How to join Johnny's FC as an overseas fan
※Last updated 2022.06.17
I get DMs on Twitter about this topic so often you wouldn't believe it, so I've finally decided to write a tutorial that covers all the common questions I've been asked.
If you encounter a step you're unsure about, do not hesitate to ask questions, but I do recommend that you to read the whole tutorial before asking! (Edit 2020.11.07: I have now added a FAQ in the bottom of the tutorial)
There are honestly so many reasons for joining the FC; FC content, pictures, videos, mail, balloting, explicit content in general!! (Although, I'll have to say, some people are really bad at keeping FC content to themselves lol.)
Most of the questions I've been getting are about the address issues, payment and "chances" for balloting etc., so I've made sure to cover these things throughout the "tutorial". I have also translated step 3 of the sign up process as I often get questions about what the questions in that part mean :)
Signing up
Getting right onto it! The very first step of the whole process is to sign up for the membership. Everything else doesn't really matter until you've actually started signing up for a new fc membership!
You WILL be needing a Japanese address, and if you don't have one, fear not, I'll be covering how you get past that step later on.
The very first step is to open up Johnny FC website. It doesn't really matter which of Johnny's websites you're on, as they usually all link to the fan club down in the very bottom of the pages.
If you go from jnet, you (obviously) want to press the first icon called "Johnny's Family Club":
Now, this is where the actual signing up process begins.
From here on the start page should look like this:
Press the blue button in the middle of the page that says 新規入会 (new membership) and proceed to the next page that should look like this:
Here you pick the group/artist's fan club you wish to join.
Since I am already in Arashi's fan club, I will be using Hey! Say! JUMP as my "example fan club" for this tutorial. But you can pick any group you like and the steps will be the exact same.
Once you have picked out a fan club, you'll be lead to the first step out of 5 of the whole signing up process. The first step is to put in your email address on the following page followed by pressing the blue button as seen below:
The second step is to open up your email browser(or whatever it's called). There you should have received an email from Johnny's (aka "jfc") with an URL. When you click the URL you'll be lead to the third step of the signing up process, which should look something like this:
The first question (after stating which fan club you wish to join) is which member of that group is your favourite member (And sadly, even if you don't have a favourite, you still need to pick one).
I heard rumours about the artist you pick might affect your chances of hitting for concert tickets during ballots, since they try to even out how many fans of each member come to the concerts (It would make sense but I have literally no idea whether this is true or not).
I couldn't fit everything in step three into one screenshot, but all the questions on that are (with translations to make it easier for you non-Japanese speaking fellas<3) as following:
ファンクラブ名 = Fan club name (Has already been put in)
好きなタレント名 = Favourite artist
*郵便番号 = Postal code
都道府県 = Prefecture
市区町村 = Municipality/Commune
番地 = Address/House number
建物名 = Address/Building name
部屋番号 = Room number (If you live in an apartment)
様方 = Honorifics (You can leave this part out)
氏名 = Your full name(Surname first, first name second) (Romaji/Hiragana/Katakana is all fine)
**フリガナ = Furigana(Not necessary unless your name is written in Kanji, but you can put your name there in Katakana. Surname first and first name second)
***固定電話番号 = Phone number(Stationary)(Not necessary if you put mobile number)
***携帯電話番号 = Phone number(Mobile)
生年月日 = Birthday(Year, month, day)
年齢 = Age
性別 = Gender
(Email has already been put)
パスワード = Password パスワード = Confirm password
Notes:
* For postal code, after plotting in the postal code, there's a blue button next to the question that you can press, which will fill in some of the address for you automatically.
** I've received tons of messages from people asking me what furigana is. It's most commonly used for Kanji and romaji words to indicate how the (kanji/romaji) words are pronounced by spelling them out in hiragana/katakana.
*** You literally don't use your phone number for anything. I believe it's just to be sure that you have mobile data that you can use when having to show your QR code at concerts and stuff? Edit: It turns out the phone number is used to restore your password if you get locked out of your account. If you are using a proxy address and the phone number provided by the proxy, you must not get locked out of your account at all cost since there is no way of receiving messages through the proxy.
Japanese address
Continuation of the signing up process will continue after this section. If you already have an address I don't know why you'd even be using this tutorial you can skip ahead.
The most common question I get is how to get a Japanese address.
