Paypal procedure and cost from Japan?

[johnafrid]

Can some briefly describe the procedure for the costs involved in setting up a paypal account from a japanese website, and to recieve payments into the Japanese bank account. What would be the cost of exchange rate commissions, bank transfers and other related costs from Paypal. How about the charge backs and some good / bad stories of paypal treatment of merchant accounts from Japanese websites.

I already have spent quite a bit of time at WW but could nt come up with an answer to my questions.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help.

[Jenstar]

Go to PayPal, click on Help, then non-US accounts, and it details all those questions. It has all the information for fees involved for accounts. Their other links will tell you more about the general fees for receiving payments. But keep in mind your own bank could charge you additional fees.

[lukasz]

Not much of extra cost involved other than sending fee to japanese bank which should be 500-800 yen.
However paypal is in english only and can be confusing to many customers. I lost couple of overseas sales becouse people just could not go through the sign up.

[David_M]

Not having a Japanese interface is definitely the major drawback to paypal. I've seen many sights give pop up Japanese translations of what the customer needs to do. I would guess 80-90% stop the transaction once they see the forms in English.

Maybe if enough of us email them, they'll finally localize the system. (2nd largest economy and all!)

But part of the problem may be that they are now owned by ebay, who got their butts kicked by Yahoo auctions Japan, and pulled out from the market here. They may be a little gun shy.

[johnafrid]

Thanks guys. It was very helpful. Got all the info. The only extra expense would be the one from my Japanese bank. Anybody got any ideas about avoiding those Japanese bank costs. I know citibank japan doesnt cost extra if you use them. I know Shinsei bank also has some english info for expats. I called them the other day and they kept me waiting forever. Any info on Shinsei...?

[lukasz]

Just to confirm.
It cost 500 Yen to transfer money from Paypal to Japanese bank.