Legal question on importing a sold out electronic product in Japan and selling it second-hand at a higher price

There is an electronic product that is on a huge back order in Japan. Most Japanese retailers won’t have any in stock until March or April. However, it is readily available in my home country. If I ask my friend to ship me a few of them, and I upsell them online, are there any legal ramifications for that? Or maybe some import regulations? Seems too good to be true that these huge retailers can’t get their hands on them for months when I can just ask a buddy to ship me a few (or a lot) to get some bank.

4 comments
  1. Technically it’s illegal to sell anything that uses a power cord without a pse mark and if it gives off radio waves a wireless spectrum certification.

    That being said individuals sellers are selling a bunch of stuff as 並行輸入品, or parallel import. Half the Chinese stuff on Amazon japan does not have pse or wireless spectrum certification. You could easily do the same.

    Also like the early FeliCa iPhones sometimes they have japan specific models with very minor changes that if you don’t know about will crush your selling price here so importer beware

  2. I do this all the time. I’m doing it now. You’d be surprised how much Japanese will pay for some cheap stuff back home. Just make sure it’s marked as gift when it’s sent to you and make sure the value doesn’t go over 16,000 yen or you’re paying duties. There are legal loopholes around it but I’m not giving up trade secrets on Reddit!

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like