Yahoo! Japan and eBay Team Up

I'm trembling with utter joy and surprise as I type this. Every anime fan has at least one been blocked from getting that special item available only in Japan. We've developed different tactics to overcome this restraint -- from hoping your favorite importer(s) will get a hold of the item to paying extra money using a proxy service. But for Americans and the Japanese, this stops now. Yahoo! Japan and eBay have announced that the two companies would link up their services in 2008. This in turn will allow American bidders easier access to Japanese auctions, and vice versa.

Starting in March next year, Japanese consumers will be able to directly bid on international eBay items within Yahoo Auction Japan. And sometime in the middle of ‘08, similarly, a site will be set up that will allow Americans to bid and buy Yahoo Japan auction items through the eBay site. Thus eBay will be your one and only proxy service for Yahoo! Japan.

Today the two companies have already launched the website Sekaimon (”gateway to the world”) that translates international eBay auctions into Japanese in order to help Japanese speakers deal with payment and shipping. [Source: Moetron.com]