How to buy Concert ticket in Japan?

 

There are two types of tickets usually in Japan.

 

1) Preorder ticket ("Senko (Yoyaku) ticket/先行予約チケット")

a. Fast come fast serve style order ("Senchaku/先着チケット")

b. Lottery style order ("Chusen/抽選チケット")

AND

2) Normal ticket ("Ippan (hanbai) ticket/一般販売チケット")

 

A simple rule is that 2) Normal ticket is hard to get, sometimes impossible. 

Usually 1) Preorder ticket comes before the 2) Normal ticket.

 

Preorder does not mean you can definitely get it. There are two types of a preorder ticket: a. Fast come fast serve style order and b. Lottery style order.

 

a. Fast come fast serve style order means you apply to buy by website, tel. etc. The faster you can reach the ticket office, the more securely you can get the ticket. The problem is that many resellers clog the ticket website and once you can reach the website to buy, the ticket is all sold out.

We supported many clients with this. It is quite tough to beat the resellers who organize the big team.  Esp. if  the order is only by telephone, you can give up already (!). 

 

b. Lottery style order means you apply by website etc. during a certain period of time. It does not matter you apply early or late, the chance of winning the right to buy does not change. To reduce the reseller's problem, we see this style more.

Recently we see more concerts ask you to apply (chusen - lottery) only with the smartphone which must be a Japanese phone with the valid tel. Japanese number.

 

You apply with the phone and if you win the right to buy the ticket, you pay. After all cost paid, you download some app to your phone. On the concert day, you get some SMS message with QR code to your phone. All this time you do not know the seat location. You use this QR code to enter and this is the moment when you know the seat location. This measure is hoping to curve down the reseller problem. Find out more about "Sumachike and tixeebox / Smartphone ticket " here.

 

We totally support this move.

 

If you need to do this smartphone ticket application, you need a phone registered in Japan. If you have a friend you can fully trust, you may do it but we do NOT recommend to use anyone offering it for some fee. There are some cases where people are arrested.

Interesting recent trend. There is an official resale ticket market from the concert organizer. 

 

We all hate the "unofficial resale markets". There have been several resale markets in Japan. As well as there are people offering to resell tickets on various SNS.

It is the economics that as long as there is a market, the re-sellers will be around. Yet, we are aware that our customers outside/inside Japan suffered a lot from these resellers who charge them horrendous prices for popular concerts. We never recommend you to try to buy from an unofficial resale market as there are scammers. The risk is too high.

 

To tackle this, the official ticket platform/event organizer have come up with the idea to open their own official resale market!

 

On this "official platform" you can basically sell at the same price as you bought with a bit of commission and the buyer can buy at the same price as it was sold. The event company only cares about the problem of resellers who want to make profit by raising the price. This way, those who could not go to the event with a normal cause (being sick, urgent matters etc.) can kind of "return" the tickets and the those who could not get the ticket can get the ticket at a "fair" price.

 

It is a good idea!! 

 

Where do you find such an official resale ticket market? It actually depends on the organizer and also concert. You need to research on the website of the concert organizer (i.e. the official website of the live concert) and find such info.

Always failing to buy the ticket in Japan? Well, honestly there is no 100% guaranteed way to get a ticket. But there are some ways you can increase your chance to win the right to buy the ticket.

 

1. if the artist has a fanclub, join it. 

2. if the artist has a membership for their official website, join it.

3. if the ticket to win the right is enclosed in an item such as music CD, buy several (if allowed under the regulation of the artist) and apply several times.

4. Be a premium member of major ticket platforms such as Lawson ticket or Ticket Pia.

5. Join a free member of e-Plus

 

To be able to buy a ticket safely, "fanclub" plays an important role. Simply put, if you are a member of fanclub of the favorite band or so, you have a better access for the ticket.

 

<<Our Fanclub proxy support comes into quite useful for you>>

The usual process to buy ticket in Japan is the follow:

 

A. Preorder (lottery style) only for fanclub member starts. 

B. Preorder from a major ticket platform starts

and

C. Normal ticket sales start.

 

Based on our observation, there are many popular concerts which just do A.

Which concert is the hardest to go in Japan?

 

There are some statistics about the amount of resale ticket circulated in Japan. This implies the demand is high for such a concert. Some bands are not known to foreigners but quite popular in Japan!

 

1) Arashi

2) Tohoshinki (Korean band)

3) SMAP (separated in 2017)

4) EXILE TRIBE

5) Kan Jani 8

6) Kis-My-Ft2

7) BIGBANG (Korean band)

8) Masaharu Fukuyama

9) Sandaime J Soul Brothers

10) Hey! Say! JUMP

11) EXO (Korean band)

12) Momoiro Clover Z

13) Dreams Come True

14) Kazumasa Oda

15) Namie Amuro ( to retire in 2018)

16 ) Kat-Tun

 

In these years we also noticed the growing popularity for anime voice actors/singers concerts such as Wake Up, Girls!, Idol M@ster.

 

There are many professional resellers which make it hard for real fans to get ticket. It is normal to see the resale ticket price 200% - 700% of its original price. Crazy... It is not good situation. We hope there shall be a strong regulation on resale business.

In 2018 May, the major ticket resale platform Ticket Camp was shut down. One of these companies inflated the ticket price.

 

The Japanese government announced to enact a new law on ticket reselling. The government is mainly worried about the resale of the Olympic ticket for 2020 Tokyo games.

 

It will be "some" good countermeasure for the reseller problem in Japan. The penalty shall be 1 year prison sentence or 1mil JPY or less. For details, you can find here.

A recent trend is that the artists offer special lives only for a certain group of people.

 

For example,  there are seats only available for fanclub members, or even a fanclub only concert takes place. In some case, you need to buy a CD which has a serial number only with which you can apply to win the right to buy a ticket.

 

Onegai Kaeru team can support many of these cases.

 

Just contact us! When you contact us, please state a much details as possible about your request. your name, what/on which date concert you want to go, your budget, birthday.

 

Our service fee changes depending on the urgency/difficulty of the case.

We always ask our customers to be fast to contact us. We can not deal with a super urgent case like..." we need you to go to apply physically at some venue for this ticket and the deadline is in 10 hours ". 

 

Yes, we make impossible possible but the cost shall be quite high.

 

Ideally contact us 2 week - 1 month before the deadline.

Many of our customers ask us to buy tickets for them. We certainly help.

 

Yet, it is not rare that customers can not win the rights to buy. While, many resellers get the tickets and put on the resale market for 200 - 700% or even higher price of the original price.

 

Well, how do the resellers get the tickets? The reseller never tells you. It is a secret of them.

Yet, what we are aware of is that the reseller for sure is the fanclub member (to be able to apply for a special deal) and the reseller does it as a "profession".

 

By the "profession", we mean that the reseller hires many other people (not just 2 -3 but 10 or more!) to be fanclub members of many bands and let them apply to increase the chance of winning.

 

Some customers of ours are not even the member of the fanclub.

This is why you can not get the ticket easily. To be honest, if you are not the fanclub member, your chance is basically quite low.  Most of the good tickets are gone for the fanclub members before you can apply. 

 

How could you win the war against the reseller who has 10 or more fanclub memberships to the same singer, if you do not even have one single fanclub membership.

 

This is why you need to join the fanclub in the first place with our proxy service. 

Many ask us to help getting concert ticket without fanclub membership. Our recommendation is that if you are not a member of your favorite one, BE A MEMBER NOW.

 

There are only goodies becoming a member. There are more and more ID check etc. in Japan for the resale ticket and you have a risk of being rejected at the concert gate. We do not wish you take this risk. You should buy the ticket in a proper way.

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