Acquiring a ticket

Once you've decided on what concert you're interested in attending, you'll need to track one down. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, as listed below.

=Yahoo.co.jp Auctions=

Bidding Services
While Ebay is the largest online auction service in the West, Yahoo Auctions is as big in Japan. People outside of Japan can't register to bid here, but they can take advantage of proxy bidders- people in Japan who'll bid for you. A list of proxy bidding services can be found in the Useful Links section. Follow the instructions supplied by the proxy bidder on how to request, pay, and receive a ticket.

You can find personal user experience reports about different services on the Discussion page of this article.

Finding a ticket


To find a ticket you want, you'll need to search on Yahoo Auctions. Because of the variety of keywords that can be used, it's best to be vague with the group name, and include the date you want- for example, to find morning musume performing on the 23rd of January, you could search "娘 1/23".

Note- be especially careful with characters unique to Japanese text - this is especially true with ℃-ute, as ℃ is a different character to C, and search results will be incomplete. While it sounds silly, the easiest way to find all available ℃-ute tickets is searching for "ute", as it accounts for the many variations possible.

Refer back to the Ticket Information page if you need help deciphering the variety of tickets available.

More advanced ticket searching
You can put search terms into brackets ( and ) to search for either one of them. Everything outside brackets gets connected with AND and has to be in the search result. You can also precede a search term or bracket segment with - to have it excluded from the result.

A good idea would be to search for different writings of the date of the concert. For example, if it's for the 6th of May you could search for (5/6 5/06). Most auctions don't have 0s in the date (so 6th of May would be 5/6 rather than 05/06), but being able to see every ticket available is important if you want the best deal.

Another useful addition would be by only searching in the event ticket sub category. This can be done by browsing to the category itself and searching from there (the drop down beneath the search box has the option of 'search in this category' selected by default) or by adding &auccat=22748 to the search URL.

A few examples: Search for GAM but not for GAME in the event ticket category for a ticket on the 3rd of July
 * GAM -GAME (7/03 7/3)

Search for Morning or Musume or HaroPuro and 7/21 in the event ticket category
 * (モーニング 娘 ハロプロ) 7/21

Ticket auction overview
An example auction is shown in the right.

Note the group name, location, date, and seat location in the name.

A glossary of useful Japanese Kanji used in auctions-

枚 = quantity

分 = minutes

時間= hours

日 = days

開場 = open time (the doors to the venue open for admittance, usually 1 hour before the start time)

開演 = start time (the show tends to start on time, though not always- you are allowed to enter at any time if you're late)

階/列/番 = floor/row/seat number

See Ticket Information section for more Kanji and terms.

It is common practice to not display the seat number on auctions, only a possible range- so if a ticket were to be for 1階　27列　20番～40番, it would be 1st floor, 27th row, and between seats 20 and 40. This is done to ensure the privacy of the seller (if they're in the fanclub), and also keep the value of the ticket (as fans would prefer not to buy bad ones!).

Ticket availability
Tickets will be put on auction in two phases. The first is shortly after the FC lottery, where people will put up their future-tickets. These are generally the cheapest tickets to buy, as they're sold at almost face value. You have as much chance as getting a front row as a back row, so use this option if you're not that interested in where you sit, you just want to be there.

About 2-3 weeks before the concert, FC members will start receiving their tickets, and they'll be put on auction. Prices can range from face value for the further back tickets, to in excess of 100,000yen for front row tickets, depending on the event. The first 10 rows or so generally range from 30,000-60,000yen, and anything behind will be sub-30,000yen (again, depending on the event). If you're planning on bidding big, make sure you know the layout of the seating- you'd be better off with a 3rd row centre seat than a 2nd row far left or right seat, for example (if only for your hearing, as the speakers at the far left and right of the stage).

Note that general public tickets can go up at any time, but they tend to be worse seats than FC tickets, simply because FC tickets have a better chance to be up the front. You'll normally only see general public tickets if the event is a sellout (or expected to be). These tickets will be branded with a conbini name- Lawsons, Familymart etc- see below for details on how to buy one in person virtual personal assistant.

=Ticket resellers=

Resellers are shops dedicated to selling tickets (sold to them) to concerts. They often specialize - for example, Gorakudoh in Harajuku sells jpop and idol tickets (hellopro, Johnnys, Ayu, AAA etc), while random shops in Shinjuku and Ueno tend to have sporting, theatre, etc. tickets.

The range of tickets available from a reseller can be as varied as auctions. They'll range from front row to back, with the occasional cheap deal (as low as 2,500yen has been seen for a particularly bad seat). Don't assume they'll have a ticket you want, but they are usually reliable.

As acquiring a ticket at such a shop is just pointing to the ticket and paying for it, it is the easiest method if you are in Japan/have a contact in Japan. The simple Japanese found in phrasebooks is more than enough for the process.

You can find personal user experience reports about reseller shops on the Discussion page of this article.

Gorakudoh in Tokyo - Harajuku - Takeshita Dori
Gorakudoh specializes in idol tickets and goods and often offers the best deals out of the stores listed here. The website of gorakudoh lists all current tickets on sale and is quite up to date. So if you see some great ticket deal available on a evening, be sure to show up there early in the morning (Shortly before opening, which is at 10AM). Because for good deals (or when buying on the same day as the concert is), others will do the same. For more information, maps and directions, see the Gorakudoh article in the Shopping Guide.
 * http://www.gorakudoh.co.jp/ticket-music.cgi

Yokohamaticket in Tokyo - Shinjuku & Ueno & Shibuya
Yokohamaticket offers a broad range of tickets to many different events (even movie tickets). So be sure to check the website listing first before heading to one of the shops. The following website also lists the store which is offering the ticket in the first column of the table. They operate shops in Shinjuku, Ueno and Shibuya. The links lead to the official website and the maps/directions there.
 * http://www.yokohamaticket.co.jp/ticket/ticket-music.cgi

=Scalpers=

Scalpers operate a bit more freely than in the West. The rule-of-thumb for scalpers is that the bigger/more important the event, the better the chance to find one lingering outside the venue (and/or at the nearest train station). The easiest to spot are older men, who look completely at odds with the crowd (incredibly obvious at jrock concerts). Tickets can range from 10,000-20,000 yen, and are somewhat negotiable. Tokyo concerts are the most likely to have scalpers, as their venues are larger - and don't expect a scalper for a venue with less than 2,000 people.

=Buy at a conbini or ticket shop=

If a concert is not sold out (See Concert Information for that info) tickets can be bought the official way of the general public in advance at a store.

Most Lawson convenient stores (there's a good chance you'll randomly come across one walking around any major city) have Loppy Machines which can be used to buy tickets; many Family Mart conbinis have similar machines, but connected to the PIA agency. These machines may require a small amount of Japanese language knowledge or talking to the store clerk to actually get a ticket from them.


 * http://www.tokyogigguide.com/tickets.html - Guide for Lawson machines.

The PIA agency also runs their own stores. One of them is located in Shibuya in the 109 building on the second floor (follow the stairs outside the building not the elevator inside of it).

There is a deadline for buying tickets from conbinis so this way of acquiring is not a last minute option. See the next chapter for that.

=Buy at the door of the concert hall=

If a concert is not sold out (See Concert Information to learn how to find that out) tickets can be bought on the day of the event at the hall itself, hours or even minutes before the concert starts.

Obviously, just show up to the venue and try to buy one at the counter. Turn up early for a better chance. These seats tend to be any left over, right up the back. These tend to only be available for less important shows, such as minor artists or the earlier of two shows on one day.