How to order from CDJapan in 2026

If you’re buying Japanese music for the first time, CDJapan is the easiest place to start. The site is fully in English, prices are clearly shown in Yen with a currency converter, and they ship to every EU country. You don’t need a Japanese address, a Japanese card, or any kind of proxy service.

The shop has been around since the late 1990s and is run by Neowing Corporation in Tokyo. The catalog covers basically everything released in Japan, from mainstream J-Pop to underground Visual Kei, anime soundtracks, vinyl, and limited-edition box sets.

If you want a deeper look at how CDJapan works as a shop, see our CDJapan profile.

You can technically check out as a guest, but don’t. Sign up first. There are two reasons:

• Loyalty points. Every order earns you points (1 point = 1 Yen of discount on a future order). Guest checkouts don’t earn anything.
• Pre-order management. If you order something that releases in three months, you’ll want to be able to track it, modify it, or combine it with other items later. That only works through an account.

When you create your account, save your birthday in your profile. CDJapan gives you 300 free points in your birthday month every year, but only if the date is on file.

Verifying your address

Enter your shipping address carefully. The system uses it for both shipping and billing, and any typo here will slow down your first order. Address format for Germany follows the usual structure: name, street and number, postcode and city, country.

The search bar is fine but a bit literal. A few practical tips:

• Search by artist in romaji and in Japanese. Some artists are indexed only under one or the other. If you don’t get results for "BAND-MAID," try "バンドメイド." If you don’t get results for "宇多田ヒカル," try "Utada Hikaru."
• Use the catalog number. Every Japanese release has a unique catalog number (e.g. POCS-23456). If you find one on Discogs or VGMdb, paste it directly into CDJapan’s search. This is the most reliable way to find a specific edition.
• Filter by media type. The dropdown lets you narrow to CD, Blu-ray, vinyl, or merchandise. Useful when the same album exists in five formats.

This is the part that catches new buyers off guard. A single release in Japan often comes in multiple editions, and the bonuses depend on which one you order and where.

First Press editions

A First Press is the initial pressing of a release, usually with extras: a bonus DVD, a photobook, a sticker, a trading card. Once the First Press is sold out, only the regular pressing is manufactured afterwards, without those extras.

CDJapan marks First Press availability directly on the product page with a small icon. If you see "First Press" highlighted, you’ll receive that edition. If it says "First Press Sold Out," only the regular version is available.

A few important notes:

• First Press doesn’t always sell out at release. For smaller artists, you can still order the First Press months later. For popular releases, it can sell out before the actual release date.
• Catalog number stays the same. This is confusing: a First Press and the regular pressing usually share the same catalog number. The difference is only the bonus content.
• Order processing affects what you get. If you pay by International Postal Money Order or registered mail, your order is only processed when payment arrives, which can take days. By then the First Press might be gone. Pay by credit card or PayPal to lock in your edition immediately.

External Bonuses

External Bonuses are extras packed outside the actual product packaging. Posters, photo cards, B2 tapestries, autographs. They’re shop-specific: CDJapan’s external bonus for an album will be different from Tower Records‘ or Amazon Japan’s.

CDJapan shows the External Bonus icon on the product page when one is available. As long as you order while that icon is still showing, you’ll get it. If it disappears, the bonus stock has been claimed.

If you specifically want a different shop’s external bonus (e.g. Tower Records‘ exclusive trading card), CDJapan can’t help. You’d need a proxy service for that.

Limited editions

Some releases are tagged as "Limited Edition" with a fixed pressing run. Once they’re gone, no repress. These tend to be deluxe box sets, fan-club editions, or anniversary reissues. If a Limited Edition icon shows on the product page, treat it as a buy-now-or-miss-it situation.

Most Japanese music is announced 2-3 months before release. Pre-ordering is normal and often necessary, especially for First Press editions on popular releases.

How CDJapan handles pre-orders:

• You can pre-order from the moment the release is announced. CDJapan usually adds new releases within a day or two of their announcement.
• Credit cards are not charged at pre-order time. They’re authorized, then actually charged when the order ships (or after 25 days max, due to card network rules). This is friendly: you can pre-order something releasing in four months without your money being parked the whole time.
• PayPal is charged immediately. If you pay a pre-order with PayPal, you pay in full right away. Use a credit card for long pre-orders if you’d rather not be out the money for months.
• Release-date shipping isn’t guaranteed. CDJapan tries to ship on or shortly after the release date, but if a label gets flooded with last-minute pre-orders, you might wait an extra week.

CDJapan lets you combine multiple orders into one shipment to save on shipping. This is huge for vinyl, where shipping is often the biggest cost on the invoice.

