How to Watch Niconico Outside Japan

Japan is a country that is teeming with life, culture, and numerous attractions. From the dance to the music and the food, everything is truly a sight to be seen. Thankfully, the technologically advanced age of today helps us to capture all that and share with those who care to know. An even bigger stroke of luck is that there are platforms like Niconico which allow you to view and experience all these aspects of Japan.

Niconico was founded in December 2006. Between that time and now, this window into Japan’s pop culture has grown to astounding heights. So much so that it can rival the popularity of YouTube in Japan. It now has different language options and multiple kinds of content for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, unlike its American counterpart, you cannot view its content unless you are within Japan’s borders.

Why is Niconico blocked outside of Japan?

Despite all it could offer to the rest of the world, Niconico remains unavailable outside Japan. Whenever you try to open it outside that country, you’ll most likely get an error message. The reason/agent behind that message is geo-restriction.

Geo-restriction here refers to when Niconico prevents you from accessing its content because you’re not in Japan. After checking your IP address and seeing that you aren’t within the country, this function in Niconico kicks in and immediately halts your video streaming plans.

As bad as it is, it’s not entirely awful. With a VPN, you can get around this barrier. Simply connect to one, select a Japanese IP address, and there you go. 

What are the best VPNs for Niconico outside Japan?

If you really want to view Niconico outside Japan, you should use any one of these VPNs. 

ExpressVPN

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Key features

  • No logging of personal data
  • Excellent customer support
  • Over 3000 servers
  • Fast and reliable speeds

ExpressVPN is a virtual private network service provider that has been in existence for more than a decade now. In the areas of unblocking geo-restricted websites and giving users access, it has had quite a lot of success. So much so that it easily ranks at the top of almost every VPN list in the world today.

It has three thousand servers spread out across 164+ locations on earth. These locations include four peculiar spots in Japan. Two of these spots are in Tokyo. The rest are in Yokohama and Kawasaki. If you do choose to subscribe to ExpressVPN, you’ll get access to the servers they have in these locations. With that access, you can tunnel your internet traffic, mask your IP address, and easily get past Niconico’s frustrating error message. The same goes with other Japanese shows such as GYAO or AbemaTV.

It is worthy of note that this VPN isn’t just here because it fulfills the bare minimum. It also has a few strategic advantages. For one, it is located in the British Virgin Islands. This place is widely known for lacking data retention laws. Put simply; the government does not require ExpressVPN to keep your data or submit it to them. As such, you can be sure that no “powers above” are snooping around your internet history.

A subscription on ExpressVPN comes with a guarantee that lasts for the first thirty days. If you are unimpressed by their service, you can simply ask for a refund. After asking little to no questions whatsoever, ExpressVPN will give you your money back.

NordVPN

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Key features

  • Super-affordable
  • Cryptocurrency payments allowed
  • Compatible with all devices
  • Optimized servers with AES 256-bit encryption

This Panama based virtual private network easily takes the second spot on our list. Like the British Virgin Islands, Panama does not have any data retention laws. You already know the advantages that come with that. As such, let’s focus on other things.

To begin with, NordVPN has seventy-two servers in Japan. We cannot specify the location of all 72 of those servers, but it doesn’t take a soothsayer for you to know that’s a lot. This amount of servers makes it easy to switch from one to another in cases of congestion while streaming Niconico. The same goes for other Japanese streaming plattforms such as Amazon Prime Japan or Hulu Japan.

Apart from its strategic position in Panama for your protection, it has an automatic kill-switch that doesn’t go off. They really don’t take any chances with your safety. In case you’re curious, a kill-switch on a VPN is a function that prevents you from catching a virus or spilling your data on the web if your VPN stops working for any reason. It immediately stops the exchange of data between your device and the website(s) you are.

Its dedicated IP address feature also goes quite a distance in providing you with optimum satisfaction while you browse through several videos on Niconico. The feature helps prevent situations where your account is flagged out of suspicion because your IP address changes so often.

One more of its outstanding features is that it can encrypt your data twice. Under normal circumstances, encrypted data is relatively hard to crack. However, with double encrypted data, it becomes nearly impossible for anyone to snoop.

Surfshark

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Key features

  • Ads and tracking blocker
  • Connects unlimited devices simultaneously
  • Excellent speed
  • 24/7 customer support

Coming in quick at number three on our list is SurfShark. For you to view Niconico outside Japan, it has different servers positioned within the country. However, like every other VPN on this list, it goes beyond the basic requirement and throws in a few more perks.

One of those perks that are particularly worthy of mentioning is the number of simultaneous connections available. For most VPNs, they are perfectly comfortable, offering as much as five simultaneous connections to their clients. In a manner of speaking, this is pretty good. However, to give you maximum pleasure while watching Niconico from outside Japan, SurfShark allows you to connect an infinite amount of devices to a single subscription. Share with all your friends if you will. It doesn’t matter. There are no limits.

To spice things up further, SurfShark does not stop at turning your home into a fun, Niconico fiesta. It protects you, too, with its CleanWeb feature. This ensures that throughout the time you are online, you don’t have to worry about unwanted ads, malware, or phishing attempts. SurfShark gets rid of all those for you and lets you focus on your Niconico videos.

