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Japan Post Suspends Parcel Shipments to the US - Sort of...


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Has anyone seen this yet? This comes from one of my shippers down the way.

 

Japan Post's announcement that they are suspending all airmail and EMS parcel shipment to the US over 16oz (1lb) certainly created quite a bit of outrage among American Anime fans this week.

 

Here is the headline:

 

"The Japan Post Office announced November 12 that from November 17 it would indefinitely stop accepting mail parcels to the United States weighing more than 453 grams. The Post Office has at this time given no indication of how long this suspension will last only saying that it is "for the time being." This suspension includes all regular international airmail parcels, as well as EMS. The Japan Post Office (JPO) has cut Japan off from the US entirely, at least as far as airmail parcels over a pound in weight go. The reason the JPO gives for this action is that following attempts to send explosives through air cargo from Yemen to the US, American security measures for air cargo have become increasingly severe. America and Guam are included in this provision, raising the strong possibility that Christmas and year end parcels will not be able to be sent from Japan to the US, which is likely to cause massive confusion."

 

According to another report, the new restrictions have also been picked up by the commercial carriers like DHL, FedEx and Kuroneko Yamato

 

"According to Yamato Transport and DHL Japan customer service reps (as on November 16, 2010), you must submit the recipient's Social Security Number or Federal Tax ID number of the company or they will not accept the package. The information will be submitted to TSA. Fedex Japan customer service replied that as long as the package is "gift" and less than $100, they won't request the social security number. According to Yamato, Fedex Japan and DHL Japan, they are not planning to stop shipping packages to the US in the near future as on today. There may be a few delay due to the tighter inspection of the local authorities. But they have not recognized any significant delays yet."

 

Ahhh, those pesky terrorists with their bombs and explosives. It seems to me that when they end up shutting down commerce from one place to another, that they've pretty much achieved their goals. But let's parse the facts from the fiction.

 

All of these carriers, including the post office, use freight available space on commercial flights for overseas parcel shipments. It's pretty clear that what these restrictions are intended to prevent are 'anonymous' parcels from entering the system and being shipped between Japan and the US. That would include stamped airmail or EMS parcel over a certain sized being placed in letter boxes, or personal mailings over 1lb. These rules DO NOT effect businesses that ship with corporate mailing accounts, which almost every business has - so firms like CD Japan can still ship you your overpriced Japanese BD's without worry over the new size and weight rules. The same applies to the commercial carriers. Shippers with commercial shipping accounts will not be effected, only individuals folks trying to make personal shipments. Folks in Japan selling and exporting a lot of stuff via Yahoo Auctions, for example, that do not have a commercial shipping or mail account are probably having a really bad day. They will still be able to ship +1lb parcels to the US, but it will just be harder as they will have to provide the recipients SSN for individuals (and a lot of folks are not going to want to give them that info) or an FIN for shipments to a business.

 

So while these new rules will cause some inconvenience, they really aren't that big a deal. They won't effect us any either as we have a commercial import license we use for shipments of for goods from Japan (and we pay ALL customs and duties on those goods as well). More the worry will be the delays caused by increased inspections of incoming Japanese parcels by US Customs, so individuals importing Anime goods from Japan should just be prepared for longer delivery times of their parcels - especially if they are being sent via the postal service.

 

 

Moderator Note: Also see related topic: http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,3776.msg37963.html#msg37963

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There is absolutely no mention of this on Japan Post's International Mail News page.

 

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/index_en.html

 

The new regulations are true.  For those who can read Japanese, it's here:

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/whats_new/2010/1112_02_c01.pdf

 

*I suspect this will last through the holiday season, as the USPS or Homeland Security (or whatever stateside) is probably overloaded inspecting parcels.  Anyway, lets thank the "GWOT" again for making us safe from "those that hate our freedoms".  I guess I'll be ordering gift certificates for family rather than sending anything for Xmas.

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Ah, The Atlantic, citizen journalism run a muck on the blog. An origination where every piece of copy is an editorial presented as news. It makes me so proud to see objective journalism by over-educated math teachers and Madison Avenue house wives still lives.

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Something that yet to be touched upon is: how is this going to affect Jun, and Plaza Japan?

 

I wonder about all the eBay dealers, like Hit-Japan etc., but remember this applies only to US bound shipments so far.

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Mudkip Orange

Great, so now I'm going to have to use my expat friends to relay my next shipment in.

 

Buying a model train set is now more complex then purchasing illegal narcotics. Way to go, America.

 

raises arms for the TSA feelup

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Something that yet to be touched upon is: how is this going to affect Jun, and Plaza Japan?

 

I wonder about all the eBay dealers, like Hit-Japan etc., but remember this applies only to US bound shipments so far.

 

I thought Hit-Japan is an actual retailer w/ a physical brick and mortar store, and not so much a little ma-n-pa shop running out of the basement of someone's house.

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Great, so now I'm going to have to use my expat friends to relay my next shipment in.

 

Buying a model train set is now more complex then purchasing illegal narcotics. Way to go, America.

 

raises arms for the TSA feelup

I'm with you Mudkip, this is ridiculous.  I'm about at my limit.  Although please don't ask me how to solve this.....

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Great, so now I'm going to have to use my expat friends to relay my next shipment in.

 

Buying a model train set is now more complex then purchasing illegal narcotics. Way to go, America.

 

raises arms for the TSA feelup

 

Yeah, and had a plane blown up two weeks ago, every bloody person in the US would be up in arms outraged that these restrictions were not implemented years ago.

