Akiya Hotline

The Akiya Hotline is MailMate's concierge service for property owners managing a home in Japan from overseas. Whether you need help purchasing furniture, coordinating deliveries, sourcing local goods, or handling one-off errands at your property, our team can take care of it — in Japanese, on your behalf.

Furniture & Goods Purchasing

One of the most common requests we receive is help purchasing furniture and household items for a Japan property. This is especially useful after a purchase or renovation, when you need to outfit a home remotely without being present in Japan.

We can assist with:
- Ordering from major Japanese retailers such as IKEA Japan and Nitori
- Sourcing items from local furniture and home goods stores near your property
- Calling stores in Japanese to confirm stock availability, pricing, and lead times
- Setting up delivery to your property address
- Coordinating installation services where available

How the Process Works

1. Share your shopping list — Send us a list of items or a saved cart from an online retailer (e.g., IKEA Favourites/Lists). Include the store, item names, article numbers, and quantities if possible.
2. We confirm availability and costs — We check that items are in stock at the nearest store to your property, verify the delivery address, and confirm estimated costs including any delivery and installation fees.
3. You approve — We send you a summary to review before placing the order.
4. We place the order and coordinate delivery — We schedule delivery for a date and time window that suits you, and arrange installation if requested.
5. You receive an update — We confirm when the order is placed and keep you updated until delivery is complete.

Online Orders and Account Access

For online retailers like IKEA Japan, we recommend that we create a dedicated order under a MailMate-managed account rather than logging into your personal account. This avoids one-time password (OTP) issues that arise when accounts are accessed from a different country or device. We keep the order details on file and transfer any relevant information to you upon completion.

If you already have an account with an online retailer and prefer us to use it, please be aware that login may trigger an OTP sent to your registered phone or email — you will need to be available to pass that code to us in real time.

Delivery and Installation

When arranging delivery, we confirm:
- Delivery date and time window (based on your preferred dates)
- Whether the retailer delivers to your specific location (rural or resort areas may have limited coverage)
- Delivery type: to the front door, or into the room with installation
- Estimated delivery and installation costs (these vary by retailer, distance, and item weight)

For example, delivery and in-room installation from IKEA Maebashi to a property in Niigata Prefecture typically costs approximately ¥20,000 JPY.

Payment

We offer two payment options for purchasing on your behalf:

• MailMate pays, then invoices you — We place the order and add the cost to your next invoice or send a separate payment request. This avoids potential issues with foreign credit cards being declined by Japanese retailers.
• You provide card details securely — If you prefer to pay directly, you can share your card information via a secure document that we delete immediately after use.

We generally recommend the first option to avoid foreign card complications at checkout.

Local Store Sourcing

For items that are only available in-store or from local suppliers, we can contact stores by phone in Japanese to:
- Confirm item availability and current pricing
- Arrange remote purchasing and payment
- Coordinate delivery directly to your property

Please get in touch to discuss your specific needs.

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Documentation is updated from time to time — please confirm with MailMate personnel in all cases. Documentation may be out of date, lack details, or have mistakes.