Ticket services are described at the beginning of this thread, so read from the start and you'll get the low down.

Thanks - useful to know!

ImageDreadlock wrote:Ticket services are described at the beginning of this thread, so read from the start and you'll get the low down.

Those bits I know already as I have seen em a few times in Japan - the last of which was in November last year for their Kanshasai tour. That was before they started asking for DNA samples and three locks of a Japanese relative’s hair to buy tickets.

Thanks for the information! I just don't know how is this in accord with the new rules of not selling tickets for higher price.

Gaki-san2001 wrote:Thanks for the information! I just don't know how is this in accord with the new rules of not selling tickets for higher price.

It's a fine line I guess - in this instance, the trouble the proxy buyer has to go thru to have x mobile numbers for x tickets bought. I can imagine not many will get to buy from such sellers due to this limitation - first come, first served is the likeliest scenario.

Still not sure how the customer gets his/her name on the tix, though - especially if the SMS system means one customer per one e-plus account. Unless I have completely missed the point.

Still not sure how the customer gets his/her name on the tix, though - especially if the SMS system means one customer per one e-plus account. Unless I have completely missed the point.

As far as I can tell the name of the owner of the mobile number is not locked in.   This frees a person to buy a ticket for a friend.   When they order the ticket they enter the name of the person the ticket is for.

In general I think the system is quite fair.   It's more rigid than what we have in the west, yes, but the rules are there to ensure that everyone has an equal chance to get into a show if they choose.   

The Japanese are pretty cool people.   Very friendly and helpful for the most part.  Just respect their system and try to use their language while in the country.

It is fair. The scalpers thus far had made a killing selling prime seats in the days when I bought tix for their 2016 Budōkan shows (saw em selling front row for USD400 apiece then).

It’ll be nice when the time comes for SCANDAL to streamline a simpler method for their overseas fans should they wish to see a homegrown show (some Japanese bands do that). I remember @wildthing mentioning that the management don’t see that as priority at the mo which is fair enough.

Everything takes time.   Hopefully with the rise of interest in Japanese music and its culture in general, the influx of people from outside cultures will slowly dissolve whatever it is that impels them to maintain these somewhat restrictive policies.   Getting a Japanese phone number, as a tourist for instance, is not easy and rather expensive, where as in most other places I've travelled there's no issue at all.

But it's a marvellous country, so I urge folks to visit if they get a chance.  Just remember, as I said, learn a least a minimal amount of Japanese and use it whenever you can.  You'll find that frowns turn into smiles when you do so.

ImageDreadlock wrote:

Still not sure how the customer gets his/her name on the tix, though - especially if the SMS system means one customer per one e-plus account. Unless I have completely missed the point.

As far as I can tell the name of the owner of the mobile number is not locked in.   This frees a person to buy a ticket for a friend.   When they order the ticket they enter the name of the person the ticket is for.

No you can not change the name on a phone contract, there is an anti fraud law on this and there are heavy penalties. Also a person can only hold so many mobile numbers, using the phone number like this for commercial use they are actually breaking the law, so they are taking a big risk.

All box office eplus/pia/l-tike etc account no longer allow name changes, the thing I have yet to verify is will an eplus (for example) account gets deactivate their sms status once someone tries to use the same number on another account or if the account looses out on lottery/sms verified status or voids their lottery draw. i.e. I expect 1 phone 1 active eplus verified account only.

The name printed on the ticket usually comes from account holder's name on the eplus account, it gets a bit complicated when you login with your mania/club details for Fan Club lottery draw, I'm not sure if they check names match. i.e. Person X holds the e-plus account but a person Y logins with mania/club details, who's name ends up on the ticket when they win or do they void their lottery draw? Normally Person X should be the person who holds the Fan Club account AND the eplus account.

Initially during the FSM tour, they didn't do ID check for electronic tickets (as the person has to own the number/eplus account) which are also not transferable for Mania/Club Scandal tickets, but during the 2nd Osaka live, they explicitly wanted to do ID check for everyone so something probably happened.

OK, so if I understand you clearly in order to legitimately get tickets to a Scandal show, or any show where they do ID checks with a ticket that has your name printed on it, you need to have a Japanese mobile number and probably also a Japanese credit card.   The former is hard to get and the later next to impossible.   Therefore, if security tightens even more,  people travelling to Japan have very little chance of seeing a Scandal show during their visit.