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Mudkip Orange

every bloody person in the US would be up in arms outraged that these restrictions were not implemented years ago.

 

Which is 67% of the problem right there.

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well this is not a problem with a simple solution. passenger flights are now loaded full of cargo these days as the baggage charges have greatly increased the amount of room in the baggage compartments. if you say no cargo on passenger planes then you end up with very high ticket prices as they make a lot of their $$ on cargo, not the passengers. over all passenger airline industry has never really made a real profit when you look at its whole history.

 

scanning all packages may be possible, but will take a lot of time and money to get to the point to do that. lockerby showed it did not take a huge or sophisticated bomb to bring a plane down.

 

while these may only have been simple tests to probe the system and disrupt commerce, whats the solution? keep things really open and run the risk of a successful bombing? its always a balance and this one is really complex.

 

one thing after lockerby they were talking alot about going to cargo containers for all luggage and cargo for planes and then trying to bombproof those more, but i have not heard much about that in a long time. sure the airline industry is not into that much due to the retrofit costs and weight issues.

 

wonder if the volume plazajapan does means they have an exporter license to get them around this? always thought he may have a hobby shop in japan.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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After Lockerbe, ALL cargo containers were replaced with bomb proof containers, and stricter screening protocols went in to effect. THere should not be any pre-lockerbee containers in use anywhere anymore.100% of all air cargo that goes on to passenger aircraft are suppose to be be screened. However that only applies to direct flights in to thew US. Cargo flights are almost as hard to achieve 100% compliance as is surface cargo (part of what the Coast Guard wants to pull me in to ala Trident Program)

 

Speaking of Japan not touching US bound parcels, when I was leaving Narita last year and the US demanded extra security as a result of the underwear bomber, you could see how annoyed the Japanese officials were with the US imposed security increase. TBS was interview a US flight marshal just prior to boarding on my flight of which, a middle aged couple in front of me from the US made their indigence well known. I sorta suggested he not much such a capital case, when I pointed out the air marshal to him.

 

Frankly if terrorists want to take down a plane, they will, and it's not so hard to do. All the TSA does is provide a dog and pony show to make people think the planes are safer than they really are. One things five and a half years with the US Coast Guard has taught me is that DHS feels the only real defense against terrorists is vigilance. Everything else is just window dressing to serve the public faith. The only real way to keep passengers safe is going to be a lot more intrusion than "Don't touch my junk" with an Israeli style of security. And man, we all know the ACLU would be all over that.

 

In the end, judging by how the Japanese officials were irate over the additional passenger screening this past May, I'm sure this is not a knee jerk reaction they are having now to the US, but rather a matter of,m "We're tired of taking your crap. Just cause you're not playing well with the middle east doesn't mean we have to jump through hoops for you anymore" As there has been no al'quida attacks on Japan, and they feel the chances of one are pretty slim, they aren't taking well to the US proactive stance on the matter.

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This is not good. Rainbow Ten has this notice on their web site:

 

"Notice: We will be closing this year's shipping for non-registered shipment from 17th Dec until Jan 5th. We can continue shipping registered shipment even during new year vacation time."

 

No last minute EMS orders.

 

http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/index.html

 

Tokyo Rail says:

 

"To an American customer. Now we can't do dispatch by airmail temporarily so that America saves security of an aircraft from a terrorist."

 

http://tokyo-rail.com/index.php?currency=JPY&main_page=index

 

It looks like this may be closing off the smaller dealers.  Are any of the international dealers really big enough to be corporate customers?

 

How far away is a black market for Japanese popular culture?

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Mudkip Orange

Maybe us Aussies can make a few bucks buying stuff and forwarding it on to the U.S. :grin

 

We got enough folks doing that already with 500% markups

 

Paging Doug Coster

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Maybe us Aussies can make a few bucks buying stuff and forwarding it on to the U.S. :grin

 

We got enough folks doing that already with 500% markups

For a slight extra charge on top of that I'd go to Japan to pick your purchase up in person. :grin

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If they are doing this sort of security with japan post i would not be surprised it might happen with a lot of countries then. shipping austraila <> us is pretty expensive (worse than japan), no really cheap options open.

 

glad i got my castle shipped...

 

wonder if sea mail will come back?!

 

cheers

 

jeff

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If they are doing this sort of security with japan post i would not be surprised it might happen with a lot of countries then. shipping austraila <> us is pretty expensive (worse than japan), no really cheap options open.

 

glad i got my castle shipped...

 

wonder if sea mail will come back?!

 

cheers

 

jeff

You could move to Australia, we've got plenty of room down here.

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You could move to Australia, we've got plenty of room down here.

 

if palin is ever elected pres or vp we will be down in a flash!

 

jeff

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Mudkip Orange

You could move to Australia, we've got plenty of room down here.

 

If I had a respectable job offer in Melbourne or Sydney metro I would move tomorrow.

 

Something about the combination of top-notch urban public transport with easily-available RWD V8 power for weekends of beaches and mountains. Onto this you have some very pretty women, and one doesn't have to own an electric clothes dryer to be a respectable member of society. You Aussies refuse to stand helplessly by as your favorite clothes are slowly shrunk and shredded by a rotating metal oven, and for that I have the utmost respect.

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if palin is ever elected pres or vp we will be down in a flash!

 

But I don't recall any huge influx of immigrants to the south Pacific, from the US, when the younger Bush was elected :)))))

 

Angus

 

(NZ)

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