I was wondering how people in Japan find Amazon Japan. Similar to Amazon.com in selection, price, reliability? (For books in English, or just in general.) I've always found ordering from Amazon pretty reliable, although once my dad ordered a book for my brother which was sent to Ohio instead of California.
I was mostly curious because I was speaking to a few Americans who are or were teaching English in Japan. One said that one thing he missed was books in English. Therefore, if he ever took a trip to a city with a foreign language bookstore, he bought a bunch of books in English. (Meaning he ended up reading some rather strange things here and there. )
2007-02-20 14:51:53 · 5 answers · asked by Bookworm 6 in Travel ➔ Asia Pacific ➔ Japan
Amazon.com Japan is just as reliable as the USA Amazon.com but as far as selection of English books, NOT EVEN CLOSE! They are so lacking in that area. Price for the English books also reflect all the import fees etc. that get tacked on. I'm in Japan, and I order all my English books from US Amazon.com.
2007-02-20 16:58:03 · answer #1 · answered by Looking for the truth... 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It's true that the English language support is pretty awful on Amazon Japan! It's also true that the choice of English books is fairly poor - but we're a minority here, so why would it be so different?
The books I've ordered had to be specially ordered by Amazon from elsewhere - America or Britain, I don't know which - after I'd placed my order, so I DID have to wait a little while (less then two weeks actually!) But there haven't been any problems, and I've even used the free delivery for purchases over however many yen it is because I'm so tight-fisted! Because of THAT, the books ended up at about the same price as they would have cost me in the UK, because the books I ordered are NEVER on special offer in the UK. It might be more expensive now, because of the exchange rate - but it's still worthwhile if you can't get back home for a while! It's better than asking relatives to buy things and send them to you, especially as in the UK there's nothing similar to SAL and they have to either use surface mail or air mail.
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But, almost ALL the bookstores I've been into have a selection of English books - but they do add to the price before they put it on sale! I'm sure it's cheaper to use Amazon really...
2007-02-20 21:22:07 · answer #2 · answered by _ 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Hi,
I'm Japanese, living in the states.
I used www. amazon.co jp once before. I was looking for the novel "the Phantom" on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk but the novel wasn't available at that time. So I decided to look for the novel on amazon.co.jp and I found the novel both in Japanese and English.
It was actually surprising that the novel translated into Japanese was much cheaper ( it was actually half price!) so I decided to buy the translated version of the novel and I sent the novel to my parents' house in Japan.
There wasn't any problems while my novel was shipped to my parents' house. It got to my parents house in a week or so, and my mom sent the novel to me in the states later on.
Anyway, that's the experience that I had when I ordered the novel from the website. It's pretty reliable, prices are ok and there are lots of selections of books targeted mostly to Japanese people.
And actually some Japanese students in the states use the website quite often because it's very reliable and the services are great. They even recommend to use the website to order Japanese books.
By the way, I've ordered stuff from amazon.com probably 5 times so far. And I've never had any problems when they shipped my stuff to my address. And I orderd a DVD from amazon.co. uk once and again I didn't have any problems.
2007-02-23 17:52:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
www.amazon.co.jp The English support is minimal. But I have been able to find most of the stuff I want with regards to books. Other products are not so wonderful. I ordered a cd, but when it got here I opened it up and the cd case was shattered and the cd was broke. I had to pay to send it back...anyway, what a mess that was. But for books, the service was good.
2007-02-20 21:02:36 · answer #4 · answered by T. B. 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The prices look pretty average, but some people may not find it worth it to pay shipping and handling. Sometimes foreign items are cheaper than Japanese items in Japan, like CDs, for example.
2007-02-20 15:22:35 · answer #5 · answered by Rabbityama 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