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Johnny & Associates partners with Neokyo to ship official idol goods outside of Japan

Krista Rogers Jul 5, 2021
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At last you can get your favorite Johnny’s idol goods delivered to your door anywhere in the world.

It can be hard being a fan of Japanese pop culture outside of Japan. While things are certainly easier than 20 years ago when DVDs of your favorite J-drama took months of waiting with bated breath to arrive or your only source of anime news was Animerica magazine, there are still many barriers for overseas fans looking to digest goods straight from Japan. To name just a few, many Japanese sites still don’t accept foreign credit cards, they may require physical Japanese addresses for the order, or they may charge exorbitant shipping fees.

▼ Oh, and who remembers the pain of having to wait for reruns if you forgot to record an episode of your favorite anime on Toonami?

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These challenges have been especially salient to fans of J-Pop outside of Japan, who are often not eligible to join official fan clubs and have trouble obtaining merchandise from their favorite artists. Luckily, however, certain companies have begun making real strides to appeal to their overseas fanbases. Take the talent agency Johnny & Associates, for example, which recently opened their first-ever official English-language Twitter account.

Johnny & Associates is home to some of the hottest male idol groups in Japan, including the legendary SMAP, the adorably linguistically challenged Snow Man, and 7 MEN Samurai–which seems to be leading Johnny’s new wave of stars with their plethora of musical talents.

▼ A few Johnny’s CDs from way back in the day. Hideaki Takizawa, pictured on the left, is now actually the Vice President of The Johnny’s Group.

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In fact, Johnny’s has taken it one step farther by partnering with proxy ordering and shipping site Neokyo to offer an easy-to-use service that delivers goods for fans outside of Japan–and it’s all in English, Spanish, French, or Chinese, with Indonesian and Tagalog versions in the pipeline as well. You can use the service quite easily by following the steps outlined below:

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A post shared by Neokyo For Johnny's fans (@neokyo_janiwota)

The site currently features goods celebrating the five-member group King & Prince, which debuted in 2018 under the newly established Johnny’s Universe record label, with plans to gradually increase the offerings to other Johnny’s groups in the near future.

▼ King & Prince’s newest music video “Bokura no Great Journey”

For now, you can snatch up the official merchandise from King & Prince’s Re:Sense Tour to promote their upcoming July 21st album. These goods will be available on Neokyo until September 30.

▼ You can also purchase goods dedicated to your favorite individual members, as seen in these examples.

In addition, Neokyo lists a link to sign up for its “Johnny’s Goods” newsletter, or you can follow Neokyo’s dedicated Instagram account for future updates to stay in the loop whenever your favorite idols’ merchandise goes on sale. The commission charge is currently free for Re:Sense Tour products and Neokyo is also offering some of its own products, such as stickers and postcards, as bonuses.

All in all, this new partnership makes my teenage self envious for not having been able to receive ARASHI posters at the height of the Hana Yori Dango J-drama craze (which starred member Jun Matsumoto). Guess I’ll just be thankful that in the years since then the world now has YouTube and streaming services as well.

Related: Neokyo
Featured image: Instagram/@neokyo_janiwota
Insert images: SoraNews24, Neokyo
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