Questions about Fan Club sponsor program

[smurfette_love]

Hello Fellow Arashians,

I recently found out about the Fan club Sponsor program from this community.   I have a few questions about this program before I ask my friend to sponsor me.

1. What is the exact Japanese term?   I thought it be best if I know the term for this program so that my friend can ask the fan club about it.
2. Do I need to open bank

Comments

[raatkerani]

Hello!
I can't answer question 1 and 3, because when I applied, I was still living there. Now I use my friend's address, but I just leave it as it is.
You can pay with payeasy using cash on atm machine if it allows (some older machine cannot be used). No need to have the bank account because you will need your registry card (and I guess now you need also the "my number") to open a Japanese account on top of a registered address.
But off course your sponsor will have to help you pay the yearly fee and the ticket fee manually. I hope this helps.

[smurfette_love]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. Payeasy still means I need to be physically be in Japan to pay. It would be nice if I can pay it without me being there. haha.....just my wishful thinking.

[ninolove]

Hey! I can share what I know from my experience.
1. Sorry, I'm not sure if there is an exact term. I just explained it to the staff in person when I went to the family club.
2. No, you don't need a bank account. You can pay for tickets manually through a post office/bank atm with Payeasy. You don't need an account with the post office or bank to use their atm.
3. In my case, yes. I went in by myself first to try to sponsor my friend, but they didn't allow me to do it. They said that my friend had to be there too. (This all happened a little over two years ago, when I think sponsoring friends who didn't live in Japan was something they were just starting to deal with. They could have changed their system since then.) Luckily, my friend was visiting relatively soon, so we went there together to do it and there was no problem. I am still sponsoring her now. I've heard of others who did it without their friend present, so I think I may have just had some bad luck with an impatient staff.

[smurfette_love]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I am going to have to give up this idea of asking my friend for help. I do not to trouble her too much especially when she is not an Arashi fan. Thanks again for answering.

[kerrol]

I went into the family club offices in Shibuya with my friend and asked about sponsorship when I joined a few years ago and the staff nah, don't worry about it, just use your friend's address and it's fine. She even gave me a free Sho poster :)

You don't actually need to go in in person if your friend is happy to make the payment. You just join up online and they send you an email but your friend will have to go to the ATM in Japan and pay with PayEasy. Same with the ballot.

If your friend is happy to run to the ATM for you, you never have to have any personal contact with the office at all. Just make sure your friend is totally fine with it because you usually have about 4 days to pay for tickets so you don't want to miss out if you hit :)

BTW the PayEasy system really is super easy and you only need minimal Japanese to use it.

[smurfette_love]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! I will give on the idea of asking my friend to sponsor. I do not want to cause too much trouble for her because she is not an Arashi fan.

Wow, how nice the staff gave you a Sho poster! Lucky you!

[kerrol]

There are services that join the fan club for you and do balloting. I've never used them but SOS Japan is one of them.

[smurfette_love]

yes, I just found out about them. I am now considering doing just that. I need to decide soon and I hope to get the membership before the ballotting starts.