Country guide · Japan

Presales in Japan in 2027: Lotteries, Fan Clubs and Senkō

The stages of a Japanese presale, in order

Most concerts in Japan follow a recognisable sequence. The first stage is the official fan club advance (ファンクラブ先行), reserved for paying members of the artist's official fan club, sometimes split into several rounds. Next comes the official advance (オフィシャル先行), open to anyone who registers through the artist's official site or a mobile site. Then the ticket sellers run their own advance lotteries, often called プレイガイド先行 (play-guide advance), and sometimes card-company or sponsor advances. Each of these is usually a lottery with an application period, a draw and a result date. Finally there is the general sale (一般発売), which is commonly first-come, first-served (先着, senchaku) and can sell out within minutes for popular artists. For international acts, the fan club stage may be replaced by an artist mailing list, or by a Japan-specific fan registration, depending on how the artist's team and the Japanese promoter choose to organise the market for that particular tour.

How a Japanese presale lottery works

During a lottery, you choose a performance, a seat category and the number of tickets, and sometimes a second or third preference. You enter your details, including the payment method you intend to use, and submit before the deadline. There is no advantage in applying on the first minute, because the draw takes place after the period closes. On the result date, known as 当落 (tōraku), you receive an email or check your account to see whether you have won. If you have, you usually have a short deadline to pay, often only a few days, and missing it typically cancels your win. Some lotteries charge your card automatically if you win, while others require payment at a convenience store. Seat numbers are often not revealed until close to the show, particularly with electronic tickets, so winning a lottery tells you that you have a ticket, not where you will sit.

Fan clubs and the Japanese presale advantage

For domestic artists, the fan club is by far the strongest route to tickets. Japanese fan clubs charge an annual fee and usually give members the earliest lottery, sometimes with better seat allocation, and many domestic shows sell the majority of their tickets through fan club stages before the general public ever gets a chance. International artists rarely have Japan-specific paid fan clubs, but some do run a Japanese mailing list or a local fan registration that functions in a similar way. The difficulty for overseas fans is that domestic fan clubs often require a Japanese address, a Japanese mobile number and sometimes a Japanese payment method. Membership may also take days or weeks to activate, so joining at the last minute may not give access to the first lottery. If you are serious about seeing a Japanese artist in Japan, joining the fan club well ahead of the tour announcement is the single most effective step.

Companion registration in a Japanese presale

Many Japanese lotteries ask the applicant to register their companions (同行者, dōkōsha) at the time of application or before tickets are distributed. Companions may need their own account with the ticket seller or the fan club app, and on electronic tickets each person receives their ticket on their own phone through a process called distribution (分配, bunpai). This system links each ticket to an identifiable person and is one of the main ways organisers enforce resale restrictions. In practice, it means you should agree in advance who is going, make sure your companions have the necessary accounts, and avoid changing names after the fact, since name changes are often impossible. Some tours allow a companion to be registered later; others require it at the application stage. Read the application conditions carefully, because an error here can lead to the whole group being refused at the door, even with a valid ticket.

Ticket sellers handling a Japanese presale

Japan's largest ticket sellers, known collectively as play guides, are Ticket Pia (チケットぴあ), eplus (イープラス) and Lawson Ticket (ローチケ). Each runs its own advance lotteries for concerts, and a single tour often holds lotteries on several sellers, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes in sequence. Accounts are free but registration generally requires a Japanese mobile number for verification, which is the biggest obstacle for overseas fans. Some sellers offer English interfaces for parts of their sites, and certain international tours have dedicated overseas ticketing pages that accept foreign cards and do not require a Japanese phone number. Convenience stores play a big role too: tickets can be paid for or collected at chains such as Lawson, FamilyMart and Seven-Eleven, using a reference number from the online application. For electronic tickets, the seller's app or a dedicated ticketing app holds the ticket, and the show-day screen is activated close to the start time.

