying Japan’s exclusive products.

Fortunately, there are services who can take the pain and frustration out of shopping online in the land of anime, Pokémon, and Harajuku girls. But first, let’s talk about how Black Friday has been established in Japan.

Black Friday is a recent phenomenon in Japan

Toys “R” Us is credited for first bringing Black Friday to Japan in 2014. Gap and Aeon, the biggest retailing group in the country, followed suit when they announced their big sale bonanza in the year 2016, putting Black Friday in the national spotlight.

Today, Mark Goddard, the president of Toys “R” Us in Japan, continues to encourage Japanese retailers to take part in the event. As Black Friday goes mainstream, it is expected that more brands will hop aboard this much anticipated pre-Christmas shopping sale.

Black Friday plays a big part in luring customers into participating stores. In one of Aeon’s officials words, it’s a great way to “whet consumers’ appetite.” By joining the Black Friday bandwagon, they are able to create an event their consumers have come to enjoy and anticipate as each November draws in.

The Hitch: Most Japanese stores do not ship abroad

Shopping is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable things about a trip to Japan. Brand-name articles in Tokyo’s Ginza or electronics in Akihabara may be some of the more popular “shopping tourism” destinations, there are countless shops catering to niche interests you won’t find anywhere else in the world.

Japanese sellers have not yet understood that there is a huge demand for their products abroad.

As a rather insulated and exclusive market, foreigner online shoppers need a bit of professional help in order to enjoy the commercial festivities.

Two solutions for buying Japanese products online

Help is here thanks to the pioneering efforts of two innovative web services. The White Rabbit Express proxy-buying service and the Blackship package forwarding service make shopping from Japan simple and easy, right from your mobile phone or notebook computer.

White Rabbit Express: Let professionals buy for you

Living up to its claims, White Rabbit Express definitely offers you a quick and easy way to buy from Japan. Unlike an online shop, White Rabbit Express doesn’t sell from a fixed catalog of products. Instead, they give you the full freedom to buy from nearly any store operating in Japan.

You can import any kind of goods with White Rabbit Express.

Just copy-and-paste the url of the item you want to buy into the White Rabbit Express cart. You be presented with an instant quote. Proceed through checkout and White Rabbit’s buyers will get to work on your request.

If White Rabbit Express can’t buy your item for any reason, you’d get a full refund of the amount you paid. And best of all, White Rabbit Express is reducing their service fee over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holiday. It’s definitely the perfect time to give White Rabbit Express a try!

And best of all, White Rabbit Express is reducing their service fee over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holiday.

To top it off, you don’t have to worry about Japan-only payment options or asking questions in English because White Rabbit Express is equipped to offer you the services tailored to your needs — even if you don’t speak Japanese.

Indeed, if you want to shop endlessly from one shop to another, you can rely on White Rabbit Express to handling the purchasing and payment for you.

Blackship: Your own mailbox in Japan

Think package forwarding services can’t get any better? Think again! Blackship continues to break boundaries by offering the most competent service to local and international consumers.

With the rise of global eCommerce, it’s getting easier to buy things from abroad, but getting those items delivered can be another matter. Blackship makes cross-border delivery hassle-free. Blackship gives you a physical address in Japan you can use to ship package from stores in Japan which don’t ship overseas. Then the Blackship team can repack, consolidate and ship your packages to you.

This is how your Japanese mailbox looks.

As compared to Tenso, Blackship service fees are cheaper, and the offer lower shipping rates on some packages. But the important differences are in the features and quality of service.

With Blackship you get photos of your packages when they arrive, you can control over the customs value of your items, and monitor the status of your shipments, right from a super simple, mobile-friendly web application. However, unlike White Rabbit Express, Blackship works best for people who are comfortable buying from Japanese web shops on their own.

Where to shop?

Japan is not just a dream destination for anime lovers and tech enthusiasts as it also houses various shopping hubs. Whether you’re going to visit its metropolitan cities or you’re just simply buying items online, it’s best that you take a trip down to Japanese shops that may participate on Black Friday in November or will have Christmas sales or collections later this year.