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Your Guide To Getting Started With Netflix Japan Right Now! — 52 Comments

  1. You can actually use your existing Netflix account in your resident country with a vpn and access Netflix Japan. Pretty good stuff :D

        • I would recommend being wary of Hola-
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hola_(VPN)

          Rather than paying for servers like a traditional VPN, Hola operates their service using a Peer-to-Peer approach. Basically, when you go to access content, you connect to one of their other “free” users and download/upload the content through their internet connection. Likewise, someone who needs to browse from your country would connect through YOUR internet connection.

          This all sounds great until your connection is used by someone else to do something illegal, at which point the IP logs obtained will point to *you* as the responsible party, and there’s not a lot you can do to prove otherwise.

          Please, everyone, be extremely careful and do your research before utilizing any VPN service, especially if it needs to be installed directly to your machine and/or purports to offer any more than a brief sample of its services for “free”.

          • Thanks for the info!! I had no idea. I definitely don’t want to promote something that could cause people so much trouble down the road.

  2. Is there a good selection of shows with Japanese subtitles? It would be great extensive reading/listening practice! Kind of like the L-R method with context from the video (and previous knowledge) !

    Also what is the best way to pay in ¥ with US cc or debit cards? I have a Visa and Discover Checking Card, and a Discover CC if that helps!

  3. I had been waiting for Netflix Japan to come out and subscribed as soon as it released. Before Netflix I was using Hulu which is worth it for new shows.I have to say Netflix is still worth it since there are many movies and shows that are dubbed as well as Japanese shows. Hulu is better for Japanese shows though because it has a lot of different dramas, anime and variety shows, as well as shows exclusive to Hulu now.

  4. So Netflix Japan is amazing (OMG JP Subs <3), and as mentioned Netflix doesn't really care if you use your existing US account and subscription. You can simply create a second user account (ex: MattJP), set its language to Japanese, and go through the process above to establish preferences.

    There are just two sticky issues-

    1: VPN. As I mentioned in a comment above, using an unsafe VPN is extraordinarily risky. I feel like if we're going to promote this as a way to access JP content, it should also come with a suggestion of one or more VPN services that are known to be safe. Let's not send our fellow users blindly into the dark underbelly of the internet with no knowledge of how to avoid dirty VPNs.

    2: Netflix is bad about surfacing their Audio/Subtitle information on most of their content's Details pages, and has poor search functionality, so it can be extremely hard to locate content with Japanese subtitles (especially if you're looking for Anime or Dramas, rather than Hollywood movie dubs). I think it would be great if we could compile a list of content that supports Japanese subtitles somewhere on this site.

    • What VPN do you use/would you recommend? Especially paid ones, since as someone around here stated, “if it’s free, then you are the product”.

      • Others on the site have mentioned it before me, but I think TunnelBear looks safe based on many different well-known sites’ reviews and such. Also, they apparently don’t record any information at all about your browsing, which is huge for security.

        I tried the free version (which they basically just let you try out 500mb/month which is maybe an episode or 2 to stream) and it worked very well. I think I’m going to pay the subscription on it.

    • I don’t think all VPN’s work like Hola does, I think you’re being over-cautious here. There are countless people who use VPN’s and have no problem security wise. This is the first time actually I’ve seen such heavy criticism towards it. Get a well known/paid/well reviewed VPN out there and you’ll be fine, there are lots of there, even managed by professional companies.

      Do you need a VPN to do this? feel like Adam should have added this to the post.

      • You need some way to make your internet connection appear to be coming from Japan. That requires a Proxy/VPN service, many of which are shady (mainly the free/freemium ones).

        No, most VPN services do not work like Hola, but they can be “dirty” in a variety of other ways. Abuse of user bandwidth, vulnerability to third party attacks, built in spyware/malware, etc are all serious concerns when using any of these services for “free”. You really need to invest in a paid service to have a safe experience (or have a friend in Japan who’s running a VPN, I guess?).

        @Naoki: I’m honestly not experienced enough in this area that I’d be comfortable making a recommendation. I’d encourage you to look up reviews on the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of various services and see which one feels like the best fit for you.

    • > I don’t think all VPN’s work like Hola does, I think you’re being over-cautious here.

      The scary thing about Hola specifically is that (from what I understand) you are volunteering your *own* bandwidth and network identity for random other people (their paid users) to use. It’s a “give a little, get a little” setup. That’s fine in theory, but if someone is using Hola to, say, search for child porn or buy drugs or something, it’s your IP that it’s sourced from.

      And just as a random sidenote, hitting hola.org gives an SSL cert error. Doesn’t bode well for a company you’re trusting with your network traffic.

