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Important Update on U.S. Shipping Issues

· 4 min read
Yuichiro Aoki
Yuichiro Aoki
Developer
warning

We’re sorry to inform you that we are currently unable to ship products to the United States due to recent changes in shipping policies.

Several Countries Suspend Postal Shipments To The US—Here’s Why

Several Countries Suspend Postal Shipments To The US—Here’s Why – Forbes

We’ve run into an unexpected but critical issue with fulfilling U.S. orders.
As of August 25th, Japan Post has temporarily suspended certain international shipments to the U.S. due to changes in de minimis customs rules.

This affects items for sale and any shipments valued over $100, which unfortunately prevents us from using our standard, cost-effective shipping method.

📄 Official Notice from Japan Post (Japanese)

For large parcels and business shipments, Japan Post still offers UGX (Yū Global Express). However, UGX is significantly more expensive, making it impractical to use for normal customer orders.

What We’re Exploring Next​

We’re actively looking for solutions and partnerships that will allow us to resume U.S. shipping. Here are the main options we’re considering:

1. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)​

One option is to send products in bulk to Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the U.S., where Amazon would handle shipping and customer service.

✅ Pros:

  • Faster delivery times for customers
  • Reliable tracking and support

❌ Cons:

  • High fees make it sustainable only for large production runs
  • Smaller hardware businesses (like ours) rarely use FBA for this reason
  • Our current production capacity isn’t yet large enough to make this cost-effective

2. U.S.-Based Manufacturing​

While there are ongoing efforts to encourage domestic manufacturing, producing everything in the U.S. is not feasible for us right now.

  • U.S. manufacturing wages are over 5x higher than in China (source)
  • Even with tariffs, importing remains far more practical than producing everything domestically

3. U.S. Shipping Partner​

A more practical solution may be to work with a partner in the U.S. who can store and ship products on our behalf.

Here’s how it would work:

  1. We ship a batch of products to our U.S. partner
  2. They handle order fulfillment domestically
  3. Customers benefit from faster delivery and tracking, without the high Amazon fees

We believe this strikes the best balance between cost efficiency and customer experience.

4. Yamato Transport​

Yamato Transport, which partners with UPS for U.S. deliveries, is another promising option.
Despite the de minimis policy change, they continue to accept U.S. shipments at around $25 with a delivery time of about 6 days.

📄 米国向け「国際宅急便」ご利用時の留意事項について

The main drawback is cost. Shipping a small 200g package to the U.S. already costs about $25—roughly double what Japan Post charged before August 25th. This makes Yamato a more expensive choice compared to Japan Post’s standard international services.

Whether we use Yamato Transport or Japan Post, customers will still have to pay tariffs on their items due to the closure of the de minimis loophole.

How You Can Help​

If you can assist us with U.S. fulfillment, we’d love to hear from you.

📩 Contact us at: contact@aotenjo.xyz

Conclusion​

The recent de minimis policy change has made U.S. shipping more complicated, but not impossible.
We’re exploring multiple paths — Japan Post, Yamato Transport, FBA, and local partners — to keep our products accessible at fair costs.

note

We don’t take any political stance.
Our goal is simply to find the most practical and affordable shipping methods, not only to the U.S. but worldwide.

Thank you for reading!