Yahoo Japan Monies transferring system?

[michaelkoh32]

Hi, i am wondering how japanese conduct their money transfer? Basically which bank do they often use?

[Mike Cash]

You can do transfers from bank account to bank account, or from postal account to postal account, or mix-n-match the two.

I presume you're asking this in relation to your online shopping? Those transactions are commonly handled by bank transfer, by remittance through a bank or post office using a payment slip they send you, by C.O.D., or by credit/debit card payment. That's for domestic stuff, of course. A great many Japanese online merchants seem to not be set up for credit card sales and to not be set up to handle overseas sales.

There are a few services akin to PayPal, but I have never used them and can't give you any specific information on them.

[michaelkoh32]

Oh, then foreigner can't possibly use their bank to do transaction?
Assume that i ask my japanese friend to set up a japan bank account, would i be able to do online transfer?
Do the bank have online banking?

You mentioned that there are some services which is alike to paypal, possible to give me the website? You can send it to my email at reliance69@yahoo.com.sg???? If not, please ignore my request.

And may i know why japanese are so conservative in dealing with internationally buyers? Rather confused, china already opened up their market whereas such First class economy country would rather keep all transaction to themselves. Just my views. Thanks.

[Mike Cash]

Actually, PayPal can be used in Japan and there is a Japanese website for PayPal. The problem is that not all merchants use it.

I don't know that it is impossible to do an overseas transfer, it is just that since I live in Japan the issue has never personally come up.

I can only guess at why so few online merchants bother with international sales. I would guess that they don't expect enough volume of sales to make the extra effort worth their while and that they may not be comfortable with dealing with customers in languages other than Japanese (the automatic presumption is that foreigners are incapable).

[michaelkoh32]

However some foreigners do know japanese very well, not me in this case.
You live in japan and i bet you can speak and write japanese very well. Envy! I'm not asking any translation. Please do not mistaken.

[Mike Cash]

Sometimes before I have tried to help people outside Japan locate an online merchant who 1) sold what they wanted, 2) accepted credit cards, and 3) ship overseas. Finding the product is the easy part. The second part can be a little difficult. The third part can be a killer.

[Glenn]

Yes, I noticed that a Japanese DVD shop (I believe it was Toei) had a message in Engrish that said they didn't ship out of the country. However, I thought at the time that perhaps it was just that company, although it seemed weird that such a large company wouldn't if it was an isolated event. At any rate, hearing about the difficulties in getting orders out of Japan is a bit annoying. It's not like I'd go on some crazy shopping binge, but I'd like the option.