Consumer rights? Online transaction

I was going through with buying a camera from Amazon.jp, using a proxy service (but we) to ship it with. However they miscalculated the shipping fee to the UK (over \24,000!).

As they have repeatedly refused to rectify this error, I want to cancel completely. I no longer wish to deal with them past getting my money back. The camera hasn't shipped yet because I refuse to pay for shipping. I've paid for the camera so far and asked that they return it to Amazon and refund my money.

In this kind of situation, under Japanese law, what kind of protection does a consumer have when pursuing a refund?

It's hard to say for sure without knowing the particulars of your order (item purchased, proxy shopping or reshipper, shipping method), but 24000 yen sounds like a plausible fee if it includes the company's handling fees in addition to shipping. We'll need more info to fully understand your situation, but generally speaking:

Proxy companies often have a no-refunds policy once the item is ordered. However you may be able to go through your credit card or paypal to contest the charges since they never delivered.

You may have a harder time seeking a refund if you purchased directly from amazon and had it sent to a reshipper to forward to you. In that case your charge with amazon may not be able to be contested since they delivered as instructed. In that case, what are the companies policies on returning goods sent to them that are not forwarded. They may not even be able to return it to amazon on your behalf.

24000 does seem excessive to me, but these small time operations can be big rip offs do it might be usual.

If you paid them for it and they ordered on your behalf, then dispute the charge with your cCC.

If you ordered directly via amazon and asked to ship it to them, then you can not refund it via CC; they would have to do the return and it isn't unreasonable for you to have to pay them for their time to do this. It might be hard to get them to budge, you can't really claim theft to police as you sent the item to them. If your CC come with purchase protection, you may be able to go with this insurance after getting a police report.

24000 does seem excessive to me, but these small time operations can be big rip offs do it might be usual.

Typical fees for proxy shopping range from around 10-15% of the cost of the item plus shipping and handling, so 24000 yen implies a camera purchase of around 100,000-200,000. Again, hard to say without knowing more details, just wanted to put the fees into perspective.

Whether it's a ripoff of not depends entirely on the economics of the purchase. And considering the huge surcharge on camera equipment in the UK (as much as 50% in some cases), the overall cost could be better even with a 24000 yen surcharge. Either way, it's cheaper than a flight to Japan.