To do this:

1. Place your first order normally.
2. When you order something else later, look for the option "Add to existing order" in the cart.
3. Pick the order you want to combine into. CDJapan will hold the shipment until everything is in stock and ready to go.

A small catch: if you combine a pre-order from 2026 with an in-stock item, the in-stock item won’t ship until the pre-order releases. Don’t combine if you actually need the in-stock item soon.

This is something a lot of buyers don’t realize CDJapan offers: they have a built-in proxy shopping service for items that aren’t in their own catalog. So if you want a Tower Records exclusive bonus, a fan-club edition, an item from Mercari or Yahoo Shopping, or a sold-out release from another Japanese shop, you can ask CDJapan to buy it for you instead of using a separate proxy service.

This is different from external proxy services like Japan Rabbit because it’s integrated into your normal CDJapan cart. Proxy items ship together with your other CDJapan orders in the same package, no extra shipping cost for the proxy side.

How proxy shopping works

There are two ways into it:

• The item is already listed with a "proxy" tag. CDJapan has a growing catalog of items they’ve already arranged with third-party shops (Universal Music Store, Toei Animation Store, exhibition merchandise, hololive collaborations, etc.). These look like normal CDJapan products but with a blue "proxy" bar on the image. Just add to cart and order.
• You request an item. When you find a product on Mercari, Yahoo Shopping, Rakuten, or any other Japanese site, you submit the URL through CDJapan’s request form. Their proxy team checks availability and price (usually within 2–3 working days), then lists the item on your customer account. From there you order it like a normal product.

You can also access this from CDJapan product pages directly: when an item is sold out on CDJapan, the page automatically searches Mercari and Yahoo Shopping in the background. If matches are found, an orange button appears. If the search needs to be done manually by staff, a green button appears instead.

What it costs

The proxy fee structure is straightforward:

• Standard Fee: 1,200 Yen per order. Charged once per order, no matter how many proxy items it contains.
• Service Fee: 300 Yen or 5% of the item price per proxy item (whichever is higher). Charged separately for each proxy item.
• Domestic shipping inside Japan: sometimes added if the original shop charges for shipping to CDJapan’s warehouse.

So if you order two proxy items in one go, the proxy fees come to 1,200 + (300 × 2) = 1,800 Yen total on top of the actual item prices and international shipping.

Compared to dedicated proxy services like Japan Rabbit, CDJapan’s structure is often cheaper for small orders because there’s no per-item buying fee on top — just the flat handling fee.

Important rules to know

A few things that catch people off guard with proxy orders:

• Proxy orders cannot be cancelled or modified once paid. This is the biggest difference from regular CDJapan orders. Once your card or PayPal is charged, the order is locked. You can’t add to it, you can’t change items, you can’t refund. Make sure everything is right before clicking pay.
• No loyalty points on the proxy portion. You earn CDJapan Rewards points on the regular CDJapan items in your cart, but proxy items don’t accumulate points (you can still redeem points against a proxy order, just not earn them).
• Payment is restricted. Only credit card, PayPal, Alipay or WeChat Pay are accepted for orders containing proxy items. International postal money order and other slow methods don’t work.
• Final shipping cost is an estimate. If your proxy item turns out to be heavier or bulkier than expected, CDJapan emails you with the difference. You’ll be charged (or refunded) the shipping difference before the package goes out.
• Watch for bootlegs on Mercari. CDJapan staff inspect items on arrival, but they explicitly state they can’t refund items that turn out to be bootlegs after you’ve selected them yourself. If a Mercari listing looks suspiciously cheap for a popular item, it probably is.

When to use the proxy service vs an external one

Use CDJapan’s proxy when:

• You’re already ordering other things from CDJapan and want to combine into one shipment
• The item is on Mercari, Yahoo Shopping, Rakuten, or a single specific Japanese shop
• You want one invoice and one customer support contact

Use a dedicated proxy service like Japan Rabbit (or our guide on Japan Rabbit) when:

• You need Yahoo Auctions bidding (CDJapan doesn’t do auctions)
• You need in-store pickups for live event merchandise
• You’re combining packages from many different shops over weeks or months and want a forwarder-style warehouse

Once your order (or combined order) is ready, CDJapan calculates available shipping methods. For Germany the practical options are:

• DHL Express. Fastest, 3 to 7 working days. Limited to orders under 14,000 Yen.
• FedEx. A bit pricier than DHL but no order size limit. The default for vinyl box sets and bigger orders.
• Registered Airmail. Cheapest but slow. Often takes weeks because Japan Post processes registered airmail at low priority.

