In the past year or so, a lot of people have commented on my post about joining the Johnnys fan club, asking how they could get tickets as a foreign fan and to be honest, I really wasn’t sure how to answer them, as there is no simple way to go about it.
*EDIT OCTOBER 1, 2018*
As a forward to this article, due to the amount of comments I get on this post, I want to emphasize that I am unable to help people to get tickets to Johnny’s concerts personally. I wrote this article as a guide for fans, not as a way to contact me about tickets. I would like you to take this article as a guide on how to find long term success in getting tickets, not as a quick fix. Have fun making long term friendships with other fans! It’s worth it in the end.
*EDIT JANUARY 28th, 2019*
To anyone looking to ballot for Arashi Tickets before their hiatus, please be aware that only fanclub members are allowed to ballot for the remaining shows in 2019 and only can ballot 1 time as the “companion” and 1 time as the “main balloter”, and each person has to be in the Arashi fanclub. This will make it extremely difficult for fans coming from overseas to see the concerts later in 2019.
To put it very simply, it is extremely hard to get tickets as a foreign fan living overseas. Even as a fan living in Japan (Japanese or foreign) it can be hard to get tickets to a Johnny’s concert, as it is all up to the random balloting system, which no fan has any control over. You get lucky sometimes, and sometimes you don’t.
Though this is the case, not all hope is lost. With the help of other fans, it is totally possible to be able to go to a concert when you are in Japan, though it may take a lot of time and effort to find the tickets.
1. Join the fan club
The first way to get Johnnys tickets is to be living in Japan or have a friend living in Japan who can enter the Johnny’s fan club and properly ballot for you (or to be able to call for play guide tickets if they release tickets to the public, which sometimes they do not depending on the group and the tour). Even then, it is not guaranteed that you will get tickets. I have been living in Japan for almost 4 years, being in the fan club for the same amount of time, and even when I ballot for tickets through the correct system through the fan club, I do not hit sometimes or only hit for 1 show. If I do not hit, I go to my twitter followers and ask around if people are giving up tickets for certain shows and buy the tickets from them at the regular price.
There is also apparently a “sponsor” program for the fan club, so that a fan that has a fan club in Japan can sponsor a person overseas. I do not know the details of this program, but I’ll save this for a time when I can properly research this and then report back at a later date.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: It is illegal and against the Johnny’s ticket policy to resell your tickets for an increased price. There are auction sites that people sell these tickets on for ridiculous prices, but they are illegal and you could get in trouble if it is found out that you bought from these auction sites, as well as actually getting kicked out of the concert if you make it to your seat and your seat has been blacklisted. For this reason, I will not be mentioning these auction sites in this post, nor do I recommend to buy tickets for over the resale price.
Hearing all of this can be a bit overwhelming, and can seem a bit negative for foreign fans, but not all hope is lost. The next one is for those who do not live in Japan and who do not have anyone to enter the fan club for them (maybe not yet, at least).
2. Network with other fans
Social media is a powerful tool nowadays, and I also use it for myself when I do not hit for tickets. I have built a network of fans that I can reach out to for tickets when the time calls for it. Most of these fans are Japanese now, but for the foreign fans, a lot of foreigners living in Japan will give their tickets to a foreign fan. The first thing that I do when I have extra tickets is reach out to my foreign fan community first to see if anyone would like the tickets, in the event that I cannot go, because I know it is hard for them to get tickets themselves. With this being said, foreign fans must be aware of the fan manners, so someone that can understand the fan manners is also someone I will prioritize over others.
I advise you to not just become friends with fans that are in the same area, or the same culture as you, though for building a community near you and one that you can relate to with a similar culture, it is perfect. If your goal is to go to a concert, you will need a larger network than just that community. Now, when I say this it does not mean become friends with all of the foreign fans that live in Japan, or fans that have connections to travel to Japan a lot and see concerts a lot, just for the sake of going to a concert later on. A lot of us fans that live in Japan love to share our experience with other fans coming to Japan or the concerts, but most of us have jobs and live normal lives here and fandom is just one part of that. We want to make real friends we can connect with, not just people wanting to help them get tickets and have no connection beyond that. So my best advice is to find the people you can connect with and stick with them, form a support network and help each other out with all the information that you can get about it. That’s the best way to go about it, I think.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: When a fan gives you their tickets to use, there are certain fan manners attached to the ticket. Personal information is written on the ticket, including name and fan club number, so please do not take a picture of the ticket and upload it to social media. Before I upload any pictures of my tickets to social media, I always hide my personal information in it so that people do not get it. This is also a way to get tickets and a fan club membership blacklisted for possible reselling tickets, so please do not chance it.
