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In the US there are private companies that run PO Boxes. The address is usually a street address with what looks like an apartment number (really, a box number) after it. It's legal but: (a) I don't know if they will allow you to open one over the Internet, and (b) if you have a US address you usually have to file a form declaring your street address and verifying that you are OK with having a private company handle your mail (if I remember right, it was more a CYA move on the part of the Postal Service, since US Mail is generally considered to be government-protected communication).

That link I sent before looks kindof expensive but they seem to work the same way (street address plus a number), they claim you can open one online, and they seem to cater especially to not-in-the-US people who need a US address for some reason. You probably can't open a real PO Box from outside the country. Heck... in most places you can't open one from inside the country because they're all taken. That's why I used a private service (Mail Boxes, Etc) for many years.

Whether you'd avoid Japanese consumption tax depends on how they word the law when it goes into effect. And after this thread, the NSA is going to be all over the bunch of us whether you open the box or not ;-)...

On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 10:20 PM, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:

> Just now I managed to send myself an Amazon Gift Card on the Amazon.com
> site using a credit card that's attached to a Japanese address. At no point
> did it ask for a physical address for the recipient. So, one way you could
> go is to set-up a dummy email address (gmail, hotmail, etc) and use your
> own CC to send a gift card to the dummy address. Then, from a US-based IP
> address, register with Amazon under a different name and use the gift card
> to pay for your mp3. I can't imagine why they would block someone in Japan
> from sending their US-based friends gift cards.

That is an interesting approach, and I think it would work to avoid the
Japanese consumption tax, except:
* If significant sums are used you'll come under investigation for
money laundering. (Look at how hard it is to send people money with
PayPal nowadays; or even how hard it is for parents to send cash to
their going-to-university-overseas children.)

* If you gave a false residential address when registering your dummy
account you are almost certainly breaking one of their terms and conditions.

(But is a P.O. box allowed, I wonder? Can I even get a U.S. P.O. box
from outside the country? The FBI/NSA would be all over you if you tried
it, I'm sure!)

Darren

P.S. To avoid confusion, this is purely hypothetical and just out of
interest in tax law practicality: there is nothing I personally need to
buy from amazon.com without them knowing I am in Japan :-)

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Re: [tlug] Pretending to be outside Japan?