I’ve read through the various threads on shipping and moving to Japan and my exact question hasn’t really been answered:
What options are there to ship from the US to Japan and **have the parcels held** until delivery is requested in Japan?
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I have 5 boxes to ship.
Options I’m aware of:
* **Ship via USPS, UPS, Fedex or Yamato**. Depending on the provider, they’ll hold for 7-15 days in Japan for delivery reattempts.
* **Ship to a friend in Japan**, have them rent a storage unit if needed, etc. Alternatively, have friends here in the US hold them, then ship later. These are easiest for me but not for my friends. 🙂
* **Ship to a hotel**. May require booking a night. How long they’ll hold or whether they’ll do this depends on the hotel.
* **Ship and hold domestically**, then forward to Japan (Traveling Mailbox, Anytime Mailbox). This is costly, there are time limits, and I don’t trust the long term package handling at my virtual mailbox.
* **Engage a relocation company**. Cost $5,000 to $10,000 USD. Often use shipping containers on actual ships and delivery times are measured in months. Nittsu / Nippon Express is good. I used them last time I moved to Japan.
* **Check extra bags for the flight**. This doesn’t work in my case because it’s more than I could handle. I don’t want the hassle of paying someone to move my luggage around during transit.
This r/movingtojapan [thread from a year ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/comments/k3gkrs/cheapest_way_to_ship_a_box_of_books_from_us_to/) was the best I found and, if you’re interested in cheap options, it’s a good read. Money is not an issue in my case. However, I don’t want to pay full relocation costs to Nippon Express for just a few boxes nor have an extended wait for delivery.
Thanks in advance for advice. Good luck to everyone getting ready to move (again).
3 comments
>Check extra bags for the flight. This doesn’t work in my case because it’s more than I could handle. I don’t want the hassle of paying someone to move my luggage around during transit.
Since you’ve lived in Japan before I’m sure you understand this is probably less of a hassle than most of the other options you’ve listed? All you have to do is get through baggage claim, wheel your carts down to the Kuroneko counter and you’re good to go. In the grand scheme of things it’s not that hard an ask.
The option you appear to have not discovered is:
Ship via UPS/FedEx/Yamato *and request they hold the packages*. Note that this is different than your option #1, as with that option you seem to be hedging on simply not running out of redelivery attempts.
Most courier services will target a particular delivery date, within a reasonable range. They’ll either hold them at the domestic end, then ship them out, or hold them on the delivery end until the requested date.
This comes with a few caveats:
1. It’s not an advertised service per se. The random Joe at the UPS store will probably go “uh… Wut?” if you ask for it.
2. It costs money. Like “probably pay more for storage than the actual shipping” costs money.
3. It’s for a limited time. No one is going to hold them “until delivery is requested in Japan”. You’d set a target date when you ship the packages.
Ultimately it comes down to “Why do you need your packages held?”
Are you concerned about them beating you across the pacific? They won’t. If you ship them within a few days of your departure, you’ll beat them to your new home.
Are you not moving directly to your final home? That’s going to make things more complicated.
Hi there! You can do a Kuroneko Yamato “flat rate” moving (self pack). I think the max rate was about $2,500 USD when we moved from the US to Japan this past fall. Cheapest about about $1k?
It will go by boat and your stuff will take like a month to get there, and then I think they will hold it for up to a month or two until you’re ready for delivery. Basically they call you when it’s through customs and then you tell them if you’re ready or not. They also do by air if you want it faster. But that’s pricier.
It was ideal for us. We didn’t need a destination address when shipping (didn’t know where we’d be living yet!), and then we had them hold it for a couple weeks while we finalized our living situation.
If you don’t want to wait that long, you could always send it a month before you leave— they’ll get there before you and you can just have them hold it as they will for a month b
Highly recommended!