Ever wanted a game super bad?
So bad that you just can’t wait for an English release? So bad that you actually wouldn’t mind playing the JP version & not understanding what the hell is going on?
I have. Many times. And I eventually ended up learning Japanese >.<
But actually, purchasing games and stuff from the Japanese PSN is not as hard as it may seem.
So in this post, I will walk you through the entire process.
~THINGS TO KNOW~
Note that you need to make a JP PSN account to access JP Store. On top of that, you can only purchase games on the JP Store by inserting JP PSN cards in “¥”.
Japanese games aren’t region locked (A select few are, so be careful) so this means that you will be able to play them on any console worldwide.
“If I need to make a JP account, does that mean I can only play the game on my JP account?”
No. You can DL games with your JP account and then play them on any other account on your ps3/4, provided that you make the JP Account ‘Primary’ on your console.
Since accounts that are initially signed into on ps4 are automatically made ‘Primary’, you don’t need to worry about this step. [Note that a ps vita can only have one account at a time, so you would only be able to play vita games with your JP account should you find yourself in that situation.]
“But wait. What about JP DLC?”
In most cases, DLC will only work when it matches the region of your base game. Example: JP game will only work with JP DLC etc. I have heard stories about DLC working across regions but it sounds like hearsay to me and I don’t believe it.
~CREATING A JP PSN~
For starters, head to the official playstation jp store website:
From here, you could use Google Translate to get through the whole process, but Google Translate sucks at JP. So I’ll provide you with some more… understandable translations.
Do you see the white search bar in the top right corner? Above that reads:
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SIGN IN | CREATE ACCOUNT
If you already have a JP account, click sign in.
But we are here to make a JP account, so we are going to click CREATE ACCOUNT.
Once you click CREATE ACCOUNT, you are presented with a pop up menu full of textboxes for inputting your information.
From the top:
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SIGN IN ID — EMAIL ADDRESS
You will need to use a valid email address that you have access to. This is because PSN will send this email a verification mail that is needed to activate your account.
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DATE OF BIRTH — YEAR/MONTH/DAY
Here, you enter a birth date. But ALWAYS make sure you enter a birth date that makes you over 18.
If you aren’t over 18, lie.
This is because if you are younger than 18, PSN may block you from buying over age games. Among other things.
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GENDER — O MALE O FEMALE
This one doesn’t matter. You can pretend to be a cute Japanese girl, or a cool Japanese guy. This just affects the kinds of emails and game recommendations you will get.
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COUNTRY — (DROP DOWN LIST OF COUNTRIES)
This one is the most important. Make 100% sure that you select Japan (日本). If you select any other region, you will end up making a PSN account for whatever region you pick.
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PREFECTURE — (DROP DOWN LIST)
This is basically the state within Japan that you live in. Obviously, if you are reading this, you don’t live in Japan so you can go ahead and pick whichever from the drop down list.
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LANGUAGE (THIS ONE SHOULD BE LOCKED)
This one is locked on the Japanese language. Unfortunately, you cannot have a JP account in English.
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PASSWORD
Here, you input the password that you will use to sign in to your account. If the password you have entered is not valid/good enough. Try mixing it up with capital letters, numbers and symbols.
Just make sure that you never forget the password! We don’t want to do the “Forgot Password” crap in JP!
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PASSWORD (RE-ENTER)
Here, you re-enter the exact same password that you entered above.
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CAPTCHA
Don’t know what a Capctha is? It’s a mechanism sites use to validate that net traffic is not a bot and in fact human. Here, you simply have to click on the box and you’re done. (Thank God PSN doesn’t have Hiragana Captcha T_T)
NOTE: Do not waste time after ticking the box or the Capctha may be updated with a question version @_@ In the event that this happens, use the power of Google Translate or you may want to start the whole process over.
The stuff underneath the capture represents the kinds of emails you eant PSN to send you. This step does not affect anything, so you can uncheck or keep the boxes checked.
Now. Once you have made sure you filled out the textboxes properly, you can scroll down.
Underneath the Captcha, we see two grey buttons. Theses each take you to “Terms & Conditions” stuff that you have absolutely NO intention of reading. Therefore they can be ignored.
To submit your account application, Press the BLUE BUTTON.
Once you do this, a verification email will be sent to the email you provided.
Keep this PSN account window open and use another window to access the email.
Once you have accessed your email, you should see a man from the JP PSN about the creation of your new account. Open the email and click the big fat blue button to activate your new PSN account.
Once you do this, a new window will open with PSN saying that your account has been activated on the given email address. You can simply close this window because we are still in the middle of the account creation process on the first window I asked you to keep open earlier.
After this is done, go back to the first window where we will continue creating our JP PSN account.
Now , we will only see one textbox used for selecting your PSN-ID. This step can be annoying because there aren’t many free IDs so you will have to be very creative with what you enter here.
Once you are satisfied with your ID, press the only blue button on the page. (If you get an error message here, it means either that your PSN-ID is already taken and you must enter another. Or your ID contains characters that aren’t allowed.)
On the next page, you are presented with several textboxes.
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FIRST NAME
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LAST NAME
For these two, You can enter whatever. It doesn’t really matter.