If that is the case, than that is a real shame.

ImageDreadlock wrote:OK, so if I understand you clearly in order to legitimately get tickets to a Scandal show, or any show where they do ID checks with a ticket that has your name printed on it, you need to have a Japanese mobile number and probably also a Japanese credit card.   The former is hard to get and the later next to impossible.   Therefore, if security tightens even more,  people travelling to Japan have very little chance of seeing a Scandal show during their visit.

If that is the case, than that is a real shame.

At the door tickets I have seen has been available for Nagoya/Osaka/Fukuoka, but the strange thing is they haven't publicise it on SNS for some reason.

And what about international ticket sites like viagogo? They also sell Japanese concert tickets including Scandal. I don't know how reliable they can be. And also, all Japanese artist follow the same rules?

Gaki-san2001 wrote:And what about international ticket sites like viagogo? They also sell Japanese concert tickets including Scandal. I don't know how reliable they can be. And also, all Japanese artist follow the same rules?

It all depends on how the ticket for the artiste is sold. As it is SCANDAL gig tix are sold with the aforesaid restrictions, and the only mechanism for these e-plus e-tickets to be resold (fairly) is via CLOAK (@wildthing can explain this better).

If another Japanese artiste sells their tix using a less restricted system, then viagogo is a viable method. But not SCANDAL - you can search for it now. Zilch. Perhaps in the past when this new fangled system hadn't been introduced yet but not now. So, don't bother IMHO.

@wildthing - thank you for your explanation

If ticket services, as wildthing stated, are actually acting illegally, then, as far as I can tell, there is no way to purchase tickets legally if you are not either Japanese or living in Japan.

I really think that Scandal's management (or someone in the Japanese music business who knows and has the authority) should present a very clear process for how foreigner's can purchase tickets legitimately and be 100% assured that they will be able to gain entry into shows when they come to Japan.

Can you imagine what it would be like to travel to Japan to see your favourite band, only to be turned away at the door?   If you read this thread someone mentions this very thing happening to someone who bought a resale ticket.

As for myself, I gotta say the whole process was a bit uncertain.   Even though both of the ticket services assured me that it was all good,  I really did not know if I would get in until I actually handed my ticket to the door person, showed them my passport and they waved me in.   (I entered the lottery for 2 Scandal shows, won both and everything was cool, and I'd like to come back to see more shows sometime, no plans yet though).

I'd like to think that Japanese bands want to encourage their foreign fans to come to Japan and see them play in their own country.   If so, please ensure that we can do so and make it perfectly clear to us how to do so.   People want to come and visit and enjoy the music, but its a big investment of time and money to do this and if you have to worry about even being able to get into the show, you're not likely to make the effort.

Just trying to help out in my own little way, having just gone through this process myself.  

Peace!

kudo_maharizu wrote:

Gaki-san2001 wrote:And what about international ticket sites like viagogo? They also sell Japanese concert tickets including Scandal. I don't know how reliable they can be. And also, all Japanese artist follow the same rules?

It all depends on how the ticket for the artiste is sold. As it is SCANDAL gig tix are sold with the aforesaid restrictions, and the only mechanism for these e-plus e-tickets to be resold (fairly) is via CLOAK (@wildthing can explain this better).

If another Japanese artiste sells their tix using a less restricted system, then viagogo is a viable method. But not SCANDAL - you can search for it now. Zilch. Perhaps in the past when this new fangled system hadn't been introduced yet but not now. So, don't bother IMHO.

Scandal is committed with tickets all with Photo ID check, name printed on paper ticket/electronic ticket, so there is no alternative way to purchase except through the regular channels. (I have already talked to Team Scandal, and they said currently their first priority is to take care of all the Japan fans first. Advise to get a friend in Japan to help if you are from overseas.)

Because Japan has introduced law basically to stop ticket touting recently which prevent tickets that have stipulation that explicitly no resale, except for tickets which don't have this term, i.e. promotion tickets etc.

For current FSM tours, eplus does allow you to resale your ticket, this actually happened and Yokohama was available on re-sale for a period.

