"The Yen is Weak, All Hail the Yen!" - Proxying Clothes from Japan 101
by u/XavierWT (2022)
I proxy a lot of my clothes from Japan. Therefore I have experience with it, and I can share that experience.
WHAT
…Is proxying?
Proxying is the practice of buying something on a domestic market and get it sent to you by a third-party service or a person (like a friend) who lives there.
…do I proxy?
Although the Japanese fashion market is big, the style that I am most experienced with is casual wear inspired by vintage American clothing. It’s often dubbed “workwear” but that’s a bit of a misnomer, because the umbrella also covers other genres such as military, western wear and sports wear. If you’re not familiar with that style, many American brands also operate in that niche. Feenote Cloth, Imogene + Willie and 3Sixteen are notable examples. The denim industry, especially, is thriving in Japan.
Also socks. Japan has a few good socks brands such as AnonymousIsm and Rototo. They’re not cheap but they’re not prohibitively expensive either. I buy almost all my socks this way.
WHY
…is it a good idea to proxy clothes from Japan?
Japan has a really interesting domestic fashion industry and if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a story for another day. Made in Japan (MiJ) goods are often imported internationally but the markup is typically much lower in Japan, for whatever reason I don’t really know. I heard Derek Guy mention at some point that culturally, the retail markup in Japan was lower than in Europe and North America. I have no idea if this is based on facts. You can also add that imported goods often come with the added cost of duties.
The Japanese garment manufacturing industry is very well integrated in many regards, as Japan also has a very lively fabric trade.
This means that it’s cheaper to buy stuff from Japan in Japan in many if not most cases.
HOW
…does ones buy from the global ecommerce platform of a Japanese retailer?
There are many ways to go at it. The easiest way is not to proxy per se but to buy from Japanese stores that have a global shipping program. Sometimes their shipping program is very generous, with the international shipping being much less expensive than it is from the EU, or even the non-free shipping you have to pay for items on a second-hand or an auction site.
…does one buy from a Japanese retailer with no global ecommerce platform?
The other way is to use a proxy service, such as Buyee, FromJapan or Zenmarket. Those services are built around an interface with which you can navigate Japanese auction sites – the most famous being Yahoo! Japan and Mercari, as well as major online retailing platforms such as Rakuten and Rakuma. You can also find an item on a Japanese-language site that does not seem to ship internationally and ask the proxy service to buy the item on your behalf through an interface integrated to their site. The proxy fees in general are small. I tracked them for a while and decided not to because it wasn’t a relevant amount. I don’t recall the fees ever reaching 5% of the price of an order I made.
After this, the packages are sent to the warehouse of the proxy service and you select a method of shipping that works for you. One of the keys to a good value is to group smaller purchases in a bigger bundle, to pay a better price on international shipping.
WHERE
… to buy direct? These sites have an English-language interface
…to proxy for auction sites and large scale platforms?
OneMap by From Japan (Formerly only known as From Japan)
ZenMarket *disclaimer, I don't use Zen Market myself*
…to shop independently, leveraging the personal shopping services offered by proxy services?
(Stores I’ve used in the past 12 months through a proxy service or the help of a friend)
WHEN
…should you be proxying clothes?
It’s a year long endeavor. The Japanese fashion industry doesn’t seem to follow the seasonal sales cycles with consistency. You can find sales every now and then but I’ve never seen things like a site-wide deep discount.
The Yen is weak right now, so it's a better time than in the past few years to do it.
WHO
…is this for?
Someone who enjoys trial and error.
Someone who likes a good deal.
Someone who likes their measurements.
Someone who’s not afraid of reselling something that didn’t work out.
Someone who doesn’t put a lot of importance on tagged sizes, as the tagged sizes on Japanese clothes are often dramatically different than on American clothes, and even European clothes.
#Notes and Words of Warning#
_Language
A lot of websites you’ll end up visting are in Japanese and not in English. This is much easier to do from a personal computer than a phone, thanks to the translation features included in many web browsers. You can do it form a phone, but the user experience is not as good.
_Taxes and Duties
In the USA, packages worth less than $800 are typically exempt from taxes and duties. I don’t know the extent of this, as I do not live in the USA. If you live anywhere else, expect to have to pay sales tax. In Canada where I live, this has became much less expensive than in the past where a $50 CAD processing fee would often be added. While this doesn’t appear to be the case anymore, I have been consistently billed all due taxes on the declared amount + a small processing fee by Fedex, the transporter I have been using most.
_Proxy Fees
Do know that proxy sites do not deduce the sales tax from the amount that’s charged to you, as opposed to what most international sites do. I strongly suspect that they do ask for a deduction but they keep it and it’s the largest part of their fee. This means you are taxed twice, but it’s still cheaper, and by a lot.
_Exclusions
Some stores and brands, among which the Iron Heart flagship, do not accept to sell domestically to a proxy service. You have to get those goods through a friend or on a second-hand site.
_Time constraint
Proxying can take a while in comparison to direct buying, especially if you use cheaper international parcel delivery options. If the E in ecommerce stands for emmediately, the P in proxy stands for patience.
Happy proxying!