So our house in Fukuoka will be ready to move in to, in just a couple of months. My S.O. wants to ship some of our furniture (desk, dining table and chairs, lounge chair, a few other items) we’ve kept in storage in Los Angeles, for a while. Normally, I’d say leave it, or sell it there, but they’re quite expensive and have a lot of sentimental value. The same items in Japan sell for a lot more, and it would take months to order them. Does anyone have any experiences shipping furniture from the US to Japan, and can suggest a moving company? Also do you think we’ll have to pay import taxes on the furniture, considering most of the items are used, and more than a decade old (a few are 20 or more years old)? Thanks!
3 comments
Kuroneko/“Yamato America”. Call the LA office (310-885-5400). I didn’t do furniture but boxes and boxes and boxes of books and housewares and they were great. No taxes on my stuff coming into Kansai.
My info is well out of date, but I shipped furniture from the US to Kobe about 25 years ago. I don’t remember the company that we used, but we made appointments with 3 or 4 companies who came out and gave us a bid. The American companies were all about the same price, but the Japanese company which I think was Nippon Express was outrageously high, like more than twice the other bids. The sales guy knew it though and even told us that they usually only handled household moves when the company was paying for it–hence the gouging.
As for import duties, we just filled the unaccompanied baggage form when we arrived in Japan and there was no import duties when our stuff arrived. Also, the moving company took care of all the paperwork.
One bit of advice I would give you though is to go to your new house and look at how the furniture will fit in the space. Like tape out or layout paper or something that will show how it will fit. The American furniture that we sent was just too big for the space. When you walked in the rooms it felt so much smaller than they should have because the furniture was so big. For example, we sent over a dining table that we thought was typical, but it was twice the size of one in Japan. Our place had a very cramped feeling because of the oversized furniture. Over the years, we’ve gotten rid of most of the things that we had shipped over and the replaced them with Japanese furniture which fits the space better and creates a better atmosphere.
Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I’m not sure that I would.
I would agree with the other user for checking with the space requirement. Even if it fits in the space, think about whether the furniture needs to be dissassembled in order to fit through the doorway / corridor.
If the same items are available here but are expensive / long delievery time. What are the features that provide the sentimental value when your SO is OK with buying a new set? Maybe make a post and see what kind of alternatives are available here.