Your stock is ready to ship to a Japanese fulfilment centre and someone has asked who the importer of record is. It is not Amazon.
This situation is the least forgiving of the three on this site, because the cost of getting it wrong is stock sitting at a port rather than an email that needs rewriting.
Guides for it are being written, starting with who can act as importer of record, what a customs representative actually does and costs, and how a commercial invoice for Japanese customs differs from the one you send a customer. Until they are up, the newsletter below is the way to be told.
The order things happen in Japan
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Decide who imports
Goods entering Japan need a party responsible for the import declaration. The marketplace does not take that role for you.
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Appoint a representative
An overseas seller with no presence in Japan generally needs someone in Japan able to handle customs procedures.
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Prepare the documents
A commercial invoice written for a customer is not written for customs. Descriptions, values and classifications get queried.
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Pay duty and import tax
These fall due at import, before a single unit has sold.
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Deliver to the centre
Labelling and packaging requirements are checked on receipt and rejected stock goes nowhere.
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Sell and settle
Consumption tax on your sales is a separate question from the tax you paid at import.
What Japanese companies expect from you
- A named party in Japan who can answer customs about your shipment.
- Documents whose descriptions and values match each other and the shipment.
- Duty and import consumption tax paid at import, out of working capital.
- Product labelling that meets the Japanese requirements for that category.
Guides for this situation
When to hire someone
| Who | What they are for | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|
| A customs broker (通関業者, tsūkan gyōsha) | Every shipment. They prepare the declaration. | Per shipment, varies with value and classification |
| An attorney for customs procedures (税関事務管理人) | You are an overseas seller with no Japanese entity and need a representative for customs matters. | Monthly retainers are common |
| 税理士 (zeirishi, tax accountant) | Consumption tax on your Japanese sales, and the treatment of tax paid at import. | ¥30,000–¥80,000 for a one-off consultation is a figure we have seen quoted |
Need a second pair of eyes?
Send us the quote, invoice or pricing page before it goes to a Japanese buyer and we mark up what their side will stop on. See what a review covers — it opens to a waitlist first.
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