Techcrunch have an article about Rakuten. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/05/japans-rakuten-can-the-biggest-e-commerce-site-you-never-heard-of-become-a-threat-for-amazon-globally/ It’s mostly e-business guff, but there is a small section which is relevant to buying goods from Japan. … About a fourth of all items available for Japanese customers can be ordered from selected countries through a service called Rakuten International Shipping Services . Non-Japanese users can access [...]