Overseas pages for a Japanese presale

When a foreign artist tours Japan, the promoter sometimes opens an English-language overseas application page, typically through one of the major sellers. These pages are designed for fans living outside Japan and often accept international credit cards, send emails in English and do not require a Japanese phone number. Allocations on overseas pages are usually smaller and the seats may be in particular sections, but they remove most of the practical barriers. There are no guarantees that such a page will exist for any given tour; it depends entirely on the promoter. If one is announced, the timing may differ from the domestic lotteries, and the identification rules at the venue still apply, so bring the same passport you used to apply. For overseas fans, our alerts report whether a tour has announced an overseas window, and the ticket ballot guide explains lottery systems used in other countries for comparison.

Identity checks after a Japanese presale

Named tickets and identity checks are common at Japanese concerts, especially for popular artists and large venues. The ticket carries the name of the purchaser or of each registered companion, and staff may ask to see photo identification at the entrance, sometimes at random and sometimes for every guest. For residents, accepted documents usually include a driver's licence or My Number card; foreign visitors normally use a passport. Some shows use facial recognition, linking a photo registered in advance with the person at the gate. The purpose is to make sure the person attending is the person who applied, which in turn underpins the resale restrictions. Practically, this means you should apply in your own name exactly as it appears on your identification, register companions with their real names, and keep your documents with you on show day. If an announcement mentions identity checks, treat that as a firm condition rather than a formality.

Smartphone tickets in a Japanese presale

Electronic tickets have largely replaced paper for major concerts in Japan. After a successful lottery, the ticket appears in the seller's app or in a dedicated ticketing app, and the actual seat information may only be displayed a few days before the show or even on the day. At the venue, staff scan or stamp the ticket on your phone, sometimes with an animation that confirms entry. Each companion usually needs the app on their own phone, which is why distribution matters. Some apps require a Japanese phone number for login, which can be a problem for visitors; tours with overseas pages sometimes use a different app or a ticket that can be shown from an email link. Before travelling, confirm how your ticket will be delivered, whether the app works with your foreign number, and whether the ticket must be displayed online, in which case you will need mobile data at the venue.

Resale law that frames every Japanese presale

Japan has a specific law against ticket scalping: the Act on Ensuring the Proper Distribution of Show and Event Tickets by Prohibiting the Unauthorised Resale of Specified Show and Event Tickets, which came into force on 14 June 2019. It applies to "specified" tickets that meet several conditions: the ticket designates the date, venue and seat or the person entitled to attend; at the time of sale it states clearly, including on the ticket, that resale without the organiser's consent is prohibited; and the buyer's name and contact details were confirmed at purchase and are indicated on the ticket. For these tickets, repeatedly reselling for more than the selling price without the organiser's consent, as a business, is prohibited, and so is acquiring tickets for that purpose. The law carries criminal penalties. Most major concerts meet the conditions, which is one reason named tickets and identity checks are so common.

Official resale after a Japanese presale

Because private resale above face value is restricted for specified tickets, the industry has developed official routes for fans who can no longer attend. The best known is Tiketore (チケトレ), an official resale service supported by music industry bodies, where tickets for participating events can be resold at face value. Several major ticket sellers and fan club apps also offer their own official resale features, usually opening for a limited period before the show and matching sellers and buyers at the original price. Not every event uses official resale, and some do not allow any transfer at all, so the conditions stated in the announcement are what count. If you win a lottery and later cannot go, check first whether the tour has an official resale route; if it does not, the ticket may simply have to go unused. Our resale rules page puts Japan's approach alongside other countries in neutral terms.

Preparing for a Japanese presale from overseas

For fans abroad, preparation starts well before any tour is announced. Create accounts with the main sellers that you can actually use, which may mean checking which ones accept a foreign phone number or offer an overseas page. If you have a friend or relative in Japan willing to help, some fans apply through that person, though this depends on the tour's conditions and the companion rules, and names must still match identification at the gate. Watch the artist's Japanese channels as well as their international ones, since Japan-specific announcements often appear there first, sometimes only in Japanese. Note the full application period, the result date and the payment deadline in your own time zone, keeping in mind that Japan Standard Time is UTC+9 all year with no daylight saving. Finally, plan for the possibility of losing the lottery: several stages exist precisely so that unsuccessful applicants can try again in the next round.

