The only reason i order directly from japanese online store is because the price and their fast shipping compared to my local hobby store.
But LP premium price, flat high shipping price and their slowness make them bad in every aspect imo (why the hell we need to remind them/asked to shipped our order?).
I would prefer pay the premium price when the item is released rather than pay permium PO price from them, at least i know i would get the item immediately.
They always seems to accept order before other store start doing so and closed the order long after another store. This make me think that maybe they source their stock not only from the manufacturer but also buying it as customer from another store? This practice is the one that make NP dead.