change in exporting items from Japan - WTF?

[rkg]

Hi,

 

I have been going back and forth with my agent in Japan about an item I recently bought and am trying to get shipped to me. 

 

Does anybody know about any recent changes (starting Nov. 1) regarding shipping items from Japan?  Did something change?

 

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here's what they said:

Dear customer, 1. Now you can declare 80% of the total price of the parcel and unfortunately we will not change this state in future.

2. You can edit your declaration only at parcel creation stage.

3. You can not edit names of the items or change the amount of lines in declarations due to Japan new customs rugulations. This is very important because from november it will become essential to have clear parcel content description in the declaration. In case it is incorrect the whole parcel could be declined by shipping service and our company will suffer penaltys.

We really hope for your understanding.

Best regards,

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Is this something that is happening everywhere now?

 

Thanks,

rkg

(Richard George)

[SteveM]

It could be related to Japan's implementation of a digitized shipping-label printing system. Previously, labels (Japan Post, EMS) could be handwritten. Now all the information has to be input into a system which will create the printed label. I haven't used the new system myself, so I'm not sure about the details, but I think it means less flexibility for how contents are described.