抽選
抽選 – chūsen. Refers to any kind of lottery. For event ticketing, this is the most common way to control the influx of people trying to get them as it supposedly gives everyone a fair chance, minimizing early congestion and other risks associated with first-come-first-serve. This is also done for day-of tickets if there are too many people lined up for it (see waiting list and day-of ticket).
There are differences and variations but electronic ticket lotteries are normally carried out in three stages:
The application period starts. You enter the lottery, request for seats with consecutive numbers (連番; renban), and decide on a payment method (Card, convenience store, bank transfer, etc.). This usually lasts a few weeks to a month. You can only request a limited number of seats per application, generally 1-4 but it can go higher. Whether or not it affects your chances is up for speculation.
Application closes, drawing will take place electronically, and results will be posted within a few days. Normally, you receive an email telling you that the ticket is being prepared for you or not according to the results. In eventing circles, this is where the dreaded “dekimasen-ed” comes from since you only need to find できませんでした to know that you didn’t win the lottery. Another way to check is to look for payment details with cost breakdowns. If there are, you won the lottery.
Payment and ticket redemption. Checking the dates is a must since it varies a lot as some events put their deadline a few days after the results come out while some are more lenient. Same goes for ticket redemption, where it might put a deadline the day before the actual event or a month after it for no reason. Payment depends on the method. Card payments put a hold starting from the day of application that gets charged after the payment period ends. Payment via convenience store and bank transfer must be done within that period or the ticket will be released back into the ticket pool.