Want to get tickets to a concert in Japan? I'm here to help you.
**All information on this page is CURRENT as of July 17th, 2018.**
Buying tickets to Japanese concerts usually requires having a Japanese address and knowledge of the Japanese language - but we're here to help! For an administration fee of 20% of the price of the ticket, we will serve as a proxy buyer to get you tickets to any concert in Japan (with a few exceptions.)
What sort of tickets can you help me with?
* We can buy any general admission tickets sold on artist websites, or through Lawson Ticket, Ticket Pia, Eplus, or other ticket agencies (except for credit-card only sales.) Please understand that we are unable to offer fanclub tickets to shopping service customers as this is prohibited by the rules of most fanclubs. Customers wishing to purchase fanclub tickets must join fanclubs on their own. However, if you are already a member of a fanclub and simply need help with payment, we can help you.
* We can enter you in lottery-based ticket presales. We can't guarantee that you'll win, but if you don't win, there's no charge.
* Did you purchase tickets only to find you can't pay for them, due to not having a Japanese credit card/not being located in Japan? If you select the convenience store payment option, we can serve as your proxy and pay for you! (Seven 11, Lawson, and Family Mart only. All other convenience stores are subject to additional fees).
* Are you a member of the fanclub of a Japanese artist, but can't figure out how to pay for the tickets because you don't live in Japan? Again, we can serve as your proxy and pay for you!
* Are you trying to get tickets to a show that's already sold out? We may be able to help - sometimes resale tickets are available through sites such as Ticket Camp. Contact me directly and we'll talk about it.
We aim to be flexible, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Contact us as early as possible to allow us lead time to handle your request. Please keep your emails brief, polite, and to the point.
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What sort of charges apply?
Ticket purchases through my service include the following charges:
* The actual price of the tickets
* Service and system fees charged by the ticket agents (Ticket Pia, Lawson Ticket, eplus, etc.) - these usually come to no more than 1000 yen per ticket, but may be up to 2000 yen in some cases. These fees are charged by ticketing agents - I have no control over them and do not profit off them.
* This is NOT Greatest Shopping Service admin fee - for my services, I charge 20% of the actual price of the tickets, not including system fees. This fee covers the cost of my time and labor to look up the relevant information, complete the transaction, pay for the tickets, and make sure they reach you safely and on time.
* PayPal currency conversion fee - a fee of 5% charged by PayPal on all international transactions is borne by the customer.
* Shipping - I can either hold the ticket for you until you arrive in Japan, then ship it by domestic post directly to your Japanese accommodations for a fee of 200 yen, or I can ship it to you in your country via EMS document mail for a fee of 1500 yen. The choice is yours!
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How do I place an order for tickets?
To place an order for tickets, send us an email to themadaristocrat at gmail dot com, with the following information. Failure to provide all this information up front will prolong the transaction. To keep things smooth, please include all of the following in your initial query. We promise we will not share any of this information with any third parties, except as needed to complete the purchase of your tickets. Please keep your emails brief, polite, and to the point.
1. What artist(s) do you want to see?
2. What are the dates of the concert(s) you wish to attend?
3. What is the name of the venue?
4. Link to the artist/ticket sales website (not required but very helpful!)
5. How many tickets do you want per show?
6. What country are you located in? (USA kids, we're looking at you. Don't assume we know you're located in the States. Most of our customers are not.)
7. Would you like us to send you a PayPal invoice, and if so, to which email address should we send it?
8. How would you like to receive your tickets? (See the following section.)
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Once you buy the ticket, how will you ship it to me?
Generally, we prefer to hold the tickets for you until you arrive in Japan, then send the tickets through the Japanese domestic post to your hotel, hostel, dorm, AirBnB, etc. We do it this way because it's cheaper and safer. The Japanese postal service is extremely safe and reliable. Not once has a ticket ever failed to reach a customer on time. We understand that at the time you contact us about ticket purchases, many of you have not yet booked your accommodations in Japan. This is fine - just let us know the address of your accommodations once you've booked them.
If you really want the ticket in your hand before you get on the plane to Japan, we can also send the tickets to your country via EMS document mail (2000-2400 yen, depending on your location). For some tickets, this may not be possible due to time constraints, but if this is your preference, please let us know in your initial email, and send us the international address to which you'd like us to mail the tickets.
Make sure that you send us ALL of the following info regarding your booking:
1. Complete address of accommodations in Japanese kanji, or a link to the website of the hotel if you can't find the kanji.
2. The dates for which you will be staying at this address
3. The FULL NAME under which you made your reservation (if you completed your ticket purchase with us under the pseudonym Darth Acchan, but the hotel is booked under your friend's legal passport name Robert Smith, addressing the tickets to Darth Acchan isn't going to do any good. We NEED the name on your reservation, or we cannot send you the tickets. End of story.)
