This is a quick guide on how to ship things overseas using Japan Parcel based on experience from our recent travel in Japan.
This is purely a reference for anyone traveling in Japan and are interested in sending things like plastic models (large and relatively light in weight) home via Japan Post.
Turns out it’s not super difficult to ship stuff overseas via Japan Post. Recently, while we were in Fukuoka, we decided to try it in a quieter part of the city. We managed to ship off 2 parcel boxes of gunpla off home to Australia. We didn’t find any clear guides on the internet at the time so here are some rough steps we followed:
- BYO box or purchase the largest carton box from a local Japan Post office (Google Translate and politeness were essential for me when I went to the small JP office nearby)
- Pack the carton with your goods.
- Sign up an account at https://www.int-mypage.post.japanpost.jp/ (it’s optional but handy)
- Follow the web form to quote and declare the goods (shipping deeds include value + weight so it’s handy to have a travel luggage scale). For gunpla you want to put “plastic model: …” in each item description.
- Once you submit the form online, you will get a link in an email that takes you to a page that shows a detail number.
- Pack the carton box with your stuff. Don’t seal it as the JP staff will want to check the content.
- Take the number and your unsealed box of goodies to a JP office and politely tell them you would like to ship it to country X and present the detail number.
- The staff basically knew what to do from there. They had their own translation app that they used in their tablet when they wanted to ask us questions and I just answer back with google translate when it got complicated.
- Part of the process will include the staff asking you to sign some paperwork (standard postal declaration stuff). Note the better you fill in the online form the smoother and less complicated this part will be.
- Then once it’s all done they handed us a piece of paper with the detail and tracking and a receipt.
- Within an hour or so I got a notification from the Australia Post app that they have the shipment info and tracking.
It took a little time (maybe 30mins to do the first one) and involved multiple staff in the post office but it was overall painless and the staff were so friendly and helpful. We felt confident and comfortable enough that we immediately bought another box, packed it back at the hotel and shipped that off too.
Each carton box was about 5000 yen in shipping so it wasn’t bad compared to paying for extra luggage with Qantas.
Keep in mind, not all JP offices can do insurance. The one we went to did not but the friendly staff offered to print us the shipping label to take with our carton to a bigger office that could do it. We decided to forego the insurance as we didn’t want to have to find the other JP office. We have not had issues with JP shipping and just decided to roll the dice.
Hope this is helpful 😊
2026 Jan Update
Good news! The parcels arrived here in AU safe and sound in less than two months!
I would definitely use Japan Post again next time I travel!