Prepaid yen card without being a resident?

Hi guys,

I like buying stuff from Japan on the internet but a major issue I have is that a lot of stores do not accept foreign credit cards. This includes travel money cards loaded with yen, issued outside of Japan.

I know there are services that can pay for you, but these are usually far too expensive in comparison to the price of things I buy so it's not worth it.

Is there such a thing as a debit or credit card that you can buy in Japan without needing to be a resident or purchase it in person?

Thanks !

Are you talking about buying from in Japan or outside Japan?

In Japan amazon has gift cards at convenience stores. You can also pay for basically any online purchase by printing the invoice at a convenience store.

I am not in Japan, otherwise I would just go buy stuff from stores :( Is that some kind of pre-paid card you can only use on Amazon?

The previous poster was referring to amazon gift cards, so yes, basically prepaid cards for amazon.

I don't think prepaid cards of the type you are looking for exist in Japan. Most of the prepaid cards that are on the market either directly or indirectly require you to be a resident, or require you to charge them up with cash.

What are you trying to buy and where from? Many sellers on rakuten for example will sell and ship abroad and you can pay by credit card.

A lot of Japanese sellers, not just on Rakuten, either do not accept credit card or do not accept foreign cards. Barely any of them accept Paypal.
So I guess I am kind of stuck with using expensive proxy buying services...

Like you can get pre-paid Visa cards here

Thats right, most sellers do not accept foreign orders. Btw, there are prepaid visa cards in Japan, but like I mentioned before, they are not really available to non-residents.

http://www.visa-news.jp/virtualprepaid/index.html

Oh I see, thank you for the link!

I can't read Japanese that well, so you're saying it has to purchased in person? I could ask a friend in Tokyo to get one for me. Do you know if you can use them to pay over the internet or are they just like debit cards?

I can't read Japanese that well, so you're saying it has to purchased in person?

There are two banks that sell it. The first requires you to be a resident. The second requires that you pay by bank transfer (which essentially means you need to be a resident) or convenience store payment (physically in Japan).

I could ask a friend in Tokyo to get one for me.

Sure, though at that point why not just have him order stuff for you? Won't you still run into the problem of most vendors not shipping overseas?

Do you know if you can use them to pay over the internet or are they just like debit cards?

Yes, the one I linked to is specifically for buying things over the internet.

Sure, though at that point why not just have him order stuff for you? Won't you still run into the problem of most vendors not shipping overseas?

Because he is unreliable and I don't want to bother him anyway :-)

But thank you, I may look into this card and see if I can bank transfer from overseas.

Oh and shipping forwarders are cheaper and easier to find.

But thank you, I may look into this card and see if I can bank transfer from overseas.

Unfortunately, I think its unlikely that they'll accept transfers from foreign bank accounts. Even if they do it will probably be prohibitively expensive.

Oh and shipping forwarders are cheaper and easier to find.

Reliable friends can be hard to find.