How To Rent Video Camera Equipment In Japan 2018

Informative information on how to rent camera equipment for your next video shoot in Japan.

If you’re planning a video shoot in Japan then you’re probably trying to decide whether to bring or rent video camera equipment.

Obviously, renting video camera equipment locally in Japan is seems like the most convenient option. Logistically speaking your costs, time, and labor associated with transporting your video camera to and around Japan will be significantly reduced. Not to mention annoying carnet processes that you may have to deal with during your arrival with airport customs. Those kind of suck.

Therefore, if you are planning to shoot a video in Japan, you should at least know a bit on how to rent. Mainly two options:

Video Camera Equipment Rental Stores

Japan has plenty of these stores scattered throughout the country especially if you are in one of the big cities like Tokyo. You will find that most of them are located conveniently from the stations as well.

While this may seem like a great idea, the type of equipment you will be able to rent will be most likely limited or restricted unless the necessary paperwork is properly filed much in advance. With that said, renting lenses is one thing, but trying to rent an Alexa Mini for your corporate video production in Japan, or in other words renting high quality video camera equipment will be more difficult without help from a local video production company. Local freelancers can have this issue too and therefore even go through video production companies when hired for jobs.

If you are an overseas company trying to rent from a local store in Japan then it is recommended you file your application at least 1–2 months in advance or you will most likely be denied. Paperwork takes a long time in Japan, hey it’s a Japan thing.

Local Japanese video rental companies have little trust with overseas companies (and why wouldn’t they?) and if your team doesn’t have the ability to provide a native Japanese speaker then it may make things even more limited in which companies will want to deal with you (although bilingual companies do exist if you do some research).

Its actually quite common for Japanese video camera rental companies to deny lending to an overseas company (sometimes even foreigners) just simply for being a foreign company and traveling here for a short stay mostly out of uncertainty avoidance or communication difficulties.

Hire A Video Production Company In Japan To Rent

Most advertising agencies or companies who need to organize a video shoot end up taking this route and is usually the smarter choice. Companies need to assure that not only will the necessary video camera crew and equipment show up on the day and time of the shoot, but also be insured of the quality.

There are also times when companies bring their in-house or local country camera crew to Japan in which there are other dealings to be attended to such as obtaining visas and video production insurance.

There are many reasons why companies need to get video production projects done in Japan and companies like us here at TOFU Media are really the ones who assure you or your client gets exactly what they need. Production budgets are tight and should always be maximized while also assuring your video shoot runs smoothly and according to plan.

Finally, as your wish list of equipment needed for your video shoot stacks up quickly, the necessary transportation to get your video gear from point A to point A is a another logistical issue that is best just being resolved through a local video production company like TOFU Media. Researching and communicating from overseas with local driving companies to find competitive rates could be frustrating without the help from a company based in Japan. The burden of transporting video camera equipment to and within Japan can be a stressful and difficult logistics issue.