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SECURITY QUESTION (DROP DOWN LIST)
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ANSWER — TEXTBOX
This is a question that you are asked when you do the whole “Forgot Password” thing.
DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD.
Never forget your password. Instead select the first question only to write something silly in the textbox below. This is so that if you ever do this “Forgot Password” process again, you can just select the first question and remember what you wrote.
Once this step is done, click the only blue button on the page to proceed.
On the next page is the LAST BOSS of JP account creation. The Billing Address information. It’s possible to write utter crap in these textboxes and get away with it. But that’s not recommended.
You can get a TENSO account for an actual JP billing address.
If you do this, you can input the unique number that comes with your billing address into the first textbox and press the blue button next to it.
Otherwise you can also input a dummy address which is what I usually do.
So for this step, you can copy and paste the information below into the texboxes. (Each line is a different textbox)
490-1214
(Leave the Drop Down on the first option)
東京
トウキョウトシブヤク
(Leave the second last textbox open)
エビスエビスガーデンプレイス
Once you input this information, click on the BLUE BUTTON below.
One this page, you are asked if you would like to input your Credit Card details. I’m quite sure that you need a JP credit card to actually pay for stuff on the JP store.
So here, we will select NO by picking the rightmost blue button with いいえ on it.
The final page. On here, we are asked if we want PSN to email us about game offers and newsletters. Here you can check or uncheck the boxes. It doesn’t matter.
Once you are done, wrap up the account creation process by clicking the BLUE BUTTON below the options.
Once you click this button, the next page will have a green border saying that your account has successfully been created. From here you can close the pop up window and you should be logged in with your Brand New JP Account!
Now, you will need to sign into the PSN with a NEW USER on your ps4 in order to enable this account on your console.
All you have to do is enter the email and password that you gave for your JP account and you will now have a user account on ps4 that can access the JP PSN.
~HOW TO FIND GAMES ON THE JP PSN~
“Yay! I made a JP PSN! But… now you do I actually find games? I can’t write in Japanese…”
That’s easy.
All you need to do is ask google. For example, if you navigate to the wiki of Accel World vs Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, you will see how the game is written in Japanese.
From there you can just highlight:
アクセルワールド VS ソードアート・オンライン 千年の黄昏
And then copy and paste this into the white search bar on the Japanese PSN store.
~HOW TO BUY GAMES ON JP PSN~
“Okay. I found what I’m looking for. Now, how do I actually buy this game..?”
First, we need JP PSN credit.
PLAYASIA has an extremely reliable service where you can buy JP PSN cards from them and they email you the code. (Usually within 2 minutes)
There are lot’s of other vendors to buy digital cards from but I still highly recommend PLAYASIA as they are super fast and reliable.
NOTE: Makes triple sure that you are buying JAPANESE PSN Cards. Cards from other regions will not work.
Be very careful.
Okay. Once you have calculated how much Yen you will need and have bought the correct JP PSN cards and everything, its time to load your cards in and buy the game.
Navigate back to the home page and hover your log in name in the top right corner.
Doing so will make a drop down list appear under your name. Click on “Add funds to Wallet” which is the second option from the top. (The option with the Yen symbol on it)
This will open a new window with your account page open.
On the JP PSN we can’t use Credit Card or Paypal. So click on the Present icon to use your prepaid PSN card.
On this page, there is only one textbox. Here, you input the code on your JP Prepaid PSN Card and click the blue button.
Unfortunately, I don’t have money to actually go buy a card and show you this step ;_;
From memory, clicking the Blue Button after entering your code takes you to a page where they ask you if you really want to add the funds to your wallet. From there, you can use Google Translate to pick yes.
Or you can click the most ‘Yes’ looking option. Don’t worry. the worst thing that can happen here is that you end up saying NO and come back to this page.
Believe in yourself!
Or donate me money to make this guide actually helpful!
…
Alright. Once you have input your credit, navigate to the page of the game you want to buy.
Okay. Underneath the price, there is a button for “Buy” or “Pre-order”. Clicking this, will add this game to your shopping cart.
[Note: If you don’t have sufficient funds, clicking this button will take you to a page where you insert money]
Clicking this button will bring up a small menu that says “Item added to cart” along with two buttons for “Continue Shopping” on the left & “View Cart” on the right respectively.
Clicking View Cart will take you to a page where you can now actually purchase the game.
Now, again. I don’t have money to show this step ;__;
But from memory, Inside the cart page, your entire cart is listed in the middle. On the right there are two buttons again “Proceed to Checkout” on the top & “Continue Shopping” on the bottom.
Clicking the top one will take you to a page that shows you the amount of funds in your wallet and the cost of your cart.
From there, click on the option on that says “購入する” (Purchase) to buy the contents of your cart.
After this, you should be met with huge letters that say your purchase has been complete. Underneath that, your download list will be visible, along with your brand new games.
We did it! >.</
Once you have bought your game, you can download it to your ps4 by logging into your JP account and going to “Library” in the ps4 menu.
From there, navigate to the bottom most tab to view your purchased content. There, you can find the game you bought and download it to your ps4.
That’s it for the guide.
Man. This thing was tiring. Reading Kanji really gives me a headache T_T
If you safely made it through this guide and were able to purchase something. Congratulations.
Good luck with those scary JP menus >.<