Filed under: iTS
Shopping at iTunes Japan--from America
Web vendor jbox offers iTunes Japan Music Cards from its online site. With one of these cards you can make purchases at the Japan iTS. The cards obviously come at a slight premium. A 1500 yen card, which is worth just under $13 in real US money costs $18 at the site. A 3000 card, worth closer to $25, costs $35. That means that individual tracks, which would normally cost between $1.25 and $1.30 based on the Yen/US $ conversion rate, will set you back about $1.75 to $1.80. For the convenience and access to the foreign store, that's not too horrible a deal.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan Semaya said 12:08PM on 12-14-2006
My sister wants access to the Spanish store from the US. Does anyone sell those cards?
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Kurai said 1:20PM on 12-14-2006
This is incorrect. You can not use an iTunes Gift card from another country without a credit card from that country to set up a music store account. The Credit Card address links you to the music store of that country, leaving these Japanese iTunes Giftcards useless without a Japanese Credit Card to set up an account in the Japanese iTunes Music Store.
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Superslau said 4:10PM on 12-14-2006
Actually, the article is correct. You can set up an itunes account for Itunes Japan using the gift card and it will not require a credit card. The link to jbox also includes full instructions on how to sign up.
I use it myself, it's cool. :)
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Alex said 4:20PM on 12-14-2006
Does anyone know where you can buy a US itunes card online with a foreign credit card? As an American living in Europe I get soooo fed up with the limited availability of music and video here. I have a NL credit card and there is NO VIDEO at all on the Netherlands itunes shop. Not to mention I can't buy any cool Nike+ tunes for my newly purchased Nike+ gear. Sheesh.
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Ashley Clark said 5:02PM on 12-14-2006
Anyone know if there's a place to buy French iTunes gift cards?
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Jeremiah said 5:33PM on 12-14-2006
You can also buy iTunes Japan gift cards from amazon.co.jp. There are some caveats to this approach, though:
1. You have to be able to read enough Japanese to decipher Amazon.co.jp.
2. You have to ship to a Japanese address.
However, if you have a friend in Japan, you can buy the card, have it shipped to them, and have them e-mail you the code on the card. This is cheaper than buying a card from jbox (no markup), but it's also a little harder to do for the average person.
Here's a link to the ￥ 5,000 card:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/Apple-iTunes-Music-%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA%E3%83%9A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-MA164J/dp/B000ALF5H2/sr=8-3/qid=1166134014/ref=sr_1_3/250-5359329-2952255?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
I know this approach does work. Other Amazons might sell iTunes cards for other countries, but usually the shipping restrictions mean you have to ship to address within that country. Still, if you have a friend who lives there...
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shidoshi said 10:32PM on 12-14-2006
Kurai is 100% wrong - I know so because I purchased gift cards while on a trip from Japan in order to use the J-iTMS from the U.S.
The hardest part for Westerners in setting up an account is being able to understand what information to put where, and coming up with dummy data to put in for things like mailing address and whatnot. (As I used to live there, I just used my old address.)
Again, though, you can absolutely use the Japanese iTMS with no need at ANY point for a credit card if you get ahold of one of these gift cards. I myself haven't tried doing this with any other country's store, but I would assume that it would be possible using the same method.
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dvddesign said 10:41PM on 12-14-2006
Yeah, that's bullcrap on needing a foreign CC. I setup my jTunes acct long ago... You only need to prove you have a japanese address, which like Jbox advises, create a fake one. The critical things they're looking for are the prefecture, city, and postal code to all match. Do that and you're good to go.
I can get anyone that wants itunes cards for cheaper than jbox though. I've got a friend in Japan who loves the paypal. Anyone that's interested, shoot me an email (at) gmail.com and I can get you hooked up for about the American equivalent $15 for 1500Y. (He'll wanna be compensated for walking down to Lawsons or 7-11...)
The Japanese itunes store has very little in anime soundtracks, next to no Sony artists, and a massive Jpop selection. SO... If you know what you're looking for before you get there, you might do okay. Artists are listed in both english and Japanese. If you're on Mac, you're covered, but XP users will need to make sure they have the right IME stuff install to get the store to work and look right. You won't find some artists without knowing how they spell their name in KANJI, so before warned.
Also, the japanese have this decade long obsession with reggae and R&B. You'll notice this, and the fact that the Japanese have their own version of easy listening that's worse than anything you'll ever hear at your dentist's office.
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dvddesign said 11:02PM on 12-14-2006
Okay...
And here's proof it works, in case Kurai still has any lingering doubts.
http://static.flickr.com/129/322747597_a6f0f55650_o.png
http://static.flickr.com/131/322747598_8727b7ba2d_o.png
http://static.flickr.com/137/322747599_f3cea0648b_o.png
I've bought about 4500Y of tracks off of here so far since Xmas last year. Fantastic Plastic Machine, Ayumi Hamasaki, B'z, Hifana, Shinchi Osawa, Mihimaru GT, and a few others when they had their 1st anniversary week back in August. They also do the free single of the week. I had a decent FAQ of how to do everything written up at one point, but Jbox didn't want it, and I didn't need it since I already had my acct plugged in.
But I can tell you, you CAN have both that and your native "home" accounts running simultaneously on one machine and ipods. You can only buy from one store at a time though.
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TK said 1:49AM on 12-16-2006
Why can't Apple push for worldwide store? I got stuff I want in UK and Japan store... and another bad part is that you can't gift music from one country's iTS to another. :(
This maybe why piracy still exist.
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Hawkeye said 6:24PM on 1-25-2007
Damn!!!! I literately just got back from Japan yesterday. This post would have been great like 2 days ago. Still good information.
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Tokyo Girl said 10:35AM on 2-10-2007
Hi, I’m writing from Tokyo.
So fascinated many foreign people are actually interested purchasing Japanese songs so much, cause I find music here is quite bad,,,
I am doing the opposite, purchasing American TV dramas from Japan.
Could anyone tell me where I can purchase iTune Gift Cards, which can be sent immediately via e-mail?
I currently purchase off Japanese website, but they don’t have good exchange rate and find a little expensive.
Thank you.
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Masa said 11:28PM on 3-06-2007
I'm trying to set up a Japanese iTunes account here in the US, but I can't get it to work. It keeps asking for a credit card. Any suggestions?
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