International Shipping

[Sukaira]

I wanted to ask if anyone has sent a sword from Japan to the USA recently? The last one that came in for me was months ago and I have seen Aoi Art recently stopped using everything except for a carrier called OCS. 

 

Does anyone know what is really going on? Considering keeping my swords in Japan over there for a while until this clears up.

 

Thanks

Edited October 27 by Sukaira

[Lexvdjagt]

Hello Sukaira,

Shipping it the US is no longer possible with EMS because of the recent tariff implementation. This will likely eventually be solved. In the Netherlands there was an issue as well because US customs forced our national post agency to have the sender pay the tariff. I don’t really know if Japan post has the same issue, but it could very well be.

 

Picking up swords in person is basically the easiest.

[Gerry]

All USPS shipments from Japan has been halted because of the US customs dept requirement of the outbound country collecting tariffs for the US before shipment. EMS Japan currently does not have this ability. The issue is severe enough that the UN is getting involved.

 

Therefore, the only couriers available from Japan to the US will be companies that already have the ability to do this. I recently had a sword ship via UPS, and the UPS system collected tariffs on behalf of US Customs.

Edited November 10 by Gerry

[John C]

I just had some books delivered from Japan, though books are exempt from tariffs. But they used DHL and it took only 4 days.

 

John C.

[atm]

Even though I recently bought a blade in Japan, I would not try shipping it to the U.S. right now. As noted, EMS is not an option. UPS is reportedly destroying some international packages (link to article), which is not a risk I will take. OCS may be an option, but I don’t know if they have a U.S. customs broker. Then add in the usual chaos, volume, and theft of shipping around the holidays.

 

I asked several dealers at DTI how they were shipping to the U.S. Answers varied from “UPS is no problem” to “OCS” to “we cannot right now, but maybe we can ship it next year.” The answers did not give me much comfort. And even if they can ship, tariffs still add 15%.

 

I will just have my blade held in Japan unless things improve soon. Maybe I will make a special trip to Japan next year just to bring mine back personally. In that case, I should buy a couple more to make the trip worthwhile. 

[Ed]

On 10/28/2025 at 5:44 AM, Lexvdjagt said:

Hello Sukaira,

Shipping it the US is no longer possible with EMS because of the recent tariff implementation. This will likely eventually be solved. In the Netherlands there was an issue as well because US customs forced our national post agency to have the sender pay the tariff. I don’t really know if Japan post has the same issue, but it could very well be.

 

Picking up swords in person is basically the easiest.

I have a sword shipped from the US currently in customs in the Netherlands. Haven't received any notification regarding tariff payment.......yet.

[Ed]

Had a couple of shipments recently from Japan. Not swords, but I did pay UPS the tariff before they would ship. 

[Lexvdjagt]

12 minutes ago, Ed said:

I have a sword shipped from the US currently in customs in the Netherlands. Haven't received any notification regarding tariff payment.......yet.

Hello Ed,

 

Shipments from the US —> Netherlands are unchanged from the previous no US tariff situation (So either 9% or 21% VAT depending on the HS code used). The tariff is only applicable when you ship goods from outside the US to the US.

 

Its wise to get a good grip of the different HS codes, please feel free to send me a message if you’d like me to provide the best HS codes to get the 9% VAT charge (in Dutch customs).

 

Groetjes,

Lex

[Ed]

Just now, Lexvdjagt said:

Hello Ed,

 

Shipments from the US —> Netherlands are unchanged from the previous no US tariff situation (So either 9% or 21% VAT depending on the HS code used). The tariff is only applicable when you ship goods from outside the US to the US.

 

Its wise to get a good grip of the different HS codes, please feel free to send me a message if you’d like me to provide the best HS codes to get the 9% VAT charge (in Dutch customs).

 

Groetjes,

Lex

 

I was only replying to the statement, "US customs forced our national post agency to have the sender pay the tariff".  Perhaps I misunderstood your meaning of having the sender pay tariff. ?

[Lexvdjagt]

33 minutes ago, Ed said:

 

I was only replying to the statement, "US customs forced our national post agency to have the sender pay the tariff".  Perhaps I misunderstood your meaning of having the sender pay tariff. ?

Hello Ed,

 

My apologies, I might not have been very clear in my previous message. What I specifically meant is that when shipping to the US through PostNL (especially when you are under contract with PostNL). They will charge you the US tariff when the package arrives at US customs. So not the buyer but the sender. This same situation caused issues when shipping from Japan to the US as well as mentioned by @Gerry.

[Ed]

29 minutes ago, Lexvdjagt said:

Hello Ed,

 

My apologies, I might not have been very clear in my previous message. What I specifically meant is that when shipping to the US through PostNL (especially when you are under contract with PostNL). They will charge you the US tariff when the package arrives at US customs. So not the buyer but the sender. This same situation caused issues when shipping from Japan to the US as well as mentioned by @Gerry.

 

Ah, yes, sorry I misunderstood. Thanks for clearing that up.

Ed

[Sukaira]

I am going to call UPS and ask explicitly, but yeah I also have told my sellers to hold my swords in Japan for personal pick up in February. There is one that is going to ship soon and I will update this thread when it does to let everyone know if it actually works.