EMS to Germany is currently not available. This is a Japan Post / Deutsche Post data-exchange issue, not a CDJapan problem. Other EU countries may still have EMS as an option.

Run the shipping calculator before checkout to see exact costs by carrier and weight.

CDJapan accepts:

• Credit and debit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners Club
• PayPal, including PayPal Pay Later (closest equivalent to Klarna in Germany)
• Alipay and WeChat Pay

Not supported: Klarna directly, SEPA direct debit, bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay.

A practical tip on PayPal

There’s an orange "Check out with PayPal" button on the cart page. Don’t use it. That button skips your CDJapan account and you won’t earn loyalty points for the order. Instead, sign in to your CDJapan account first, then choose PayPal as your payment method during normal checkout.

For EU customers, every order from Japan involves VAT (19% in Germany). CDJapan handles this in two ways depending on order size.

Orders up to 150 EUR (item value)

CDJapan adds the German VAT to your order at checkout and remits it to the EU under the IOSS scheme. You pay it in Yen, and your package clears EU customs without you doing anything. No handling fee from DHL or FedEx.

This is the cleanest path. If your order is under 150 EUR of goods, this is what you want.

Orders above 150 EUR

IOSS doesn’t apply. CDJapan ships the package without prepaying VAT. When it arrives, the courier collects 19% VAT plus a clearance fee (around 6 EUR for DHL, similar for FedEx). You pay before delivery via the courier’s online portal, or in cash to the driver.

This means: there’s no benefit to splitting a 200 EUR order into two 100 EUR orders to dodge VAT. You’ll pay the same VAT either way. But splitting would save you the courier handling fee. Whether that’s worth two separate shipping costs is a calculation you have to run yourself.

CDJapan Rewards is more useful than most shop loyalty programs because the points have real Yen value.

The basics:

• 3% back on most products (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, merch)
• 1% back on books and magazines
• Up to 800 bonus points if your order total is over 5,000 Yen
• 300 birthday bonus points if you’ve registered your birthday
• Points expire one year after they’re credited

Twice a year (usually December and around the summer), CDJapan runs points-up campaigns where you can earn 5x or 10x the normal points. If you have a big pre-order coming up, watch for these and time your purchase around them.

You can redeem points against item price, shipping, and handling fees on a future order. The redemption is in 1-Yen increments, so even small balances are useful.

A few things that catch first-time buyers.

Order processing isn’t instant. When you click "Place Order," CDJapan reserves stock for you, but the actual fulfillment happens during Japanese business hours. If you order on a Friday evening German time, processing won’t happen until Monday in Tokyo. For First Press items that are close to selling out, this delay can matter.

Currency conversion is your bank’s job. CDJapan charges in Yen. Your card or PayPal account converts that to Euro using their own exchange rate, which is typically a bit worse than the mid-market rate. A travel-friendly card (Wise, Revolut, n26 Standard with no FX fee) saves a few percent on every order.

Don’t under-declare. Some buyers ask shops to mark packages as "gift" with a low value to dodge customs. CDJapan won’t do this, and you shouldn’t push it. EU customs spot-checks are real, and the penalty for under-declaration is far worse than the VAT itself.

EMS still appears in old guides. A lot of older blog posts and forums still mention EMS as the standard shipping method for Germany. It’s not available right now. Use DHL or FedEx.

Pre-orders for sold-out First Press items can still appear. CDJapan sometimes receives unexpected returns from the manufacturer, so a sold-out First Press will occasionally come back into stock briefly. If you really want a specific First Press, set a watchlist alert.

CDJapan covers a huge amount through both their direct shop and their proxy service. But there are still cases where you’ll need an external service.

• Yahoo Auctions. CDJapan doesn’t do auctions. For bidding, you need a proxy service like Japan Rabbit.
• Live venue exclusives sold only at concerts. These usually need someone physically at the event. Some end up on CDJapan’s proxy catalog after the fact, but most don’t.
• Long-term consolidation across many shops. If you’re ordering one thing per month from twenty different Japanese shops over a year, a forwarder-style service like Blackship makes more sense than placing twenty separate CDJapan proxy orders.

For those, see our guides on Blackship (forwarding) and Japan Rabbit (proxy buying).

• Account created, birthday saved
• You know which edition you want (First Press? Limited? Regular?)
• External Bonus icon checked on the product page
• Order under 150 EUR if possible (avoids courier handling fee)
• Credit card for long pre-orders, PayPal for instant orders
• Sign in to your account before paying with PayPal (don’t use the orange button)
• Shipping method picked: DHL or FedEx for Germany, not EMS