Buy Kindle Books from Amazon Japan outside of Japan - Guide

A guide on how to buy books from Amazon.co.jp when you are not actually in Japan ( Working as of 03/09/2014)

So Basically if you have been lucky enough to buy an Amazon kindle Paperwhite from Japan you would have realized your luck just ran out and you can no longer buy books when you aren't physically located in Japan. Amazon support's response was please wait until you get back to Japan before buying anymore books.

For some people there will be a short window in which you can buy books while outside of Japan but Amazon usually pick up on this after 2-3 Months and your stuck with the books you have for now.

Here's how to get around it

1. Signup to Amazon.co.jp

I assume you have already signed up at Amazon.co.jp but just in case you haven't head over there and signup for an account. If you cannot read the Japanese text you can view the page in English by clicking the button on the top of the page.

 2. Setup your Credit Card

Go to your amazon account settings and enter your credit card details . Feel free to add a fake Japanese address and zip code as these details are not used by Amazon when processing credit card payments

for example
Last Name: Smith
First Name: John
Post Code/Zip Code: 535-0005
Prefecture/Area: 大阪府 (Osaka-fu)
Phone number: 090 22224444

3. Find a Free Japanese Proxy

The next step is to find a free japanese proxy that you will use to connect through thus making your ip address appear as though you are physically located in japan. I use gatherproxy.com to find a suitable proxy but there are many others sites out there.

Look for one with an anonymity level of elite this will hide your ip address as well as protect the security of your data going in and out of the proxy server.

4. Configure your browser to use the proxy server

the next step is to configure your browser to use the proxy , in this case I am going to use internet explorer as an example. Open Internet explorer and goto

Tools -> Internet Options -> Under the Connections Tab goto LAN settings

now enter the IP address and Port of the proxy you have chosen and hit OK

5. Head back to Amazon.co.jp and buy books

Now navigate back to amazon.co.jp (note: it may be slower now as you are connecting through the proxy) but with a bit of patience you should be able to log back into your account and start purchasing your books and sending them straight to your kindle device.

I did notice every now and then I would get an error saying my payment method was not available but with the amazon 1 click buy feature it seemed to let my transaction through anyway and my CC was charged correctly.

Currently this is the easiest way to buy books from amazon.co.jp , some people have explored other methods such as using vpn's and specialized routers to run their connection through a proxy so that purchases can be made directly from the device itself.

This is not really a big deal when purchases can be made from the amazon site just as easily and can still be received by a kindle device that is connected to a home wifi.

as always things may change in the future but enjoy it while it lasts. Otherwise if you run into CC issues the other alternative is to buy amazon gift cards from ebay and make your purchases that way.