Buying Cars Online From Japan How To Avoid Being Scammed

With all the enormous popularity of the Internet – buying cars online from Japan is still a challenge. One reason for this is lack of trust.

Trust – one of the largest issues that the customer has while buying a car that he didn’t see with his/her own eyes. This aspect could be further divided into company trust -since all online car exporters from Japan require 100% advance payment and confidence that the car described on the website is in the same condition as the site says.

Regarding the due diligence on company legitimacy – there are several ways how you can check. The easiest one – just pay attention to the company site and such facts as the frequency of stock updates, professionalism, and clearly defined procedure how to order your car and steps necessary (please check for the details How to order section at Japan Partner Inc.).

Also, a good check would be to see if the company owns the domain it sells the cars from and the site is not being hosted for free (you can tell it if there is an abundance of advertising). There is nothing wrong with free hosting however if the company is serious about selling cars online in Japan they would definitely need 300-1000 MB of hosting space that is never given for free.

More thorough checks can be conducted through the proper official channels. Company status is probably one of the most important factors while checking for its trustworthiness and legitimacy.

There are 3 main forms of conducting business in Japan: Personal business (kojin) is least regulated and least
accountable for its practices here in Japan; Houjin Limited ownership (Ltd.) in Japanese (yuugen gaisya);
Houjin Incorporated (Inc.) in Japanese (kabushiki gaisya)

The most prevailing form of business is Ltd. so if the company you are about to buy car online from Japan is either Ltd or Inc. then they should be legitimate and legally operate in Japan. As personal form of business (Kojin) there is nothing wrong with it but it must be transparent and do not claim that it is the; largest exporter; in Japan and etc. There are a number of personal businesses, which are in export business, and if somebody used that koujin company before and was happy you can also use it.

Another way to check if the company that sells used cars online in Japan is whether they are registered (have registration number) with Foreign Trade Chamber. This registration number is awarded to the companies, which had trading/export history and properly equipped/staffed to conduct export business.

So if the company that you are about to buy a used or damaged cars online from, has such registration number – it is a good sign of its legitimacy.

And the last but not the least – bank account. Japanese banking laws are rather strict when it concerns; monetary movements; and bank accounts. All registered (houjin businesses LTD and INC require to have their banking accounts exactly under the name that they registered their companies.

So if you are buying a used car online from Japan and the name on the bank account is different than the name of the trading company (or even worth belongs to an individual) then you need to investigate more before transferring the payment.