What we can and cannot say about a 2027 Japanese presale

At the time of writing, we can confirm the show dates and cities listed in our data for Bruno Mars and Radiohead, but not their sale arrangements in Japan. We do not know whether those tours will use fan club, mailing list, play guide or overseas lotteries, how many rounds there will be or which sellers will participate, and we will not guess. Past tours by international artists in Japan have often combined an official advance lottery with several seller lotteries and a general sale, but every promoter decides independently. What we can say is that the general stages described on this page are standard practice, that named tickets and identity checks are increasingly common for large shows, and that official resale exists for many events. When the windows are published, our alerts will state the stage, the seller and the application period, so use the form on this page to follow the artists you care about.

Japanese presale FAQ

These are the questions overseas fans most often ask about buying concert tickets in Japan. The answers describe general practice at the time of writing; each tour's own conditions, published in Japanese by the promoter or ticket seller, take precedence and can differ in important details such as companion registration, payment deadlines or identity checks. For definitions of terms like lottery, allocation or general sale, see the presale glossary, which also explains how the Japanese stages compare with presales elsewhere. Throughout this page one principle applies: entry to any lottery or presale comes only through the official channel that runs it, whether a fan club, the artist's official site, a ticket seller or an overseas page set up by the promoter. Nobody else can legitimately sell access or guarantee a win. If you receive an offer that seems to promise either, check with the organiser first, and remember that Japanese law restricts the resale of specified tickets above their selling price.

Does applying early improve my chances in a Japanese presale lottery?

No. In a lottery, the draw happens after the application period closes, so applying on the first day gives no advantage over applying on the last day, provided you are within the period. What does matter is applying correctly: choosing the right performance, seat category and number of tickets, entering accurate personal and companion information, and selecting a payment method you can actually complete before the deadline. Some lotteries allow multiple preferences, which can improve your overall chance of winning something, though different organisers treat preferences differently. Applying several times for the same performance from different accounts is usually prohibited and can lead to all applications being cancelled. The only stage where speed matters is the first-come, first-served general sale, where tickets go to whoever completes checkout first. For that stage, being logged in and ready at the start time is just as important as anywhere else, and a stable connection matters.

Can I join a Japanese presale without a Japanese phone number?

Sometimes, but it depends on the stage and the seller. Many domestic fan clubs and the standard registration on the major ticket sellers require a Japanese mobile number for verification, and some ticketing apps will not log in without one. However, some sellers offer English-language access for parts of their service, and for certain international tours the promoter opens an overseas application page that accepts foreign cards and does not ask for a Japanese number. When such a page exists, it is usually the most practical route for visitors. Fans also sometimes rely on friends living in Japan to apply, but names must match identification at the venue and companion rules must be followed, so this only works when the conditions allow it. Our alerts note when a tour announces an overseas window, so you can concentrate on the route most likely to work for you rather than spreading effort across every stage.

What happens if I win a Japanese presale lottery and cannot attend?

It depends on the event's conditions. Many tours, particularly those with named electronic tickets and identity checks, do not allow transfers to another person, and reselling a specified ticket above its selling price as a business is prohibited by law. The main legitimate option is an official resale service where the event participates, such as Tiketore or a resale feature provided by the ticket seller or fan club app, which typically resells tickets at face value during a set period before the show. Some events allow a registered companion to be changed within limits, others do not. If no official route exists, the ticket may go unused, and payment is generally not refunded unless the show is cancelled. That is why it is worth considering your travel plans carefully before applying, rather than entering lotteries for dates you may not be able to reach, particularly when flights are not yet booked.

Are Japanese presale tickets more expensive than the general sale?

Generally not. In Japan, the face value of a seat category is usually the same across the fan club advance, the official advance, seller lotteries and the general sale. What can differ are the additional charges: fan club membership has an annual fee, some lotteries add a system or issuing fee, and payment at a convenience store may add a small handling charge. Some tours also sell premium seat categories or packages with goods or special access, which are priced differently and may only be available in certain stages. Dynamic pricing is far less common in Japan than in North America, though some events experiment with it. Because private resale above face value is restricted for specified tickets, the price you pay in a lottery is effectively the price of attending, which is one of the reasons fans put so much effort into the presale stages rather than waiting for later opportunities.