For my upcoming visit, I’ve secured tickets to three NPB games — Swallows (Tokyo), Marines (Chiba outside Tokyo), and Golden Eagles (Sendai). Although I could have made it easy and gone through an agency such as JapanBallTickets, the fees ($69 per order in 2023) encouraged me to try it online as I am traveling solo.
Here are some tips to share:
(1) It isn’t easy. You need to navigate Japanese language websites and some tricky form requirements. Having said that, it is possible with some time and patience.
(2) Some teams do not make their tickets available at the start of the season. You may need to wait until they release individual game tickets for the game you want to attend. The dates for the releases are on their websites (in Japanese of course).
(3) You can’t simply use a translation service (such as Google translate) to translate the sites. The translated pages often lack functionality when you try to fill in forms. Therefore, you have to use the Japanese pages.
(4) My technique was to open the Japanese websites and then hold up my phone to the screen to use a live camera translation app (Google translate for me) to “read” the Japanese text.
(5) Some sites require a local address and telephone. I used my hotel’s address and phone.
(6) The forms on the site required me to enter my name in Katakana, Japanese text, in some places on the order forms. It was easy to find websites that will translate your input into Katakana. (It is fun to see your name in Katakana, which sounds out the words.) You can then cut and paste.
(7) The forms also have places where you enter Roman letters (western text) and Katakana. However, sometimes, they want it in “half width” and sometimes “full width” (i.e., how the letters are spaced out). Again, it was easy to find websites that converted input into one or the other.
(8) I had no trouble using my credit card on the sites (MasterCard).
As these three are the only team websites I tried, others may be easier or more difficult to navigate. If this all sounds daunting, you should pay for the ordering and delivery services offered by an agency. I hope others will respond to this post with their own experiences, suggestions, clarifications, and corrections.
9 comments
Thanks for the tips, planning to see a game on our next trip.
Are you able to buy tickets on game night or do they usually sell out?
Why not just buy tickets at the stadium?
Check out the NPB sub. I got Tigers tickets, but they are one of the easiest using guides linked through there.
Is e-tix.jp no longer an option? Back in 2019 I bought a ticket for the Tokyo Giants through that site for pickup at a convenience store and it was super easy. They just email a voucher with a code IIRC and you use that on a machine in the store to print out a ticket.
Swallows are at the easier end, Giants are the easiest of all.
The Tigers are the most painful but there is a guide that helps. I haven’t been recently but I found Yokohama a giant hassle to get tickets and ended up buying from a scalper at the stadium.
If you are getting many tickets then JapanBall isn’t too expensive and they will deliver all the tickets to your hotel.
I use Google to change the website to English to fill in the form and before hitting submit I change it back.
Thank you x10. We’re going to Hokkaido in September and I’ve been baffled by tickes.
We are going to Tokyo soon and we are not sure about going to the Stadium to see a match, bc it takes a lot of time.
That’s why we are thinking about going to see a game elsewhere. Are there some nice places (Bars, Pubs) to watch the games? We stay in Shinjuku.
You can also buy at 7-11… They have cheaper tickets available than the teams’ websites.
this is great tip. i couldn’t go since I didn’t have time but definitely will try in the future