Choosing a Japan Shipping Service: 4 Things to Check Before You Pay

1. The warehouse address in Japan, the recipient name, and whose name is on the account

Ask for the Japanese warehouse address in writing, in Japanese and in English, postcode included. This is not a sincerity test — it is something you actually need, because when you order from a Japanese shop you are the one typing that address into the recipient field. A provider who cannot give you the address until you have paid a deposit is a provider with nothing yet to check. Drop it into Google Maps once while you are at it. An industrial area or a suburban commercial building is normal for this kind of warehouse — but if the pin lands on a residential condo, a convenience store, or nothing at all, ask about it first.

The address has to come with a recipient name or a code that is yours. One warehouse takes in hundreds of boxes a day, and what says whose box is whose is that line. If all you get is a bare address and "we'll know when it arrives", they have no way to match parcels to customers.

On the company side, ask for the registered name and the 13-digit registration number, then look it up on the Department of Business Development site: check that it exists, and that the bank account you are told to pay matches the registered name. That carries more weight than a follower count — the day something goes wrong, you can trace a registered company, not a LINE display name.

If you already buy from Japanese shops yourself and only need someone to receive and ship, those two are nearly all you need. That side of it is in the parcel forwarding guide.

2. Shipping costs stated clearly, with nothing buried

A rate table published on the site, readable without adding anyone on LINE, differs from a quote you have to ask for in one way that matters: a number published in one place applies to everyone equally, while a number given in chat can change every time it is asked for.

Look at how many routes that table offers, too. A provider running both sea and air lets you match the route to the goods — heavy and not urgent by sea, urgent or fragile by air — while one that runs a single route leaves you with no option the day your goods do not suit it. Each route should come with its own transit time.

But freight per kilo is one line among several. Before you decide, get all of them:

• •the exchange rate used for the goods, and which day's rate applies
• •the purchase service fee — flat per item, or a percentage of the price
• •freight home, charged by weight or by box size, and the minimum charged
• •domestic shipping inside Japan from the shop to the warehouse, the line most often left out
• •delivery from the Thai warehouse to your door, and repacking if there is a charge for it

A provider who quotes a per-kilo rate and lets the rest surface once the goods are in Thailand is not cheaper — it just told you later. All five should be readable on one page before you decide: ours — how we price the goods, the fee per item and freight by weight — are on the fees page.

3. A list of what cannot ship, published before you sign up

Anyone shipping every day knows what the airlines and shipping lines will not pass, and writes that list down where you can read it before signing up — not once your box is already sitting in the warehouse. "We can ship anything" is more alarming than a two-page list of restrictions.

A restricted list comes from three sources at once: Thai law, the carrier's own air or sea cargo rules, and the conditions each company sets for its own route. Counterfeit goods fall under the first, lithium batteries under the second, and spirits or sake under the third — plenty of forwarders refuse them outright even though the law treats them as licensable rather than banned. A provider who knows the work can tell you which of the three your item falls under.

Ask the follow-up: if something reaches the warehouse and turns out to be unshippable, is it disposed of, returned, or held for you to collect in Japan — and who pays? A provider who has handled it before answers without pausing.

The kind of list you want to find before you order looks like this list of what cannot be shipped back to Thailand: named items, not a vague line about anything illegal.

4. Parcel status and loss terms you can check yourself

These two come from the same root: does the provider record goods box by box?

Ask whether, once your goods reach the warehouse in Japan, you can see for yourself how many boxes there are, what they weigh and which departure they are on — or whether you have to message and wait every time. A system you log into is not automatically the better provider, but it does mean parcels are recorded individually, which is the record that answers the question when one goes missing.

On loss and damage, look for it in writing before you commit: a stated liability cap, per box or per tracking number; a clear split between goods damaged before they reached the warehouse and goods lost after they arrived; and what evidence a claim needs. "We cover everything" said in chat and written nowhere is worth nothing.

Frequently asked questions