      There are lots of other trusted VPN services that you can use that aren’t set up in that way. However, by nature a VPN is a “man in the middle” that has access to your network traffic, so you should always be cautious of the type of data you’re sending and probably use something like HTTPS Everywhere (https://www.eff.org/HTTPS-EVERYWHERE).

    • So if you’re already paying for an account in the US, then you don’t have to pay again for the Netflix Japan services?

        • Actually I live in Japan so I have to turn OFF my VPN! Thanks for the reply!

          Edit: And it’s working! But now what to choose? I have no idea what movies to watch.

  5. This was the best news so far in the week! Thank you!

    Unfortunately there were no other options for me beyond Hola.
    I say so because there have been some scary informations about lack of security recently about this vpn service. Google “Adios Hola” up to check this out.
    I’m using only in my secondary browser logged only in Netflix just in case.

  6. I found a pretty great service adfreetime.com. it’s recommended all over Reddit. I’ll try it and let you guys know. (BTW read their privacy policy before you sign up)

  7. Wow thanks great post, just hooked up my netflix account using tunnelbear. About to watch mean girls dubbed right now ^_^

  8. Has anyone been able to find a decent way to rip the audio from Netflix movies for our immersion iPods?

  9. Unotelly.
    Super simple.
    Been using it for years to access US netflix from Canada.
    You can change your Netflix region to any country instantly.
    There’s a 7 day trial and then 4$/month.

  10. Netflix is worth it, believe me. btw, you can get a Lifetime membership of getflix.co.au for $60. You get both DNS (which I like) and VPN. The offer ends in 2 days though. The deal comes and goes, so if you are willing to wait for a few months, you *might* be able to snatch this for $40 or less too.

      • Various sites host their own deals. Just search getflix lifetime on “news.google.com”. For example:
        deals.makeuseof.com/sales/getflix-lifetime-subscription is one of them. You can also search Groupon.
        Research the service before buying, as I don’t take any responsibility :)

        • Yeah of course ;) wouldn’t just go and buy something recommended by random internet stranger straight away haha :D (not that you feel like that much of a random internet stranger after reading so many of your comments)

          Thanks for the tip anyway :)

    • Does getflix.co.au still work despite Netflix’s recent efforts to prevent VPN users from accessing content? I have been using TunnelBear but it doesn’t work as of now.

      • Yes. Netflix Japan has never been blocked as of now (I didn’t even know that was happening). Cannot guarantee anything about the future though. Maybe it’s because it’s DNS?

        • Nice. From what I understand, Netflix is currently just blacklisting IP addresses that send an abnormal amount of traffic (say, hundreds of users maybe) so any VPN service that doesn’t use the same IP for all of their customers is safe. I may try out getflix, thanks!

          • This must be correct. To try to add an additional level of detail to the helpful comments above, I can confirm that not only can a foreign-registered Netflix account access the Japanese catalogue if you use a VPN to hit Netflix via a Japan-based server; in addition to that, if you have a ‘multi-device’ subscription in Netflix in your home country, you can also access your home-country content at the same time. Practical implication: your kid can be watching Dora from the Canadian/US/non-Japan Netflix catalogue while you’re watching your favorite J-Drama from the Japan catalogue on a different device at the exact same time, and from the very same Netflix account. I initially VPN’d in to set up a “Japanese” Netflix account only to confirm that this is unnecessary; keep your overseas account and then all you need is a reliable VPN.

  11. Anyone found any solutions to the vpn problem? I’ve been using the smart vpn service called unblock-us… Getting proxy errors now on any show that isn’t available in my region. Sucks big time !

      • is getflix still working as we speak? I’ll give it a try now and write back.
        Have you tried it as of today? Something in your region. Maybe because I’m in australia… I’ll give getflix a shot though, I think they work the same way as unblock-us, but here’s hoping!

    • You may want to follow along with news from Unlocator.. They currently have a beta that is working with Netflix US (no proxy errors, but requires a bit of setup since Google DNS IPs need to be blocked). Hopefully they will add more regions to it soon.

        • I’m pretty sure the Japanese dub of Daredevil is available on US Netflix, but I may be wrong? I was able to watch the dub of the first season… 知らない。

          • Ah, a number of things I checked didn’t have the Japanese audio available (Friends for instance) so I had been assuming most of the jdubs were only available on netflix.jp. Good to know, although I’m happily set up with getflix now.

  12. Can’t get Neflix to work via DNS or VPN currently. Does anyone have any clues how to get it up and running, or is it just hit and miss right now?

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