After seeing ChiliChill play a livehouse in May, I picked up two of their physical CDs at the merch table. That was the first time I really felt the appeal of a CD: the music I liked was suddenly something I could hold, own, and put on a shelf. One purchase turned into a habit, and I started collecting CDs.
The problem is that I barely listen to Mandopop. Most of what I play is Western pop, rock, and ACGN music, and very little of that gets a domestic release—and even when it does, I am usually not interested in that edition. Collecting physical CDs locally became surprisingly difficult.
This is how I worked around it: ordering albums directly from a Japanese store. My experience might be useful if you are in the same situation.
Why order directly
Authenticity. This is the obvious one. Domestic platforms are full of counterfeits, and I do not want to gamble on a CD whose main value is as a collectible. A fake copy defeats the purpose.
Price. If an album was never released locally, the only domestic option is an importer, and the middleman needs a cut. The markup often ends up higher than the international shipping itself. For example, the OST of Your Name. has a Chinese edition at about 83 CNY and a Japanese edition with a list price around 113 CNY. Buying the Japanese edition domestically costs around 155 CNY—nearly 40 CNY extra. That stings.
There is also the exchange rate. The yen is currently very weak against the renminbi—roughly 1 CNY to 24 JPY—so shopping from Japan almost feels like buying at a discount.
Choosing what to buy
I used CDJapan. The site is in English, so not knowing Japanese is not a barrier, and it accepts Chinese payment methods.
What is available. From what I have seen, albums that are still in print are usually available. Most show as in stock; a few are backordered. Japanese editions are naturally easy to find, so ACGN and J-pop are not a problem. For Western pop albums, the Japanese edition is usually listed, but the original import may not be—and when it is, it tends to cost about 20 CNY more than the Japanese version. Out-of-print albums are mostly unavailable. A few can be ordered through the site's proxy service, and a few show up as used. The platform does not seem to put much effort into discontinued titles.
Pricing. The prices I saw matched the tax-excluded list price printed on the CD spine. That seems to be the standard price. I have never been to Japan, so I cannot say whether physical stores ever sell below list price. Either way, it is clearly cheaper than domestic proxy buyers, and far cheaper than buying through a general cross-border site like Amazon. The rough rule:
- Japanese albums: ordering from Japan is cheaper than buying domestically, even after shipping.
- Non-Japanese albums: the Japanese edition is cheaper than the domestic route; the original edition may not be, and once shipping is added it may not be worth it.
Here are some prices I collected for comparison:
<table> <thead> <tr> <th>Album</th> <th>Type</th> <th>CDJapan price</th> <th>Domestic price</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Kessoku Band (結束バンド)</td> <td>Anime</td> <td>3000 JPY (126 CNY)</td> <td>160–180 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Meiseki Ha (迷跡波)</td> <td>Anime</td> <td>3500 JPY (147 CNY)</td> <td>190–240 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Muzai Moratorium (無罪モラトリアム)</td> <td>J-pop</td> <td>2887 JPY (121 CNY)</td> <td>170–220 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>BOOTLEG</td> <td>J-pop</td> <td>3000 JPY (126 CNY)</td> <td>170–180 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Divide [Deluxe Edition]</td> <td>International pop</td> <td>2532 JPY (106 CNY)</td> <td>120–150 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Life of a Showgirl</td> <td>International pop</td> <td>3000 JPY (126 CNY)</td> <td>130–140 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>The Dark Side of the Moon</td> <td>Prog-rock/art rock</td> <td>2571 JPY (108 CNY)</td> <td>140–150 CNY</td> </tr> <tr> <td>New Year Concert 1987</td> <td>Classical</td> <td>1200 JPY (50 CNY)</td> <td>75–90 CNY</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Duty-free limits. According to Chinese customs rules, single CDs are duty-free for up to 20 discs per person per shipment, and box sets for up to 3 sets. You can look up the exact document online. In practice, a normal order is unlikely to hit the limit—20 discs would already be over 2,000 CNY.
Shipping
CDJapan offers four main shipping methods: DHL, FedEx, EMS, and Airmail. I recommend EMS.
One note: if your order is heavier than 1 kg, DHL and FedEx become unavailable, leaving EMS and Airmail.
Cost. Taking EMS as the baseline, Airmail costs about 0.7x, while DHL and FedEx run about 1.7–3x. For an order of five items (about 900 g), DHL works out to roughly 33 CNY extra per item, EMS about 18 CNY, and Airmail about 13 CNY. Shipping gets cheaper per item as the order grows, so splitting an order with friends makes sense. I bought eight items, and EMS came to about 15 CNY per item.
Reliability. DHL, FedEx, and EMS are all registered services with end-to-end tracking. DHL and FedEx are large commercial carriers; EMS is the global postal service provided by Universal Postal Union members, handled by each country's national postal operator. All three are dependable. Airmail is different: it is unregistered, you cannot track it, and there is no recourse if it is lost or damaged. It is a blind box from start to finish. I would not take that risk to save a little on shipping.
Packaging. One reason I chose CDJapan was its reputation for packing. I did not want a box of plastic shards arriving after a trip halfway around the world. You can choose the packaging at checkout. For small orders, the options include a bubble mailer or a cardboard box; for safety, choose the cardboard box (left in the photo below). For larger orders, only a cardboard carton is available (right).
CDJapan also offers a reinforced packaging option for about 33 CNY. The standard packaging was enough for me. If you are worried, it is there.
Address. Fill in the address in English. Pinyin is fine. For example:
Zou Haotian Huxi Campus of Chongqing University No. 55 Daxuecheng South Road Lan Yuan Building 3 Shapingba Chongqing 401331 CHINA
Waiting
After you order, the store prepares the shipment. In-stock items usually come together in one or two days; proxy or backordered items can take longer. Once everything is ready, it ships within about a day, and you get an EMS tracking number. The number works on Japan Post, China Post, and third-party apps like Cainiao.
My order arrived in 12 days: one day in Japan, three days in international transit, two days in domestic transit, five days in Chongqing customs, and one day for final delivery. Most of the time went to customs; the actual transport was fast, and the whole route was by air.
Arrival
The box arrived in decent shape. The eight corners showed some impact marks, but there was no sign of compression. Inside, each album was wrapped in its own bubble wrap, and the remaining space was filled with paper. One thing I found amusing: Japan apparently has not discovered air pillows. Domestic couriers in China have been using them for years, but an international parcel from Japan was still packed with crumpled paper.
After opening everything, most of the CDs were fine. Two albums had cracked hinge pins on the jewel case lids—probably the most fragile part of the whole case, and the first thing to break on many CDs. A little glue makes them usable, and the discs themselves were unaffected.
Final thoughts
This was my first time buying from an overseas store, and I was satisfied with both the price and the shipping. It was much simpler than I expected. If you are curious about physical CDs, ordering directly from a Japanese platform is worth trying. Even with shipping, a single disc often comes out 20–40 CNY cheaper than the domestic route, and you can find niche albums that never show up locally. It is a good value for a collector.