For years, overseas fans of Japanese idol groups like Arashi and SUPER EIGHT had to jump through hoops just to buy a CD: proxy services, forwarding addresses, inflated secondhand prices. That era is over. On April 1, 2026, the first official online store with international shipping opened, in five languages.

What the Storm Labels Store Is

Storm Labels, the record label behind STARTO ENTERTAINMENT's roster of artists, launched its first official e-commerce site, "Storm Labels Store," on April 1, 2026 at 10:00 AM Japan time. The store carries CDs, Blu-rays, and DVDs from artists including Domoto Koichi, Arashi, NEWS, SUPER EIGHT, Hey! Say! JUMP, WEST., and Naniwa Danshi. According to AnyMind Group, which provides the site's technical infrastructure, the catalog launched with over 700 titles.

The store URL is https://store.storm-labels.co.jp, and it supports five languages: Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean. Both domestic and international shipping are available, with supported countries and regions listed on the site.

The Artists and the Catalog

Storm Labels was established on November 12, 2001 as "J Storm," a private label created for the group Arashi. The company name derives from "Storm," the English translation of "Arashi" (嵐). After KAT-TUN's 2006 debut it became the agency's main label, and over the years it expanded to include Hey! Say! JUMP, Naniwa Danshi, and others. The rename was announced in October 2023 and took effect on January 1, 2024, when J Storm Inc. became Storm Labels Inc.

The label also oversees two imprints: ELOV-Label (formerly Johnny's Entertainment Record, itself absorbed from Johnny's Entertainment in 2019 and renamed in January 2024, home to KinKi Kids, NEWS, and WEST.) and INFINITY RECORDS, founded in 2014 as SUPER EIGHT's own label. Releases from both are available through the store.

Why This Matters for International Fans

During the former Johnny & Associates era, buying physical music and video releases from the agency's artists was notoriously difficult for fans outside Japan. CDs and DVDs were sold almost exclusively through Japanese domestic retailers. International fans had to rely on Japan-focused e-commerce sites like CDJapan or Amazon Japan, often routing packages through forwarding services or proxy buyers. Language barriers, shipping fees, customs duties, delivery complications: the whole process was frustrating and expensive.

Even joining the official fan club required a Japanese mailing address, pushing overseas fans to borrow addresses from friends in Japan or subscribe to private mailbox services. The effort involved said a lot about how Japan-focused the system was.

This stood in contrast to the K-pop industry, which invested early and heavily in global infrastructure: multilingual official stores, international fan club memberships, dedicated overseas shipping logistics. The comparison led many to describe Japan's idol industry as "Galapagos-ized" (ガラパゴス化), a Japanese term for systems that evolved in isolation from global standards, much like the unique species of the Galápagos Islands.

Since beginning full operations in April 2024, STARTO ENTERTAINMENT has positioned international expansion as a core strategy. Travis Japan launched a world tour, and the FAMILY CLUB STORE Global, an online merchandise shop with international shipping, opened in September 2024 with Travis Japan serving as its official supporters.

The Storm Labels Store is the next step: making the artists' core products, their music and video releases, directly accessible to the global market through official channels. This isn't a merchandise play. It's the label's catalog itself going international.

The Technology Underneath

The store is built on Shopify and managed through AnyMind Group's EC management platform "AnyX," which handles order processing, warehouse management, and customer support in an integrated system. International shipping logistics are powered by "AnyLogi," AnyMind's global fulfillment platform, which enables features like on-site shipping cost and customs duty estimates and real-time delivery tracking.

What Comes Next

Storm Labels has said it plans to expand the store's product range and features over time. The initial lineup centers on physical media, but future expansions could include digital content and exclusive merchandise.

The timing matters. Arashi went on hiatus at the end of 2020, reunited in May 2025, and then closed the book: the farewell tour "ARASHI LIVE TOUR 2026: We are ARASHI" opened in Sapporo on March 13 and ran 15 shows across five domes, ending the group's activities at Tokyo Dome on May 31, 2026. The catalog outlives the group, and the fandom is still enormous. Active groups like SUPER EIGHT and Hey! Say! JUMP, meanwhile, now have a direct international sales channel that could move their numbers on Oricon and other charts.

As Japan's entertainment industry increasingly looks outward, the Storm Labels Store could serve as a model for how Japanese music labels approach cross-border e-commerce.

In your country, is it easy to buy official merchandise and CDs from international artists? Or do you still rely on proxy services? We'd love to hear your experience.

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