Shipping issues from Japan to Switzerland (nihontō)

[YOSE]

Greetings from Switzerland.

I am very new to this forum, which I find wonderful. Loads of priceless knowledge, expertise and experts.

 

MY QUESTION

I have attempted to purchase nihontō from Japan lately, but every dealer I interacted with declined shipping to Switzerland as they 'cannot ship to Switzerland' for some reason.

This is curious to me as katana (whether a mozōtō or a live blade) is not considered a regulated weapon according to Swiss laws, thus should not cause any problem at the customs. Some of the dealers mentioned something related to EMS, which I did not grasp.

 

May I ask the collective wisdom here for some guidance as to how to import a nihontō to Switzerland ?

Sincere thanks in advance.

 

 

[Brian]

EMS (last time I checked) will not ship swords unless the flight is a direct one with no stopovers. Therefore they only deliver to a few countries. Fedex is an option, but is much more expensive.
 

[reinhard]

Hi Yoshi,

 

EMS worked perfectly fine with me and my Japanese associates until some years ago.

All of a sudden EMS refused to ship swords to Switzerland, claiming problems with SWISS airlines.

That was and is actually not true.

Asking SWISS cargo they confirmed that they will transport antique blades without a problem.

Asking again in Japan it turned out the problem was more likely to be located at inner Japanese traffic.

A blade sent from any place in Japan eventually has to take its way to another airport in Japan before leaving the country.

That's where Japanese regulations start to become a problem for EMS.

Anyway, the blade in question made its way to Switzerland with Fedex without any problems.

 

reinhard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YOSE]

  On 5/17/2023 at 11:50 PM, reinhard said:

Hi Yoshi,

 

EMS worked perfectly fine with me and my Japanese associates until some years ago.

All of a sudden EMS refused to ship swords to Switzerland, claiming problems with SWISS airlines.

That was and is actually not true.

Asking SWISS cargo they confirmed that they will transport antique blades without a problem.

Asking again in Japan it turned out the problem was more likely to be located at inner Japanese traffic.

A blade sent from any place in Japan eventually has to take its way to another airport in Japan before leaving the country.

That's where Japanese regulations start to become a problem for EMS.

Anyway, the blade in question made its way to Switzerland with Fedex without any problems.

 

reinhard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So, asking to ship with FedEx should in principle solve the problem? That is good news. Thank you.

[Brian]

Not necessarily. Different dealers have different agreements with the couriers, so some may ship with Fedex and some may choose not to.
Places like Aoi seem to have good overseas methods, and dealers who don't ship overseas often may not want the bother. It may be worthwhile to contact someone like Kelly Schmidt (search the forum for him) and ask him if he's willing to broker for a fee.

[Jean]

@Keichodo will do it also

[YOSE]

Well noted. Thank you.

[Yves]

Hi Yose,

 

Have a similar problem in Belgium. Did you get it resolved? From the seller I just learned that Fedex is equally a problem. Thanks.

[YOSE]

Hi,

 

In the mean time, I purchased a couple of nihontō from Japan (Japanese dealers). It seems that some do definitely not want to ship abroad, and some are used to do it. Depending on the dealer and his/her experience, she may offer to ship via surface mail. It takes 2-3 months to arrive though, at least for Switzerland. One of my acquisition just arrived in Switzerland. It got stuck a full week at customs (waiting for confirmation of item value), but the customs agent informed me today that it received customs clearance and should be on its way to its destination. Can't wait to hold it in my hand and study it!

 

Good luck.

Yours sincerely,