Basically if you have a ticket and you can't attend it goes back to the system, a small charge is taken and the ticket is sold at the original price, i.e. to prevent any profit for reselling.

The FSM Yokohama was sold out, but for people who release their tickets back in to the system via CLOAK, it was available for people to buy under a different section during the online ordering, someone must buy before you can get any of the ticket money back.

I myself have used cloak when I original got a ticket for Victor Rock Festival and then sold it back via Cloak to get a new VIP ticket instead.

Scandal also do not allow e-tickets to be split, the purchaser has to go in to the live with their friends and will be ID checked.

Cloak actually allows you to split the tickets for other events etc. Just Scandal has disabled this functionality for their tickets. i.e. like ticketmaster  e-tickets in the US etc.
Useful say if you have a friend who is coming late etc.

ImageDreadlock wrote:@wildthing - thank you for your explanation

If ticket services, as wildthing stated, are actually acting illegally, then, as far as I can tell, there is no way to purchase tickets legally if you are not either Japanese or living in Japan.

I really think that Scandal's management (or someone in the Japanese music business who knows and has the authority) should present a very clear process for how foreigner's can purchase tickets legitimately and be 100% assured that they will be able to gain entry into shows when they come to Japan.

Peace!

They are acting illegally by selling the SMS service, buying the ticket isn't the problem.
But kind of chicken and egg, as you shouldn't be able to buy without a number.

Pretty much what I said before, Team Scandal top priority is to look after the Japan fans. There is currently no official way to get tickets if you are an overseas fans, they are not currently looking to do anything about it. I had a chat with Team Scandal and pretty much overseas fan will need to find a Japan friend/fan to help out go to live together.

Mania/Club Scandal is only for Japan residence as it states in the terms.

All Scandal tickets will be printed with name (Fan Club or General release), photo ID checks are required. Because of the name/address, your online box office account at eplus (current Scandal preferred seller) must have a Japanese mobile number for SMS verification.

To own a Japanese mobile number you have to be in Japan, to prevent fraud etc all phones are registered with user details/address etc its very strict, as a tourist I believe only Softbank can provide a voice number/SMS (assuming they still do at the airport), no other carriers provide tourist with voice/sms. Tourist sims are only for mobile data ONLY.

You could rent a phone, but like I said I have yet to test if its one mobile number tied to one eplus account. i.e. would suck if you rent a phone with phone number, and then someone else uses the number to register their eplus account and your account get SMS verification deactivated.

Scandal has been parts of the anti-touting/reselling campaign before and also because of the Olympics, the Japanese government has introduced various laws to tackle it. eplus etc no longer allow change of name (I guess their was a loophole for a short while) Its also why you rarely see tickets on sale on Japanese reselller sites (many have closed) and on auction sites, because selling a ticket for profit can now get you fined/thrown in to jail now

Thanks wildthing for the clarification.   

So if I may summarise, there are 3 ways for a foreigner to legally get a ticket to a Scandal show in Japan:

1) Go to a show where they are selling general admission tickets at the door (as happened at Fukuoka, Osaka and Nagoya shows, even though it was not clearly advertised).

2) Luck in and get an eplus resale ticket.

3) Have a Japanese friend who will buy tickets for you, so you can go to the show together.  (I believe the general rule is any registered user can buy up to four tickets for any given show.)

wildthing wrote:Team Scandal top priority is to look after the Japan fans

Were Japanese fans having a problem getting into the shows?

ImageDreadlock wrote:Thanks wildthing for the clarification.   

Were Japanese fans having a problem getting into the shows?   

.

Yes some Japanese/overseas fans were stopped at the door, either they didn't have the correct IDs or they were asked for additional ones.

Other fans were stopped because they thought like the other venues electronic tickets holders didn't need photo ID check, but this all changed from around the 2nd Osaka live.