You basically have three options here:
- Borrow someone's address
- Tenso (Japan)
- SOS Japan
(Moving to Japan is also an option but definitely not necessary xD)
You have probably heard of all these options before and most likely been hesitant about them (Which I can relate to because same), but with a little research and personal experience, I can assure you that they're not as complicated or scary as they sound.
Borrow someone's address
(I know this sounds like some really dumb advice lol, and if you don't know a single soul who lives in Japan on mutual level, you might wanna skip ahead to the next option...)
I know it can be kinda scary or awkward to ask someone you might not even know all that well if you can borrow their address for fan club reasons. But most people are actually really chill and understandable if you ask them. You might think that you don't want to bother them with fc mail and stuff, but the only thing they have to do is literally just to receive letters once every other month. (6 letters a year sums it up). Should you be visiting Japan someday, you could just meet up with them and pick up the letters, or if they're really kind they can send them in bundles to you!
Warning: If you sign up with someone else's address, there's a chance that Japanese post won't deliver your mail if your name isn't registered on the address. It seems like some people have this problem while others don't. My hosts warned me that this "issue" might happen to me since my name wasn't stated on the building anywhere, but I was able to receive my own mail without problems. My friend also borrowed my address for her BTS fan club membership and I was able to receive her mails without further problems either, so whether this is a current issue/old issue/related to JE or not, I don't know. But just be aware that this might happen.
I can also say that majority of the people I know who borrow addresses, actually hit for concerts, so I'd say this is the safest option of them all in terms of balloting.
Edit: I got a question about "FC sponsors" which you may or may not have heard of before. It's basically someone in Japan who "sponsors" you to be in the FC where you sign up with your friend's address and stuff, but with this the FC knows that you are using someone else's address. As far as I know, this actually used to be a thing a few years back, but I can confirm that this isn't a thing anymore. I actually went to the FC and asked them about this (since I was thinking about sponsoring a friend) but I was told that this wasn't a thing anymore. So, this sponsor option is not relevant anymore, but I thought I'd still mention it for those wondering.
Personal story, but I gathered the guts to ask my aunt (who lives in Chiba) if I could transfer my membership details to her address when I still lived in Japan, to which she told me I was more than welcome to. But when I actually left Japan, I forgot to ask her what her address was, and at that time I was too awkward to ask her again sdkjhsdljgs... which then lead me to the next option;
Tenso
(Also known as Tenso Japan).
I've heard that some people are sceptical about Tenso as there have been rumours about people with Tenso address never hitting during ballots, but I can assure you that even with a legit address, I've never been able to hit... so who the heck knows. (If you know anyone who hit for tickets while using Tenso, please do let me know. Edit: Turns out lots of people have been able to hit with Tenso). I switched my membership details to Tenso just to keep my fan club membership when I left Japan, so I can assure you that it works fine if you just want the membership to... idk... have it? In my own opinion, this is a really great option since signing up for Tenso is free and you can use the forwarding address for other things that require a Japanese address.
Tenso is really easy to use; You just sign up on their website (which is free) here. The registration page looks something like this:
(Edit 2022.06.17: Tenso Japan has changed their layout since I first made this tutorial, but the content is the same)
The signing up process is all in English, so you should be able to figure that out pretty quickly. Once that's done you'll have to register two IDs(Since Japan is really strict about ID smh), that process can take a bit of time, but once that's done, they'll give you an address that you plot in during your membership registration(They even give you a phone number to use).
The only fees you pay for this service are the forwarding fees. Once they receive your FC mail, they'll let you know that you have an "unsettled order". And once you pay the forwarding fee they'll ship you letter to your home address. Prices range from 1000-ish yen to 3000-ish yen depending on which shipping option you pick. Tenso can also keep your letters for as long as you like, so you can have your letters sent as a bundle and save on the shipping fees.
SOS Japan
I know a big amount of people who use SOS Japan, but I have honestly no idea about whether people who use it hit for ballots or not, so if you're applying for the FC with the intention of balloting for concerts, I can't tell you which is the better option between Tenso and SOSJ. You can sign up for the agent here. Just scroll down to "How to join" and pick "Contact us at" on the page:
I considered switching my membership to SOSJ at some point and contacted them to ask some questions about how it works out. Basically they have a fan club service (or agent as they call it) where you pay 8ooo yen for the agent on top of all the other membership registration fees. It's kinda pricey, but they'll take care of literally everything for you (even the membership registration process as I went through above).