If you will be staying in a hotel, we highly recommend that you contact the hotel at the time you book your reservation to let them know that you will be receiving mail during your stay. Some hotels require postal items addressed to guests to include the reservation number, check-in date, or other specific information.
If you will be staying in an AirBnB, please include the name of the apartment owner/administrator in the address you send us. The Japanese post can be picky about delivering items for which the name on the address doesn't match the name on the post box.
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This is my first time using a shopping service to order tickets, so I'm a little nervous. What can I do to ensure the transaction goes smoothly?
Don't be nervous. We've been doing this for four years, and we have served customers in more than 32 countries. However, to ensure a smooth transaction all around, if you send a request to us, please please please CHECK YOUR EMAIL REGULARLY. If you never respond to us when we send you the details of costs, dates, etc., we cannot help you get the tickets you desire. If you decide at any point that you don't want the tickets after all, please do the favor of sending us an email and letting us know you want to cancel your order, so we can cross you off our list of pending transactions.
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What is your cancellation policy?
We are happy to respond to inquiries free of charge, and there is no charge if you ask us to enter you in a ticket lottery, but you don't win the tickets. However, we do not accept cancellations once you confirm your order. Once we enter you in a ticket lottery, you are responsible for paying for the ticket you ordered, no exceptions.
If you purchased tickets through us and then become unable to attend the show, you may contact us to request that we re-home your tickets. We cannot promise anything, but we will try our best. In the event that we manage to find another buyer for the ticket, we can offer you a refund up to the cost of the ticket itself (though if we couldn't manage to re-home the ticket for full price, the refund may be less). However, please understand that we cannot refund any transaction fees.
We are not responsible for items lost in the international post. This is why we prefer to hold the tickets for you until you get to Japan. If you request that tickets be shipped overseas, we can only offer EMS shipping, as we are not willing to take the chance with other shipping options.
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I've never heard of a ticket lottery. What are they and how do they work?
In Japan, the best way to get tickets to shows by popular artists is to enter one of the presale ticket lotteries which take place before the tickets go on general sale. These lotteries are conducted by ticket agencies like Ticket Pia, eplus, Lawson Ticket, and Yahoo! Tickets. The lotteries work as follows:
1. The lottery opens for applications.
2. Fans send in applications, specifying the number of tickets they wish to purchase for each date.
3. The lottery closes. No more applications may be submitted.
4. The ticket agent runs the numbers to decide who wins. Usually (but not always) the results are announced on Friday or Saturday night at 6PM about a week after the lottery closes.
5. If there are fewer applications than there are tickets, every fan who entered wins a ticket. If there are more applications than there are tickets, some people win, and others lose. The rate at which people win depends on the number of applications vs. the number of tickets available. For Buck-Tick and Japanese indie artists, most fans win most of the tickets they want, most of the time. For major-label j-pop acts who can fill stadiums, the ratio may be a bit lower. For idol groups such as Arashi, many more fans lose than win.
Please note that there is no such thing as winning halfway. If you requested 3 tickets for the Moi Dix Mois show on the 18th of March, you'll either win all three, or lose all three. However, lotteries for each date are conducted separately. If you requested 4 tickets for the show on March 17th and 3 tickets for the show on March 18th, you might win the the four for the 17th but not the three for the 18th, or you might win both, or you might lose both. But there is no possibility that you would win two tickets when you requested four. It's all or nothing.
There is also no possibility that you will be able to choose your seat or line number. Japan is a democratic country, and seat numbers/line numbers are assigned randomly. The only way to ensure you get a good seat/line number is to spend extra money to buy a ticket from a resale site such as Ticket Camp after the fact, but this is far from a guarantee, so we don't recommend it.
6. Fans who win tickets must pay for the tickets before the payment period closes. Usually the cutoff for payment is three days after the announcement of the lottery results. If payment is not made before the deadline, the tickets are forfeit.
7. Fans who don't win tickets don't have to pay a single yen, but will have to try their luck again in the next round of lotteries, or in the general admission sales.
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What about getting tickets through net auctions and resale sites?
Depending on the situation, we may be able to purchase tickets for customers via ticket resale sites, but NOT through net auctions. For purchases through ticket resale sites, you may contact us with your maximum budget and have us search on your behalf, of you may send us a link directly to a ticket for sale that you would like us to buy on your behalf.
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I have never attended a Japanese concert before. What is it like?
Read the Japanese Concert Guide section for detailed info on what it's like to attend a concert in Japan. If you're specifically interested in Buck-Tick concerts, please read the section So You Want to Visit Japan to See Buck-Tick? before you contact us.
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How do I contact you?
For details, email us at themadaristocrat [at] gmail [dot] com.
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