People were sent ID requirements via email

▼1点でご確認いただける身分証明書 - 1 of the following
・運転免許証 - Driving license
・パスポート - Passport
・社員証(顔写真付き) - Company ID with photo
・学生証(顔写真付き) - Student ID with photo
・住民基本台帳カード(顔写真付き) Japanese citizen resident registration card
・クレジットカード(顔写真付き) Credit card with photo
・在留カード(外国人登録証明書) Resident card (for foreigners with Visa/Residency)
・マイナンバーカード(通知書不可) My number (tax/pension, i.e. social security, national insurance)

▼2点でご確認いただける身分証明書 (Else 2 of following)
・健康保険証 - Japan health insurance card
・社員証 - Company ID
・学生証 - Student ID
・住民基本台帳カード - Japanese citizen resident registration card
・クレジットカード - Credit card
・キャッシュカード - Cash card

Mania card is only checked if you wanted to buy the limited Mania t-shirts or wanted to use the Mania rubber stamp, to stamp on your own items/t-shirts etc. There are 3 stamps in red/blue/black.

I know steps have to be taken to curb touts - but talk about going OTT.

Time to get that friend in Japan, then.

Well, you know, it's kinda sweet in way that Team Scandal expects us to do that.   I mean it could be good for international relations,  making friends and going to concerts together.   There are definitely some friendly Japanese folks around.  I met this older fellow the other day.   I asked him for directions to the Shikansen to Yokahama and he gladly helped me, we got on the train together and he started chatting with me about Canada, said he'd been to Calgary and mentioned some stuff about the upcoming G20 in Osaka with our young Prime Minister Trudeau coming to town.

That was cool.

Ultimately I really don't know what to think, 'cos for most foreign Scandal fans, making Japanese friends on the level it would take for them to do this for you is a pretty tall order.   Sure, it can be done but, ...   The fact is in Canada, there just aren't that many Japanese folks around.   (Hope that changes.)

Ticket services are still a viable option though.   As a client you're not the one taking the risk, so once you have those tickets, you should be good.

Peace
Y'all!

I guess they think we have our chance when they visit our country, but that is not every year

I'd love to fly to Japan and check out a Scandal show but reading this topic makes my head spin.

New tour, new chance. Please post, if anything changes regarding the rules.

Kiss from the darkness Japan tickets.
Same requirements, All Mania/Club Scandal lottery always need SMS verified accounts.
No details about general sales as yet.

Radio Crazy
But recently the most strict rule for tickets was for "Radio Crazy", I ordered some tickets during lottery and all attendees must have a eplus sms verified account. 
When I ordered I needed everyone's name and phone number that was used to register my friend's eplus account. All tickets will be e-tickets and will be downloaded can be downloaded to each attendee's smartphone.
i.e. impossible to transfer to anyone else.

Update for Radio Crazy, when the person ordering the ticket gets to download the ticket, the electronic tickets are labelled with both persons name. When you do a transfer to split the ticket to a friend (if needed i.e. if you don't turn up at the same time) it requires your friend to confirm their eplus account with their Japanese mobile number. Tickets will still have both persons name labelled on it. But there was no ID check.

Hello! I am entirely new to overseas concerts and all. But may I know if this post is still applicable as of today?

Recently, I watched the KFTD livestream and they've announced their tour for next year. I was wondering if

1. Is there at least a chance for int'l fans to secure a ticket? (I'm from PH, btw)
2. When does the ticket selling usually commence?

Thank you very much and I'm looking forward for your insights

yujufly wrote:Hello! I am entirely new to overseas concerts and all. But may I know if this post is still applicable as of today?

The August 2020 edit in red at the top of the first post of this thread is applicable, as in it's almost impossible for overseas fans to buy tickets.

There is no way of knowing yet if they'll offer tickets for next year's anniversary concert to overseas fans, especially since it's still an entire year away. Given everything that's going on in the world right now, I don't think we could accurately predict what could happen with ticket sales and the like.

We just have to wait and see what the band decides to do.

thoseguiltyeyes wrote:

yujufly wrote:Hello! I am entirely new to overseas concerts and all. But may I know if this post is still applicable as of today?

The August 2020 edit in red at the top of the first post of this thread is applicable, as in it's almost impossible for overseas fans to buy tickets.

There is no way of knowing yet if they'll offer tickets for next year's anniversary concert to overseas fans, especially since it's still an entire year away. Given everything that's going on in the world right now, I don't think we could accurately predict what could happen with ticket sales and the like.

We just have to wait and see what the band decides to do.

 I just noticed that the first post was updated. I think I bookmarked this page long time ago so I just got back to reply to see it it was still applicable haha.

Understood, and thank you very much!