How much will it cost?
The payable amount consists of 3 parts:
1) Cost of item + shopping service fees
2) Shipping to You
3) Insurance (optional)
The following explanation is meant to help you to understand what are the costs involved and to estimate how much you will be spending. The actual payable amount may differ slightly due to various factors and I will issue you a payment breakdown and the payment link for the confirmed amount upon receiving your order by email.
1) Cost of item + shopping service fees
- Listed prices are in Japanese Yen.
- Buying multiple items from the same store usually entitles you to combined domestic shipping discount.
- If ＋税 is stated next to the price, this means that the 10% tax is not included in the price, and you should include it in. If there is a 税込 next to the price, it means that tax is already included.
- I will calculate for you exactly how much you have to pay before confirming your order, so don’t worry.
Let’s use this listing from Animate Online as an example.
3850 JPY is the product price. Domestic postage isn’t clear from the listing page. For most Japanese online websites, the domestic postage rates are usually listed on a separate page, or at point of checkout. Hence, I may only be able to charge you for domestic postage after the product is purchased. Payment for domestic postage can be made together with international shipping fees.
(a) Open this Mastercard Currency Conversion Calculator
input the values in the following format:
High-value one-time transactions that are 50,000 JPY and above will enjoy a discount on service fees. Please ask me.
(b) Open this Paypal fee calculator
Continuing with the example above, input the following values:
- Users who can use Singaporean platforms like local bank transfer and Paynow need not pay the Paypal fees.
2) Cost of domestic shipping within Japan + Shipping to You
This payment will only be required when your purchases are ready for shipping. This portion includes shipping fees, packaging costs and associated administrative costs (e.g. some couriers charge customs clearance fees). I do not charge additional service fees on top of these, but Paypal fees are billable expenses. If domestic postage fees are applicable but were not paid earlier, they will be added here as well.
You can choose between EMS, registered airmail and registered SAL. Refer to Japan Post for the shipping fee rates. Please note that there are ongoing shipping restrictions to some countries due to Covid-19 and not all shipping methods may be available to you at the time of shipping.
With most shipping methods charging by volumetric weight instead of physical weight, please understand that it is difficult to estimate the shipping fees since I would not know the volumetric weight of your package until the items are actually packed for shipping.
3) Insurance (Optional)
You can purchase in-house insurance for some or all of your purchases at an additional fee. You will be compensated if the items are damaged or the parcel goes missing in transit. Please note that fragile, breakable items are not covered by insurance. Please do not buy breakables if you are unable to accept the risk of them breaking during transit.
Personally, I do not think you have to worry about damages as all packages are professionally packed with safety in mind. See this page for more details). However, if you are purchasing high-value products, it may be a good idea to insure them for loss.
Please state your interest when you place your order and I will provide you with the details. The Japanese logistics provider I work with only allows insurance add-on at the time of placing the order so please do not wait until after the order has been placed to ask.