Over and over again, mail gets delayed on its way to us, but not always is it the fault of any of the postal administrations...

-> Send mail to P.O. box address!!


• We get letters and parcel to our P.O. box 13 times a week, as opposed to mail to our street address, which is delivered only six times a week.
  
• Japan is haunted by natural desasters like torrential rains and typhoons. Mail delivered to our office mailbox during our days off (Sun, Mon) will reach us in a much worse condition than mail delivered to our P.O. box.
  

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  -> Affix correct postage!!
  
• Some P.O. clerks, but strangely enough, also some collectors, suppose Japan to be located somewhere in Europe or North America, and affix reduced or domestic rate postage only. The result - mail arrives by sea mail (see below), or with a surcharge for postage due, or even both! Our customers and suppliers in the U.S. now have a great internet site at their disposal - the USPS offers a postage rate calculator for international shipments, which also gives you a rough estimate on transit time. The Royal Mail in England offers a similar postage rate calculator, but without transit time estimations.
  
• Insufficiently prepaid mail is returned upon arrival as per our standing instructions to our local postmaster. The same applies to mail franked with invalid or re-used stamps (be careful, one of our P.O. guys is an avid collector!!).

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  -> Air mail vs. sea mail!!
  
• Do not forget to put an air mail sticker on your letters! Some P.O. clerks would throw your mail into the sea mail bag despite correct postage, just because the air mail sticker is missing!
  
• Air mail to Japan takes 3 to 5 days from Europe, and about a week from N. America.
• SAL (available for parcels only) takes about 10 to 20 days
• Sea mail to Japan takes about one to two months, depending on the origin.
  
  
  So, if you're in a hurry...

You'll probably be surprised to find such basic info among our documentations, but if you took a look at our incoming mail, you'd certainly understand...

-> Customs


• If you send us goods for sale or on consignment, they may be held up at customs. For this reason, all documentation (lists, invoices etc.) should be sent by separate air mail, so that any request by customs officials for documentation can be honored without delay.
  
• High amounts on a customs label or on insured mail is an invitation for the bad guys that tells them "grab this piece of mail"! So your goodies could disappear before they even reach Japan. If you have to put an amount on the customs label (and you should), quote some odd amout around the $70 mark. If your countrie's mail system allows for mail to be insured, the same applies. It's the special treatment, not the amount.

And here's the way back to our English index page.