The WhiteLister feature complements all of these features. With it, you can choose to tunnel just SurfShark, instead of your whole device. The problem with the latter option is that changing your IP address often can falsely alarm sensitive apps like your mobile banking.

Surfshark is also a great choice for accessing gaming plattforms such as DMM overseas, or also radio plattforms such as Radiko.

UltraVPN

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Key features

  • 256-bit AES encryption.
  • App compatibility with most devices.
  • Unlimited bandwidth.
  • One-click connect.

This is, by all means, another formidable virtual private network in the internet privacy industry. In fairness to the truth, it hasn’t been around for quite as long as the others. Regardless, it still has a solid spot on our list today due to its excellent capabilities.

For one, it has more than a thousand servers across the world. These serve as gateways to all the places you want to access, including Japan, where it has two servers to help you to access Niconico.

These servers are incredibly high-speed and they functionally optimally virtually every minute of the day. With the zero buffering capability, it is sure to help you bypass the restriction as well as enjoy your viewing time on SirfShark. These alone make it an excellent choice for streaming on Niconico. However, there’s still more.

In encrypting your data, it uses 256-bit keys AES. If you aren’t tech-inclined, we’ll explain. UltraVPN uses an advanced encryption system. This encryption system happens to be the best in the world right now. So much so that financial institutions and even government organizations use it to protect their data online. This military-grade encryption system leaves you practically invulnerable online.

It also comes along with a kill-switch as well as a zero-logs policy. The importance of the latter is that they are compelled by their own rules not to keep records of your data.

Its prices are friendly, but it still goes a distance further by providing you with a money-back guarantee. That way, if you happen to be unhappy with the way the VPN works within the first thirty days, you can get a refund.

CyberGhost

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Key features

  • Been around for a long time
  • Robust and fast servers
  • Many servers in Japan

This virtual private network brings us to the end of our list. A veteran in the internet privacy industry, it has had upwards of fifteen years. During that time, it has amassed more than 5900 servers across the world in pretty much every continent. More specifically, you can find its servers in 89 countries in the world today.

If you choose to subscribe to this VPN, you’ll gain access to about 44 servers in Japan to stream Niconico through. This many alternatives provides you with much-needed flexibility.

Their customer care is excellent. Apart from the numerous details they have online to solve issues yourself, they are available 24/7 for contact.

CyberGhost makes it a policy not to keep records of what you do online or why you do it. With them, your information is safe. Their prices are standard. Nevertheless, they still provide you with options.

For example, on your mobile device, you can enjoy a full day of internet privacy services entirely free of charge. Going further down that freedom from risk, you get fourteen days of risk-free trial on thirty-day subscriptions. Also, you have forty-five days of risk-free trials on subscriptions that go beyond thirty days.

It also uses a 256-bit advanced encryption system. It has up to seven slots available per subscription for you to connect to. For all of these reasons, and a little bit more, CyberGhost is an excellent choice for you to stream Niconico.

What are the important things to look out for before making your final purchase decision?

In playing our part to help you bypass the restriction around Niconico, we have recommended the very best VPNs in the industry. Pooled together, they have several million users combined, and all offer excellent services. However, unless you are planning to subscribe to all five of them, you still need to decide which to choose. In that case, here are a few things you should consider before making your final choice:

1. Cost

For some people, this might not be much of a problem. TO them, as long as a brand is offering enough value, their cost is inconsequential. However, you might like to tread the financial path a bit more carefully, regardless of how much you have. 

As such, you should definitely consider how much the VPN charges before making your final decision. On our list, some are more expensive than others, but they all give you the value of your money. If you choose to go outside our list, ensure that you do not trade quality for affordability.

2. Number of simultaneous connections 

Niconico is a video-sharing platform that your entire family can enjoy. Assuming you aren’t quite there yet and you still stay alone, yourself and your friends can still enjoy it. With that in mind, it’s always a great idea to look at how many devices you can connect per subscription.

Some VPNs on our list offer five. Some offer six. Some break the record completely and offer an infinite amount. Think of which one works best for you and make your decision based on that. 

An important thing to note while you make your choice is the speed too. While selecting the VPN that has the right amount of servers for you, make sure that you wouldn’t have to deal with constant buffering afterward. It would be all too frustrating to be able to connect multiple devices but struggle with speed on all of them.

3. Availability of servers

The most basic prerequisite for a VPN to be able to help you stream Niconico outside Japan is to have servers within Japan. As such, every last Virtual Private Network we mentioned earlier in the article has VPNs in that part of Asia.

However, some can boast of more than others. NordVPN, for example, has about 72 servers in Japan. CyberGhost comes in close with forty-four servers. The whole point is to be able to connect. However, if you want a lot of choices, you can go for those with higher servers. 

What’s important is that you don’t sacrifice an excellent quality in another VPN. It would be wrong to do so just because you fancy having many servers to choose from.

In conclusion 

Niconico is one of the most popular platforms in Japan. It gives you access to her rich and beautiful culture. It’ll be such a shame if you are irreversibly unable to get access to it. Thankfully, all VPNs on our list are fully capable of eliminating that issue for you.