# amazon.co.jp discriminates against foreigners



## examazoncojpuser

My account was closed within minutes after I placed an order. With no communication to me, nor clear investigation possibly done in between. A clear case of discrimination.

In the account closure email, amazon.co.jp explained that after their careful investigation (within minutes I placed the order) 1) I violated their policy regarding exceeding the limit of the item I ordered and being someone not live in Japan and 2) they assume I will send the item outside Japan.

First, on the product page, there was no mentioning of any limit on the number of items a person can order. (I have saved a screenshot)

Second, I had used amazon.co.jp in Japan for 2 years without any problem and received no warning before this.

Maybe there was some misunderstandings I thought, so I contacted them but they simply neglected my appeal and told me that the decision was based on their "sole discretion".

Why all of a sudden and based on what they decide to ban my account? The only explanation I can think of is that my last name being non-Japanese the item being popular...

I had used amazon in a few countries before I moved to Japan for many years. This case of discrimination truly disappoints me.


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## larabell

Without knowing what you ordered or how many, it's hard to take your comments very seriously. I've done lots of business with Amazon.co.jp, as have many non-Japanese I've talked to over the years and there's never been a problem. It sounds to me like they've instituted a policy to prevent people from certain countries from buying up all the supplies of certain items in order to send them to family back home for re-sale. That's been a huge problem here lately and it's hard to fault a retailer from taking action to prevent that sort of abuse. For what it's worth, it's hard to buy large quantities of certain items in brick-and-mortar stores for the same reason.

I have no idea whether that's what you were doing but, if it isn't, you've simply been caught up in the backlash from an attempt to curb abuse. That's not quite the same as discrimination against foreigners.


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## chris_9

examazoncojpuser said:


> My account was closed within minutes after I placed an order. With no communication to me, nor clear investigation possibly done in between. A clear case of discrimination.
> 
> In the account closure email, amazon.co.jp explained that after their careful investigation (within minutes I placed the order) 1) I violated their policy regarding exceeding the limit of the item I ordered and being someone not live in Japan and 2) they assume I will send the item outside Japan.
> 
> First, on the product page, there was no mentioning of any limit on the number of items a person can order. (I have saved a screenshot)
> 
> Second, I had used amazon.co.jp in Japan for 2 years without any problem and received no warning before this.
> 
> Maybe there was some misunderstandings I thought, so I contacted them but they simply neglected my appeal and told me that the decision was based on their "sole discretion".
> 
> Why all of a sudden and based on what they decide to ban my account? The only explanation I can think of is that my last name being non-Japanese the item being popular...
> 
> I had used amazon in a few countries before I moved to Japan for many years. This case of discrimination truly disappoints me.


You already said you had been using with Amazon Japan for 2 years and without any problems. It means they had not discriminated you for the 2 years, though you were a foreigner. Unless you tried to hide your country of origin for the 2 years time, how can you say Amazon discrimate you as a foreigner ?


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