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Step-by-step guide how to buy games on Japanese Nintnedo eShop by using Japanese PayPal account and Revolut card.

Nintendo Switch doesn't have region lock. So there is no problem with running games from different regions. On EU version of the console you can play in games that were bought in USA or Japan without a problem. The only problem that you can find is how to buy digital versions of games right from Japanese Nintendo eShop. And here is tutorial how to do it.

I know that there is possibility to buy digital codes for Japanese Nintendo eShop right from Play-Asia.com or other sites. But remember that you are paying some extra USD/EUR for each transaction on such code. Let me do some math for you to show you differences.

In Play-Asia.com 1000 JPY card costs 13 USD/12 EUR. In Revolut - exchange rate for 1000 JPY is around 9 USD/8 EUR. Maybe it's not a big difference, but I prefer adding some extra funds to buy another game this way 😉 So my guide focuses on the method showing you how you can buy games in Japanese Nintendo eShop without overpaying.

This method should work with any credit card, but Revolut seems to be the best solution for it.

Disclaimer. This method worked for me and few of my readers, but be advised - I'm not giving 100% guarantee that it will work for you as well.

What do you need

If you want to buy games on Japanese Nintendo eShop you need:

Japanese My Nintendo account,

Japanese PayPal account,

Revolut account with virtual or real card.

Firstly - you need My Nintendo account with region set to Japan. You can freely switch between regions on your main My Nintendo account, but I prefer to have seperate accounts for each region. Creating such account is easy - check this great guide covered by Nintendo Life.

Secondly - you need Japanese PayPal account. Why? Because adding PayPal account from other country in Japanese Nintendo eShop will end with failure.

And lastly - Revolut card/account. Why Revolut? It's a multi currency account/card, which has probably the best exchange rate and no additional or hidden fees. Unfortunately, you can't use their card (virtual or real one) directly in Japanese eShop. But there is a way how to deal with it thru PayPal. Read on to know how to do it.

Step 1

Go to Japanese PayPal and click white button with text 新規登録.

Step 2

Choose first option パーソナルアカウント (private account).

Step 3

At the bottom of the page change language to English and fill the form. Important! Choose Japan as country.

Step 4

Now you must provide your address details. And here is a tricky part. The address details must be the same as the one you provided for Revolut card but with slighlty changes to fit Japanese requirements. I live in Poland, where address details looks like that:

John Smith

Prosta Street 1

00-001 Warsaw

So in my case I filled the form this way:

in Building name I provided Polish word for "street",

in Street name - name of the street,

in City - my city,

in Prefecture I've selected the one I liked the name 😉

in Postal code I had to modify my postal code - the Japanese one is 7-digit, so I've added two zeros (at the beginning and/or at the end) to have it right,

in Phone number - fictional mobile phone number.

Step 5

Here you have to provide details of your Revolut card - card number, expiration date and CVV. At this point, PayPal will collect 1 USD from the card (which will be refunded in short time).

If everything went well your Revolut card has been properly connected with PayPal account. Now you have to verify your e-mail and Revolut card thru PayPal panel. It's a must - without it you will not be able to use it.

To verify the card, enter the 4-digit code that you see in the transfer's title. Again PayPal will take a small fee (around 2 USD), which will be returned after few days.

In my case I had to wait around 24 hours to buy games on Japanese Nintendo eShop, but I heard that right now it's like an hour or so. In the meantime you can connect your Japanese PayPal account with My Nintendo.

Step 6

Go to Japanese Nintendo website and login to your Japanese My Nintendo account.

Step 7

After successful login go to http://ec.nintendo.com/paypal/agreement and click on big red button. You will be redirected to website where you accept linking your PayPal account. If everything will go okay, you will see message with green checkmark which indicates that operation was successful.

Et voilà - everything is configure and you can now buy games on Japanese Nintendo eShop.

How to buy games thru Japanese Nintendo website

As a bonus - small guide how to buy games thru Japanese Nintendo website.

Step 1

Go to website with Switch games.

Step 2

Below baners you will see list of games with search (発売・予約受付中のソフト section). On the right side you will see three buttons:

ピックアップ - selection of recommended games,

任天堂のソフト - games published by Nintendo,

すべてのソフト - all games.

After selecting last option you will see list of all games, which you can filter by clicking on 発売日順. First row is the date of publish (新しい - from the newest games, 新しい - from the oldest games) and second one is for the price (高い - from the highest, 低い - from the lowest).

Step 3

After choosing which game you want to buy click on 購入にすすむ button. After entering your password for My Nintendo account you will see confirmation of purchase. Select last option with PayPal account and confirm it.

After successful payment you will see such message:

At this moment purchased game has been added to your account and the download proccess on your console will start. On your mailboxs you should receive three messages - two from Nintendo and one from PayPal. All of them will be regarding your latest purchase.

I hope that this guide was pretty simple and you didn't have any problems with the whole proccess. If you have any additional questions - feel free to leave comment below.

About geekretro.pl

Geekretro.pl is a Polish blog where you can find reviews of indie games for Nintendo Switch, interviews with game developers and curiosities from Japanese popculture. Section "geekretro.pl in English" has selection of best articles (mainly interviews) that is available in English.

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