Can a foreign brand sell on Amazon Japan? Yes. Here is what has to be in place first

Yes. If you already sell on Amazon in another country, you can add a Japan account from the Sell Globally section of Seller Central. If you are new to Amazon, you register for a seller account and add Japan. Amazon's own global selling pages say a business outside Japan may not need to form a Japan-based company to do this, although some brands choose to for other reasons.

As of November 2026, Amazon Japan lists a Professional plan (大口出品) at ¥4,900 a month before tax, plus referral fees. The referral fee is a percentage of the sale price that depends on the category, roughly 5% to 15% for most categories, with a small minimum per item. Check the current figures on Amazon Japan's pricing page before you build your price, because fees and tiers change.

Registering the account is rarely what slows a brand down. Three other questions decide whether you can actually sell:

1. Who is the importer when your stock lands in Japan?
2. Who holds the Japanese safety filings for your product, if it needs any?
3. Who writes the Japanese listing and answers Japanese customers?

Amazon stores and ships your stock once it is in a Japanese fulfillment center. It does not clear your goods through Japanese customs for you. Someone has to be the importer.

Japan Customs allows a company that does not reside in Japan to make an import declaration, but only by appointing a resident in Japan as its customs administrator (税関事務管理人) and notifying customs in advance. In practice, most overseas brands either use a Japanese partner as importer or work with a customs broker and an import service. Confirm the current requirements with a licensed customs broker before your first shipment.

Electrical products: PSE

If your product is covered by the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Act, it needs a PSE mark backed by a filing from a business that is responsible for it in Japan, and selling through Amazon does not move that duty to Amazon. Amazon Japan may ask for the PSE documents before an electrical listing goes live, so have them ready before you list; our PSE guide, linked below, explains who can file.

Other rules that often apply

• Anything with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi needs Japanese radio certification.
• Products that touch food fall under the Food Sanitation Act. The food-safety inspection on one of our coffee products took about four months and cost about ¥200,000.
• Prices shown to Japanese consumers must include consumption tax, which is 10% for most goods.

For most consumer products, yes. Japanese shoppers expect fast domestic delivery, and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) gives your listing the delivery speed and returns handling they are used to. Amazon also offers Multi-Channel Fulfillment in Japan, so the same stock can ship orders from your own store.

As of November 2026, Amazon Japan charges an FBA fulfillment fee per unit based on size and weight, plus a storage fee that is noticeably higher from October to December. Long-term storage fees apply to stock held for more than a year. Two practical rules follow:

• Send small, frequent shipments at first. Overstock in a Japanese warehouse is expensive, and you do not yet know your sell-through rate.
• Check your packaging size against the fee tiers before you finalize it. A few millimetres can move a product into a more expensive tier.

Most foreign listings on Amazon Japan are translated from English, and Japanese buyers notice. The title, bullet points, images and A+ content should be written for how Japanese buyers search and decide, using the words they would type, not the words on your spec sheet.

• Put the one thing your product does best in the first line of the title and the first image.
• Use Japanese text in the images. Many shoppers decide from the image gallery without reading the bullets.
• Add a short video that shows the product working. One Japanese launch team told us their biggest regret was using the brand's still key visual, because buyers kept asking what the product actually did.
• Write a Japanese manual and answer questions in Japanese. Reviews in Japan often mention the manual and the support, good or bad.

Reviews

A new listing with no reviews is the main reason good products stall on Amazon Japan. Amazon does not allow paid or incentivized reviews. Japan also treats undisclosed advertising by the brand as a violation of the Premiums and Representations Act, under the stealth marketing rule in force since October 1, 2023. So the route to early reviews has to be clean: Amazon Vine for Brand Registry brands, real buyers from a launch, and Japanese creators who clearly disclose that a post is sponsored.

If you own the brand, yes. Amazon Brand Registry is free. In Japan it requires a registered or pending trademark for your brand name or logo, an image showing that trademark on the product or packaging, and a brand name that matches the trademark exactly. Only the trademark owner can apply; agents can be added as users afterward. Amazon lists which trademark offices it accepts in its eligibility pages, so check that your trademark qualifies.

What you get: A+ content, Sponsored Brands ads, a brand store, access to Amazon Vine for reviews, and protection tools against counterfeits and listing hijackers. If a Japanese distributor will sell your product, keep the Brand Registry in your own name and add the distributor as a user. That way the listing stays yours if the partnership ends.

A Japanese trademark is worth filing early even if you already hold one at home, because someone else can file your brand name in Japan first. Confirm your options with a Japanese patent attorney.

Work backward from the price the shopper sees, which must include consumption tax. Amazon Japan calculates the referral fee on the total sale amount, tax included, and the FBA fee is a fixed amount per unit for your size tier.

An illustrative example, not your real fees: a product shown at ¥11,000 including 10% tax brings ¥10,000 before tax. With a referral fee of 10% on ¥11,000 (¥1,100) and an FBA fee of about ¥550, you keep roughly ¥8,350. That has to cover the product, shipping to Japan, duties, advertising, returns and your profit. Run the same sum with your real category rate and size tier from Amazon's fee pages.

• Leave room for coupons and Amazon's sale events. A price with no room to move is hard to promote.
• Budget for Sponsored Products ads from the first day. A new listing with no reviews gets little organic traffic.
• Keep the Japanese price consistent with your other Japanese channels. Japanese buyers compare, and a much lower price on one channel undermines the others.

Amazon is a search engine for products people already know they want. For a new category, crowdfunding usually works better first: nobody is searching for the product yet, and a listing with no reviews sits on page ten. If your product is already known in Japan, or competes in a category people search every day, you can start on Amazon.

1. An importer is arranged: your Japanese partner, or a customs administrator and a licensed broker.
2. Required filings are done: PSE, radio certification or food-contact checks, depending on the product.
3. Japanese labels, a Japanese manual and packaging sized against the FBA fee tiers.
4. A Japanese listing with Japanese image text and a short video.
5. Brand Registry in your own name, with a trademark that qualifies.
6. A price that still leaves profit after tax, fees, ads and returns.
7. Someone who answers Japanese customer messages quickly.