All in all, it is not easy to get tickets to a Johnnys concert, but it isn’t impossible. Just ask around and form a network, and though not guaranteed, it is not a 0% chance.
nihonchique 
hi! i’m sabrina, nice to see you. i really want to attend hsj’s concert but i really confused how to get the ticket, and plus my japanese skill so poor. 😢 would you like to help me, please? anyway, i live in indonesia. it’s really hard to get the information about this here, and i didn’t join any fandom for overseas fans because i don’t know about it. i hope you’d answer my question. thank you so much. 😊
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Hi, if you still need help, I can help you 🙂
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really? if it’s possible i want to attend jump’s concert, but ive bought flight ticket for 28th of september till 3rd of october. anyway, if youre not mind, may i have your private contact? maybe line or instagram or anything? anyway thanks before for the replyyyy it gives much of spirits!
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Yes I actually use twitter or fb more often. You can find my name Musica Zheng on fb 🙂
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Hi. I am Jacie. (⌒o⌒). I am a HSJ fan. How are you?
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Hello!! Nice to meet you! ^_^ I’m doing well!
Thank for the comment!
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Sorry for the late response. Is it alright to be direct? 😅
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Ahaha what do you mean by direct?
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Oh. My sorry. I forgot. I am very much inactive in this account. I really forgot what to say. 😭😭😭. Anyway, it’s Keito’s birthday. 😊
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Oh no! So it’s almost impossible T_T
I’m fan of NEWS for 12 years 😢
Why is so easy to attend any kpop consert, while it’s extremely hard to attend jpop’s one especially the johnney’s!!
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Hi, thanks a lot for the post, it’s really enlightening !
I’m an Arashi fan for almost 15 years now, and I was so excited when I saw the 5×20 tour online. Anyway, sounds really complicated to get one ticket, I don’t have any Japan Network. Too bad…
Just a question, with that kind of lottery system, does it mean you often (always?) come alone? What if, two friends asked for a ticket and just one of them got to get one ?
Thanks again, take care : )
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Hi!
I often ballot for multiple shows for 2 tickets and I ask a friend to come with me. Recently with the digital tickets, it has gotten a lot harder though to hit for tickets and most people either only hit for 1 venue or none. You ballot for multiple people”s tickets, not just for yourself so I can ask for up to 4 tickets per show and another friend (if they have a fan club membership) can also ballot and ask for 4 tickets to the same show to increase your chances of hitting. Arashi has the most people in the fan club out of any johnnys group, so they are the hardest to get tickets to, but they do events multiple times a year so there is somewhat of a chance. The lottery system means that you are put into a pool of people who want to get tickets and they by a random system people get chosen to get those tickets out of the people who balloted. Its a common system in Japan, not just for Johnnys. Johnnys makes you pay up front though usually (but recently the has changed with digital tickets).
I hope this makes sense and please let me know if you want any other advice! I am also so sorry for the late response. Also, thank you for not asking for help for balloting. Most people who comment here ask for tickets which I am not able to provide help that they want and it gets a bit frustrating when you want to help but you can’t actually get them tickets, which was the point of this post.
Thanks again for the comment! 🙂
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Hi!
Thanks for the article!
Can you or somebody help me to obtain 2 tickets for YamaPi live tour?
Now I’m studying in Japan, and I’m afraid of missing it while staying here… what if I won’t have this chance anymore?
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Hi! I’m Bianca. I have recently joined in JFC due to Arashi’s 20th. I am actually using Tenso address and contact info which leads me to my worry of not receiving physical ticket. I heard that they use digital tickets nowadays but I still don’t know if that is true 😦
Thank you for your post anyway 🙂
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Hi Bianca! Its nice to meet you.
Yes, its true that Arashi has moved to a digital ticking system, but you do get a print out of your ticket when you go to the venue that tells you where your seat is and all of that stuff.