The only downside I found with this, is that they have full access to your membership account. And as someone who went through all the trouble of signing up for my membership myself, I was really hesitant about letting anyone gain access to my account. But if you aren't in the fan club yet and aren't a paranoid potato like me, I'd say go ahead! They are super duper kind, will guide you through everything step by step and answer any questions you should have :)
Payment
Edit 2022.06.17: As of 2020, online payment on all of Johnny's web services has become available!!!! The rest of the Payment section of my tutorial is only for those who plan on paying through an ATM or Pay Easy.
After you've successfully answered all the questions of step three, you'll be lead to step four (Unfortunately I won't show more screenshots of it from here on as I am not actually planning on joining HSJ's fan club right now^^). Here you'll be led to a page with a bunch of numbers. These are the numbers you'll be needing in order to pay for your membership. It is important that you note these numbers down!! You'll also receive an email with them, but please note them down just to be sure. (Keep in mind that you only have a week to complete the payment, otherwise you'll have to redo step 1-3 steps all over again.)
I don't remember exactly how these numbers are supposed to be used, but payment can only be used at ATMs with Pay Easy in Japan (I'm still waiting for payment to be made available with card online). And here comes the next issue; which is to get the payment done if you aren't in Japan. If you went for the SOSJ route, then you have no problems here as the agent will take care of it all. If you borrowed someone's address you might as well also just ask them if they'll help you out with the payment.
You can literally just ask around on Twitter if there is someone who is- or will be in Japan in the near future that can manage the payment for you (Trust me, there are some really kind people out there<3). There are also "proxies" out there that help out with this sort of stuff.
Additional information: A new FC membership costs 5140 yen in total; Admission fee of 1000 yen + the annual cost of 4000 yen + handling fee of 140 yen. If you renew your membership one day, you won't have to pay the admission fee.
Whoever does the payment for you(whether it's yourself or someone else) will be needing the numbers you got at step 4(or in the email). I'd suggest just taking a screenshot of the email and send it to the person doing the payment. When they go to the ATM, the ATM will ask for the numbers given in the email and you just plot them in as needed. (The numbers are labelled with "titles" such as "Customer number" etc., so you can't go too wrong with them).
Note: The ATMs used to display the process in English, but for some reason the Pay Easy method never worked for me in English. They also only seem accept card nowadays, so please keep that in mind as well.
Final step
Aka step 5.
Once payment has been completed you'll receive an email with your FC number right away. The number usually begins with a letter that indicates which FC it is, so Arashi begins with A, KAT-TUN begins with KT, Johnny's West begins with WS etc., so you get the pattern. It makes it a lot easier to manage your memberships if you are in more than one fan club^^
It normally takes between 2 weeks to 1 month to get your membership card, and if you're using a proxy, it'll obviously take a little longer before it gets to you (but huhuhu the happiness of actually having the card is amazing and is totally worth the wait).
Last notes
Personally, for me, before I joined the fan club, I always thought the process sounded super complicated. But once I actually got started on the sign up process, it actually wasn't difficult at all- (You might even have heard of all the Japanese fans with several memberships lol, that says a lot about how easy it actually is) -It just took a bit of patience. (I also lived in Japan at the time, so the whole address issue wasn't a relevant problem to me, but after I joined and found out how the proxies worked, I kinda regretted not joining the fan club earlier).
Not to bring up all the restrictions and limitations international fans have to face when entering venues, but if you use a proxy address and get in trouble at the ID check, I'm sure you'll be able to talk your way inside one way or another (It's always better just to try instead of giving up right away without even trying at all, right?)
Lastly, if you want to join more than one fan club, then you'll have to do the whole process all over again with the new fan club. However, once you already have an address, you can just use that same address again which saves you a bunch of time!
Again, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask :)
FAQ
I signed up with Tenso, do they also manage the payment for me?
- No, if you signed up with Tenso then you have to make the payment yourself.
Can I make the payment if I am not in Japan?
- Yes, you can pay online with international credit cards.
How long does it take for Tenso to ship out my fan club mail?
- I don't know! It depends on where you live; which shipping option you picked and what day you processed the shipping fees (mail isn't shipped in weekends in some countries). Personally, I always use the EMS option which takes around 14 days to ship to Europe.
Why haven't I received any fan club mail yet?
- The fan club doesn't send out fan club mail that frequently, so it can take months before you receive anything. When I received my membership card it was sent with the "next" fan club mail which was two months after I signed up.