Sword Negotiations

[lovelight]

Hello. I am considering acquiring a piece from a seller in Japan and wanted to see if I may be able to draw upon the knowledge of the experience in this forum.  The seller posts on their website that the price is "including tax" so I assume that means it would be less 8% if purchased for export.  Is that a fair assumption?  When I went to view the katana in person, he seemed to suggest it was the pre-tax price so I was confused.  Between my poor Japanese, his poor English, and the hand held electronic translation device, we couldn't seem to zero in on a common understanding.

 

In terms of negotiating a price, what is a reasonable starting point to offer?  Would 10% off be acceptable?  I don't want to create a situation where I offend as I was planning on having koshirae built.  The item is in shirasaya now but I would like to go ahead and have any work done for it while it is still in Japan.  The item also has tokubetsu kicho token papers so I suppose it is recommended to have it resubmitted for evaluation before it leaves the country.  

 

The dealer is certainly well established and reputable. I'm not worried about that aspect. I would like to make sure that I'm getting a fair price and getting any in-country tasks done before it ships to me in the US.  Thanks in advance for your help and insight.  This is a rather important purchase for me and my family.

 

Ron

[mywei]

I guess it depends on the sword and dealer, but I would think that a 10% discount is do-able.

[Guido]

Since the introduction of consumption tax in Japan in April of 1989, there has been much confusion among businesses about the system.

Without going into all the details, if you want to buy a sword tax free while in Japan for less than 6 months, and want to take the sword with you when leaving Japan, the vendor has to be a so called “designated store”, i.e. registered for tax exemption with the Ministry of Finance. Exports (by shipping abroad) are generally exempted from taxation.

However, smaller shops – like sword dealers – are not familiar with the procedures, and often will refuse to sell tax free. There’s not much you can do about that: once the tax is collected, it has to be paid to the government, there’s no reimbursement after that.

As to discounts: 10% (and then maybe rounded to an even amount) is usually the most you can get as a first-time customer.

[John A Stuart]

When you get the exemption they attach it to your passport for your exit. John

[Curran]

Guido says it all. Thanks to him and others here who help us less experienced w/ Japan.

 

I wasn't even aware of the designated store thing until buying a gift for the wife at Mitsukoshi Dept Store.

They kindly directed me to the 2nd floor next door building, where I waited in line with a bunch of Chinese tourist. I filled out a form, and tax refund was almost instantly given.

[lovelight]

Thanks everyone.  The store is one of the biggest I've been to in Japan and also moves a lot of budo gear.  I'm 99.9% certain they export internationally so I'll assume they familiar with  tax free processes for exports.  I can't find anything on their website referencing tax free purchases.  It just seems impossible that they wouldn't for international nihonto sales.

 

My plan is to have custom koshirae created for the blade.  They said it can be done in 2-3 months.  After that I'll ask that they ship it to me.  I do not plan on taking it back with me from Japan on my flight. If I can get the 8% taken off for tax, I won't be that much over my original budget and getting something that's a bit more fancy than I had originally planned.

 

I haven't decided if I should go to the trouble to submit the sword for a modern shinsa paperwork.  I guess I'll worry about that after I hear back from the questions about taxes, price negotiations, etc.