How to buy from Japan: proxy services compared
A lot of the best things in Japan never make it abroad — limited anime figures, single Pokémon cards on Mercari, doujin works, town-exclusive merch, used study books. Japanese shops and marketplaces also rarely ship overseas or accept foreign cards. A proxy buying service solves both: it buys the item for you inside Japan, then forwards it worldwide. Here's how it works and how the main services compare.
What a proxy service actually does
- You find an item on a Japanese site — Mercari, Yahoo! Auctions/Flea Market, Rakuten, Amazon Japan, or a specialist shop.
- You paste the link (or search through the proxy's own interface) and the service buys it on your behalf, in Japan, in yen.
- It receives the item at its Japanese warehouse, where you can consolidate several orders into one parcel.
- It ships internationally by the courier you choose (EMS, DHL, FedEx, surface, etc.).
You pay the item price, a service fee (per item or per order), domestic handling, and international shipping. The win is access and consolidation; the cost is those fees, so proxy buying makes the most sense for things you genuinely can't get at home.
At a glance — the real fees, from official fee pages
Every proxy adds its service fee on top of the item, plus domestic shipping to its warehouse and international shipping to you. The service fees below come straight from each company's official fee page (checked 2 September 2026; re-checked monthly):
| Service | Service fee | Strong for | Worth knowing | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buyee | ¥500 per order (one auction win, or one shop order with any number of items) | Mercari, Yahoo! Auctions, widest official marketplace integration | Optional protection plans ¥0–500; domestic shipping typically ¥150–1,500 per order; ¥2,800 customs handling on items over ¥200,000 | Visit Buyee → |
| ZenMarket | ¥300–800 per item (¥500 standard; ¥300 recommended stores; ¥800 Mercari & auctions) | Predictable flat fee, good on pricey single items | Deposit/payment fee from 1%; free consolidation; 60-day free storage | Visit ZenMarket → |
| Remambo | ¥500 per order (one auction or listing) | Simple flat pricing across Yahoo! Auctions, Mercari, Rakuten | Buyer protection ¥500 optional; free consolidation and 60-day storage; small shipping cashback | Visit Remambo → |
| Neokyo | ¥350 per item | Lowest per-item fee; multi-item hauls in one box | Packing fee ¥500 per parcel (+¥150/kg over 2 kg); international shipping passed through at carrier price | Visit Neokyo → |
| Doorzo | ¥50–300 per item (shown in the cart before checkout) | Cheapest headline fee for many-item hauls; app-first | Free storage 60 days; consolidation free for up to 10 orders, ¥100 per order from the 11th; paid storage ¥50 per kg per day after the free period | Visit Doorzo → |
| Japan Rabbit | Sliding: 9.9% of order value under US$80 down to 1.2% at US$880+, plus US$1 per item (US$5 minimum) | Concierge-style help; buy-for-you requests | Priced in US dollars; free storage 45 days; consolidation across orders US$2.50 per package (max US$12.50); per-item fee higher on some flea-market apps | Visit Japan Rabbit → |
Some "Visit" links are affiliate or referral links. We may earn a commission or service credit at no extra cost to you, and it never changes what we recommend — the fee table above is taken from each service's official pricing page either way.
Which is cheapest? It depends on the shape of your order. One expensive item from Mercari: Buyee and Remambo charge ¥500, ZenMarket ¥800. Ten small items from ten different sellers: Neokyo's ¥350/item (¥3,500) beats ZenMarket's ¥800/item on Mercari (¥8,000), but per-order services like Buyee charge per seller anyway — so consolidation fees and domestic shipping, which every service passes through, usually matter more than the headline fee. Quote your actual basket on two services before committing. Doorzo’s ¥50–300 per item is the lowest headline fee for a haul of many cheap items, but its storage clock (60 days, then ¥50 per kg per day) is the one to watch; Japan Rabbit’s percentage model only becomes competitive on single expensive items, where 1.2–2% can undercut a flat ¥800.
The four main services, in detail
Buyee — the widest coverage
Buyee is the official overseas-buying partner built into many Japanese marketplaces, so if you've ever hit "ships to Japan only" on Mercari or Yahoo! Auctions, Buyee is usually the route through. The purchase-support fee is a flat ¥500 per order — one auction win, or one shop order even with several items from the same shop — with optional protection plans from ¥0 (Light) to ¥500 (Standard, which adds shipping guarantee and inspection). Domestic shipping to the warehouse typically runs ¥150–1,500 per order, and items over ¥200,000 add a ¥2,800 customs-handling fee on some shipping methods. The catalogue you can reach is enormous, the interface is in English, and consolidation and protective packing are available.
