If you've recently been attempting to import items directly from Japan you may have noticed that shipping prices are going up. Specifically, on smaller parcels distributed through Japan Post. This is due to the discontinuation of the AIR SP small postal parcel registered service for international customers starting January 2026 - something that has been a mainstay in my own traffic for years. It used to be good value filling up a 66cm or even 90cm box with a shipping cost usually around ¥2600-¥4000. Now you will find that sellers redirect you to the AIR Postal Parcel service instead where shipping costs will quickly rise up to ¥6000 if you put a larger figure in the box. Suddenly, EMS and DHL enter the range of competitively priced services.
Remember to optimize your orders based on what you are shopping for; small and heavy items can often be shipped at a reasonable cost using DHL while larger and lighter products are better serviced by EMS and in some cases AIR Postal Parcel.
If you - like yours truly - are always on Mandarake, take a minute to play around with the shipping calculator by putting together test orders and notice how much you can stuff into a box. DHL is suitable for products like small die-cast cars while EMS and AIR PP is better suited for lightweight products in oversized packages like your typical anime figurines. What will really suffer however is lightweight items like trading cards. If you chuck a single Pokemon card onto a Mandarake order now for example, the AIR PP postage cost will begin at ¥3850 and the cheapest option offered is DHL at ¥2500. Previously, AIR SP would have you covered for I can't remember exactly, ¥1290 perhaps. May as well order a cheap trading figure while you are at it...
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