If you have any other questions, let me know!
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Hey there =)
Thanks for posting this~ I was looking at some of the concerts on the Johnny’s official webpage and some of them have two prices, a FC price and a normal price, does that mean one doesn’t have to be part of the FC to ballot for tickets? There’s no other button as to where to go though… =/ the example I’m looking at is the SZ one for this year: https://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=consta&artist=24
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Hi! that’s a good question. The initial tickets are through the fanclub and if the tickets don’t fill up through the fanclub, then they will release the tickets to the public through a separate balloting system called “Playguide”, which is normally a convivence store ticket system. Normally the information for this is released some time after fanclub balloting results are out and its not guaranteed that they will release tickets to the public and normally they sell out within the first hour or so that they go on sale. The best way to get tickets is through the fanclub, to be honest. In the case of Sexy Zone, I think their balloting just started? I am not sure because I am only in the NEWS fanclub, but public tickets will probably be out a month or so before the concert happens I would say?
I hope this helped!
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thanks! will look into it~
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hello! lucky you to have attended so many concerts XD I was wondering when the day of the results is.. do u have to login and there is an announcement? or how is it? I’ve read somewhere (but i can’t remember where) that you login and depending on your nr, you can see if you got a tkt or not. Like, from 1 to 4 is in day X and 5 to 0 in day Z. But as far as I can tell, every number begins with a 0, correct? I am very confused 😦
Also, are the goods always available IN the day of the concert or can you go to the venue a day before to buy them? I want so many stuff ^_^ but I still don’t know if it is better to buy them thru my proxy or wait till I get to Jpn…
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Hi! Thanks for commenting!
I am in the NEWS fanclub and for digital tickets they tell you before balloting when the date is for balloting results in.
So NEWS just ended their balloting on January 29th and the balloting results are out on the 8th, and normally they will send an email saying that the results are ready, as well as they send you an email with the results. Because there are a lot of emails, there is a big delay sometimes so I login to my fanclub to check the results. I am not sure what you are referring to, but NEWS doesn’t work that way. In the past they used to break up the results announcements for various reasons, but I don’t think they do that now.
Goods depend on the group! Most of the time in Tokyo and Osaka they have a goods presale the day before, but if you check the Johnnys website it will tell you if there is a presale at the location you are going to or not.
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i see, thank you for replying!
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Hello! I would like to seek your opinion. I’m planning to visit Arashi’s exhibition, which tickets have to be balloted for. However, I’m non-Japanese and my fanclub account is registered with the help of a very distant relative who lives in Japan. The balloting application says that credit card details is required, so I’m wondering if it is okay to list my non-Japanese credit card details instead of asking help again from that relative (i.e using his Japanese credit card to pay). Do you happen to know anything about the online payment process/ credit card details? Thanks!:)
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Hello! I would like to seek your advice. I am planning to go for Arashi’s exhibition and tickets have to be balloted online. I’m a non-Japanese not living in Japan and my FC account is registered with the help of a really distant relative who lives in Japan.
So when I was filling the balloting form, it requests for my credit card details. I’m wondering, is it okay if I enter my non-Japanese credit card details and if I’m lucky enough to be balloted, can the payment be done by the said card? Or will payment have to be done by PayEasy again? As much as possible, I’m trying not to ask too much help from that relative (i.e asking him to help me pay by his Japanese credit card). Thanks so much!:)
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Hello! Thanks for the comment and for reading 🙂
Unfortunately, I am not sure of the payment details, but normally if it’s through Johnnys it’s Pay-easy. Johnnys hardly offers credit card payment options except for goods from what I know. I am sorry I can’t help any more than that!
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Hi, may i know how do the payment for balloting works? Must the bank transfer be made under the same name as the membership name? or are there any trusted website that you know of that provides the payment services in the case that foreign fans do hit for the tickets?
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Hi!! Thanks for commenting and reading. Now with the digital tickets, it’s Payeasy that the payments are done by. You don’t need a bank account if someone pays at an ATM with cash for you. Unfortunately I don’t know of any websites that do that now…. the best thing would be to have a friend here that can pay for you, I think.
I hope this helps!
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Do they state the how long you are given to pay for the tickets? Thanks so much for answering!
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Yes they do! Normally its just a couple of days (normally 3?)
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