An offer you can’t refuse?
I’ve had Amazon Prime membership here in Japan for several years now. Originally I got it for the fast free delivery. Since then, Amazon has been adding functionality, and now the service is incredible value.
It is getting pretty close to being an offer you can’t refuse.
So what’s so good about Prime? Well, originally it just offered free/fast shipping for members, and price discounts on certain products on Amazon. I use the site enough that the price discounts each month pay for the annual fee. Complete no-brainer there for me.
However, while I wasn’t paying attention Amazon quietly added a couple perks that allowed me to cancel/replace other paid services.
I only noticed these towards the end of last year and have been playing with them for the last few weeks.
This is a big one. Amazon prime members get access to a lot of the video content for free. It’s probably not as good as Hulu or Netflix (both of which I got for the free trials) but it’s close enough for me, and you can’t beat the price 😉
Been watching kids’ movies on here with Alyssa and also the Preacher series. Prime also has some exclusive content, like the new Top Gear program (The Grand Tour) and even Penny Arcade’s Acquisitions Incorporated.
There are also paid rentals and purchases, but they are a bit too expensive still.
Prime Music
Again, this is not as good as Apple Music (which I just cancelled) or Spotify (which I tried for a bit) but good enough and free.
There is also an expanded subscription music service, but I haven’t felt the need for it yet.
Others
There are a few more things that Prime members get that I’m not as interested in, like free photo storage, free ebook borrowing (one title a month, but the selection seems a bit limited), or grocery delivery.
If you sign up for Prime you can get a month free to try it out, and if you like it you can save a couple of thousand yen a month by cancelling your existing video and music subscriptions. Prime currently costs 3,900 yen a year.
If you don’t have existing video and music subscriptions, forget you read this post. You don’t need them.
Anyone else a Prime member? How are you finding the service?
Another thing that they have “quietly” done to promote Prime is raise the price threshold for free deliveries for non-members–which kind of sucks!
I’m pretty fussy (i.e. nerdy) when it comes to music and movies etc., so I don’t think Prime has much to offer me there. I’m interested in what you mentioned about grocery deliveries though. Where can I find out about that?? I just looked at their website and I couldn’t find any mention of it.
Hi MT
If you’re REALLY into music/movies/TV, then the free stuff in Prime probably won’t be enough -you could always check it out though,, as you never know…
One thing that I forgot to mention (and it’s big enough that I am going to edit the article) is the discounts for Prime members. I save more than the annual price of Prime per month on shopping…
The grocery service is here: https://www.amazon.co.jp/b/?node=3485873051&ie=UTF8&ms3_c=720b425da477a4b604f1db28292ce00f
Prime Photos is actually pretty good, and can be a good way to back up the photos on your phone and computer both.
I have one complaint about the video service. I love that they offer a lot of content in both dubbed and subtitled versions, but children’s programming seems to be available in dubbed versions only. I really wish they had content available both ways, or with the ability to switch the audio tracks.
Hi Jerry
Yeah, I ran into that too. Was trying to find something short for Alyssa to watch (in English) but all the kids shows were dubbed…
I’ll drop them an email to ask for English language 😉
Thanks for the link Bens.
About the price discounts you mentioned–how are they calculated? Do they vary from item to item? Or do members get a certain percentage off of everything that they purchase?
Not sure there is a system -seems pretty random to me, but then again I haven’t really been paying attention to it.
Up to about 20%?
20%?! That’s pretty hefty. I guess I need to look into this.
Part of me is loathe to succumb to the lures of monopolizing multinational big-business, though… But I guess these are the times we are living in.
Definitely don’t take my word for that though…
The discounts tend to be on non-book things (shame, as most of my purchases are books) and seem pretty random. You’ll get a prime logo and a strikethrough on the original price. I’m so used to it I kind of don’t notice it any more.
My wife, recently went back to grad school so we get prime at the student rate. My biggest complaints are that the Japanese Prime video has hard coded Japanese subs (have you been able to disable them?) and they do not get content at the same time as the USA version. I am still waiting on Man in the High Castle season 2. I have Netflix Japan and none of this is an issue.
Also my Visa card in the USA offers me 3% back on all US Amazon Purchases. No yearly fee. Not bad at all. BUT if you have Prime you now get 5% back! Wow!
In Japan the best they can do is a measly 1.5% back with their Amazon Japan Master Card and a pitiful 2.5% back with Prime and their GOLD Master Card which costs 10,000 yen a year in fees.
Not having to do with Prime, but another example of USA and JP versions differing, USA Amazon offers two step verification (which is pretty much a standard option now with ANY company the size of Amazon) but Amazon Japan does not offer this. (BTW if you are not using 2 step verification on absolutely everything that has the option, shame on you)
Amazon Prime generally has older films, many of which seem to have low IMDB ratings (cheaper?), but if you’re a member anyway it’s legal, free entertainment. Just watched the second Jack Reacher film, so not all straight-to-bin stuff.
And Amazon Prime is coming to AppleTV soon!
As an aside, Amazon we can log onto via Orico Mall to get points (or beef) because we have Orico credit cards (one of the two cards that CostCo accept).
Actually, we don’t even know why we have Prime membership in the first place. Maybe it was a prerequisite for being able to sell our old books.
Oh, cool. I’ll have to look for the Reacher film (love the books, hate the travesty of Cruise playing Reacher -it should have been Dolph Lundgren).
What about using prime but you live in America? I’m guessing the prime benefits aren’t applied for over seas shipping?
Hi Olivia
Amazon Prime in the US is even better. Has extra services we don’t get in Japan 🙂
Well, the reason why I’m asking is because I order a lot of stuff from Japan on the Japanese Amazon side but shipping can get pretty pricey on the bigger items. I’m wondering if it would be worth it to pay for Amazon Prime Japan to help with shipping.
I don’t know if they do free shipping internationally. You should probably ask Amazon about that 😉