Japan: To Shipit Or Not To Shipit

Shipit users will not be able to ship everything. It is not only true about the items that are too big to carry in a suitcase but also the items that are prohibited or regulated by customs. Today we take a look at customs regulations of Japan

In general, upon getting somewhat familiar with Japan customs regulations, one might think that they do not seem to be overly strict. As in many other countries everything mainly depends on the type and market value of each item. Naturally, everything that does not fall under duty-free category (personal effects that you are going to use during your stay are duty free) or is delivered as an unaccompanied luggage must be filed in a declaration form specifying the worth of every article.

As usual, explosives, precursor materials for chemical weapons, drugs, firearms, pornography are off the table straight away. Medicine and cosmetics are subject to restrictions: no more than two-month supply of the former and 24 applications of the latter. Animals and plants must be submitted to quarantine inspector for examination. Hunting or air guns, swords and, probably, crossbows are prohibited as well. If you are a cosplay fan, please, stick to articles made of plastic which cannot do any real harm.

Moving on, alcohol and tobacco are duty-free in case there are no more than 3 bottles, 100 cigars, 400 cigarettes manufactured in Japan or overseas and 500 grams (17,6 oz) of any other kind of tobacco. If you carry different kinds of tobacco at once 500 grams is the overall limit. If you need some perfume to conceal the smell of smoke be sure to carry less than 56 grams (2 oz) of it.

Items of any other kind that you may be requested to declare are cleared according to their average market value overseas. In case the latter is below 10,000 yen (approximately 90 USD), the item in question is free of all duties and taxes; otherwise it is included in the list that is subject to duty charges. The overall market value of the items on this list should be less than 200,000 yen (approximately 1,800 USD) for them to be duty-free. Any single item or a set of items which value exceeds 200,000 yen limit will be charged a duty or tax in any case.

Now, let’s have a look at how much luggage space (both in terms of volume and monetary limits) you can spare for a couple of items you might be delivering for other Shipit users and how much profit you could make.

You are traveling light (a couple of shirts, t-shirts, jackets, jeans, pants, underwear articles, maybe an umbrella and a pair of sunglasses, a tablet and a smartphone) and have about 1/4 or even 1/3 of your luggage space and 1,800 USD of monetary limit to allocate to the items you have picked via Shipit app. We take the monetary limit into consideration as it may be applicable in case Shipit travelers were obliged to declare the items they deliver for senders not as their personal effects. Among the items you are delivering, there are two books (each is below 90 USD limit), a PVC figure of a comic-book character (still below the limit), a 400 USD wrist watch and a 800 USD smartphone that perfectly fit into your suitcase and are duty-free. Your total traveler’s fee is 250 USD and the flight ticket’s price is 750 USD.

At the same time, the sender for whom you are delivering those items saves around 100 USD, at the very least, compared to what they might be requested to pay for the parcel delivery service of a huge logistic company. Additionally, the delivery takes two days at longest instead of five-six days in case of logistics companies.

To conclude, we think that people can do many things much more efficiently if given the right tools. Express deliveries definitely could and should be among those thing and Shipit — be the right tool.