✔ Huge marketplace + shop coverage · deeply integrated with Mercari/Yahoo · English throughout · flat ¥500 per order
✘ Several separate fees to track · packing/handling add-ons can creep up
ZenMarket — simple flat fee
ZenMarket's appeal is predictability: a fixed service fee per item — ¥500 for Amazon, Rakuten and most stores, ¥300 for its recommended stores, ¥800 for Mercari items and auction bids — never a percentage of the price. That flat structure works out especially well on a pricey figure or a single high-value card, where a percentage cut would hurt. Consolidation is free, storage is free for 60 days, and shipping insurance is included; budget the deposit/payment fee (from 1%) and domestic shipping on top, and compare the full total against Buyee for your specific order.
✔ Fixed per-item fee (¥300–800) · easy to predict costs · good on high-value items · free consolidation
✘ ¥800 tier on Mercari/auctions is the highest of the four · per-item fee adds up on large multi-item orders
Remambo — flat ¥500 per order, minimal frills
Remambo keeps it simple: ¥500 per order (one auction or one listing counts as an order) across Yahoo! Auctions, Mercari, Rakuten and other shops, with an English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese interface. Consolidation and 60 days of storage are free, bidding doesn't require a full prepayment, and there's a small cashback (up to 1%) on international shipping. Buyer protection is a ¥500 option per order rather than bundled — factor it in if you're buying used items sight-unseen.
✔ Flat ¥500 per order · free consolidation and 60-day storage · bids without full deposit
✘ Smaller operation than Buyee/ZenMarket · buyer protection costs extra
Neokyo — lowest per-item fee for big hauls
Neokyo charges ¥350 per item — the lowest headline fee of the four — and passes international shipping through at the carrier's actual price with no margin. The trade-off is a packing fee per parcel (¥500 up to 2 kg, then ¥150 per extra kilo), so it shines when you're collecting many small items into one box and matters less for a single purchase. Storage beyond the free period and parcel-opening requests are paid options.
✔ ¥350 per item · carrier-price international shipping · built for multi-item consolidation
✘ Packing fee per parcel · fewer integrated marketplaces than Buyee
Other options
One shop deserves a special note: Suruga-ya, Japan's biggest used-hobby chain, now runs its own official English store that ships worldwide — for many orders you don't need a proxy at all. See our Suruga-ya buying guide for when to go direct and when a proxy still wins.
FROM JAPAN (now operating as "One Map by FROM JAPAN") runs the same proxy model with a two-charge structure and its own fee calculator, and White Rabbit Express handles buy-for-you requests including hard-to-reach shops — both are worth a quick quote if the four above don't cover a shop you need, or if their total for your order comes out higher. For ordinary new books that Amazon sells internationally, you usually don't need a proxy at all — buy direct (see our Japanese textbook guide). Proxies earn their fee on the Japan-only and used/auction items.
Trading cards are the single biggest thing people import this way — see our Japanese trading cards guide → (Pokémon, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, Duel Masters). Town-exclusive Pokémon items near Pokéfuta spots are proxy territory too: Pokéfuta 47-prefecture guide →
Common questions
Q. What is a Japan proxy buying service?
A. It's a company in Japan that buys an item on your behalf from a Japanese site that won't ship abroad or take foreign payment, receives it at its warehouse, and forwards it to you internationally. You pay the item price plus a service fee and shipping.
Q. Is Buyee or ZenMarket cheaper?
A. For Mercari and auctions, Buyee's flat ¥500 per order beats ZenMarket's ¥800 per item; for ZenMarket's recommended stores its ¥300 tier wins. Both then add domestic and international shipping, so compare the full total for your specific items and destination.
Q. Which proxy service has the lowest fees?
A. On headline service fees (official fee pages, August 2026): Neokyo ¥350/item, Buyee ¥500/order, Remambo ¥500/order, ZenMarket ¥300–800/item depending on the platform. But domestic shipping, packing and protection options often swing the total more than the service fee — quote your actual basket on two services.
Q. Can I buy from Japanese Mercari or Yahoo Auctions from abroad?
A. Usually only through a proxy. Both restrict overseas buyers, and Buyee is the official partner integrated into them, while ZenMarket, Remambo and others can also bid and buy on your behalf.
How we choose: we describe how proxy services actually work and let you compare totals for your own order. Some links are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes what we recommend or the price you pay.