With the rapidly changing world we live in I thought it would be useful to list a few online shopping sites I frequently use to get supplies. From baby foods to cereals, shampoos and gadgets. These sites all offer English support and deliver to Japan.
This list is aimed at expats that live in Japan but can be a handy guide for anyone wishing to know a bit about international and Japanese online shopping sites.
iHerb
Best for organic products, cereals, baby food, vitamins, personal hygiene products.
My wife and I have been a big fan of iHerb for a number of years. Organic products are hard to come by or quite expensive in Japan so we use iHerb to get a bunch of things, mostly shampoos, conditioners and body wash. Plus I love my cereal and muesli in the mornings and Japanese supermarkets have never had the best selection so I turned to iHerb.
A recent purchase of cereal and baby cereal from iHerb 
Great for road trips
Organic baby food as well, especially cereal, is almost non-existent in Japan. Ever since our baby was born (late 2018) we’ve found iHerb great for getting baby food such as organic oatmeal and puree pouches.
One slight nuisance with the site is that some products don’t ship to Japan. You won’t know until you go to checkout and an error occurs, you then have to go to your cart and remove the item/s before it will allow you to continue.
iHerb must have some contract with the Japanese delivery companies Sagawa and Yamato as shipping is usually super quick with products arriving within a week. Shipping is usually free for orders over a certain amount (campaigns vary). Be careful not to spend over ¥15,500 as you will be charged customs duty. Learn more about iHerbs shipping policy here.
Amazon Japan
Best for quick deliveries, kids toys/books, on demand tv/movies
Most people know and use Amazon so not much explaining needed here. Amazon Japan is mostly the same as its international counterparts. It’s offered in English with most primary functionality such a menus, account information etc all having native support. Products are machine translated so some descriptions and many images don’t have the clearest translations or non at all. Prime Membership is ¥4900 a year and includes Prime Music, Prime Video, Prime Reading (mostly Japanese books) and free delivery on a huge range of items.
Rakuten
Best for Japanese made or designed goods
Rakuten is the big name when it comes to Japanese online shopping sites and can be a great place to shop online. If you live in Japan you’ll have to understand and read Japanese to take full advantage of it.
The Rakuten Global Market Place is their full English website, with machine translations for most products. You can use this store to get items delivered to Japan but it is mainly aimed at delivering Japanese products overseas.
There seems to be some product descrepencies between the Japanese and English sites, and the English site seems to be a bit clunky so I’ve always used the Japanese version to buy a range of things from coffee pods to bed frames, cases of beer and air purifiers. Delivery usually takes a couple of days.
AliExpress
Best for gadgets, computer parts, replacement items
If your not in a rush and can wait on the item AliExpress has been my go to site for computer parts and small items that I’ve paid as little as ¥50 for including delivery. I stress though, you don’t want to be in a rush for these items.
For example, I ordered a set of replacement tips for my earphones on August 31st 2019 for a mere ¥92. They arrived on November 1st. That was one of the worst cases but the average delivery time for numerous office products, computer cables, camera equipment, wall stickers, posters and more I’ve purchased has been 4~6 weeks.
ShopQCL.com
Best for contact lenses
Simple, ShopQCL.com sell contact lenses, nothing else. The company has been around for 2o+ years selling to the Japanese market and started their English website in 2019. I don’t use contacts but made their website, so yeah, if you do need some lenses, check them out!
TransferWise
Not an online shopping site but super useful to transfer money overseas. Take advantage of the strong yen with minimal transfer fees. I tried a few options but found TransferWise the easiest to set up and transfer money to/from my Japanese and Australian bank account.
What do you think of our list for the best online shopping sites that deliver to Japan? What websites do you use for online shopping in Japan? Let us know in the comments.
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