Hello everyone,

I don't usually ALL CAPS my topics but this one is quite critical.

This is the situation in Japan right now:

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/index_en.html

• I cannot use SAL (economy airmail) at all anymore.
• EMS/Airmail is suspended towards 86 countries.
• Expected EMS delay to the USA is minimum 2 weeks.

Fedex/DHL will still accept some items, but won't ship everywhere either.

If you have a clear picture of the status in your country, feel free to post updates here.

Julien

Here in New Zealand they are not accepting goods from China for delivery.

I bought something from the US last month and it hasn't moved at all since the 16th...in March.

As I posted in another topic, this is NOT just an international situation.
All workers are being pushed to their limits and packages that normally take 1 weeks with slower shipping are now taking 3-4 weeks IF you are lucky
to get them at all.

I sent 2 packages about 3 weeks ago now, one Media Mail and one First Class from state to state and they have yet to be scanned into the postal system,
and I handed them to the carrier so they are lost in the system for now.

Sent a First Class International to Belgium first week of March.
Took four weeks to arrive.

That was early in the game though before the S**T really hit the fan.

Well, we are in this for the long haul.
Good time to inventory and sort the collection.

Hang tough everyone...... this too shall pass.

Cheers,

J

Well I just received my order from China today.
Placed it 4-8 received 4-21 Very fast considering.

I think its more to do with people taking days off on purpose rather than delays due to scanning packages.

My proxy in Japan just sent me an email saying shipping to Australia from Japan is suspended until further notice. But they are giving free storage until it's allowed again. I've got some old WTAPS stickers, a VHS tape of Minako Honda in LA to replace the dodgy copy I already have, and a 9 CD box set of Tetsuya Komuro with them

Same, Hobbylink Japan has also extended their private warehouse storage time indefinitely from their usual 60 day deadline.

I kinda wonder what the expiration date on that ramen I got there is...

I have had very few problems here in the UK.

Only one international parcel (from Germany, delivered by Royal Mail), but that was very fast indeed.
Two LDs from inside the UK arrived yesterday. One was 1 day outside its initial delivery date estimate (Royal Mail). The other (Hermes) was early.
One (non-LD) Hermes parcel was very slow, but I think there was an address mix-up.
Ordinary Royal mail letters still 1 day delivery time, with very few exceptions.
Amazon parcels as normal.

The new protocol appears to be that couriers just ring the doorbell and leave the goods outside without even waiting for an answer. With everyone at home, things don't go missing and it's a faster process than normal.

Sending out & receiving a few parcels at the moment & Hermes are very prompt just now, Royal Mail are good also here in the west of Scotland though perhaps a day longer at the moment so no issues for now.

Talking to our postie & they are, to use his words, "as busy as the Christmas season" & his van is pretty well loaded when he calls at mine. He did say that they are working flat out to keep up with the demand & staff numbers being down is causing some issues apparently.

Have not had anything from overseas lately, the last thing was from Japan about four weeks ago & it appeared to take the usual time to arrive.

Don't think I will be ordering anything from overseas just now.

It's not yet on the the Japan Post English website but, starting tomorrow (April 24th):

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=ja&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.post.japanpost.jp%2Fint%2Finformation%2F2020%2F0423_03.html

All shipments from Japan to USA the are suspended until further notice.

I repeat.

All shipments from Japan to USA the are suspended until further notice.

We will stop accepting the following international mail items addressed to the United States from April 24 (Friday) for the time being.
Type of postal matter temporarily suspended:

• EMS
• Airmail (SAL was already suspended)
• Regular mail (small packets and printed material)
• Regular mail (letter, postcard, postal mail for blind people)

I managed to ship one last airmail today to the USA, they announced expected delivery time for EMS is now up to 4 months to be shipped with the current expected shipping volume.

Julien

Thanks for the current status updates Julien.

Hoping we can get to a more static situation sooner then later.
Who would have thought that this kind of thing could actually disrupt world commerce so dramatically.

At least it is only a temporary situation.
Have patience everyone.

Cheers,

J

Interesting. A lot of Japanese ebay sellers now shipping via DHL which is uneffected. It must be Japan Post Office workers standing down or refusing to work, coz if DHL or possibly UPS international can still get stuff out then there's probably no government mandate or nothing..

Correct on DHL. They are about to be experiencing record volume I would imagine. I'm selling some crap to raise extra funds so it looks like the orders I make from Japan will have to be DHL.

I just got my USA to USA domestic package after 30 days.

Get ready for a fun ride Country to Country now.

That would explain the “it will take a while” message I got from a Japanese seller yesterday.

Just received a registered Airmail from Singapore posted 4 weeks ago.
It should have taken less than for 4 days.

More than half of Post Offices are closed in Singapore now.

https://www.singpost.com/covid-19-updates/7-apr-service-adjustments/post-offices

"Luckily" for me it was posted on April 4th, 3 days before the new policy was started.

Julien

Significant delays in first class mail from the US don't even bother me if I could be certain it'd still get to me eventually, but with the GOP cronies seeming determined to bankrupt USPS by summer, I have absolutely no idea what's gonna happen to all that stuff waiting for transit.

That is just great...

I saved 12 basic remote controls from Pioneer Japan before they got rid of their LD inventory stocks and put them on eBay at $50 w/ shipping which barely leaves me with a profit when accounting for eBay, Paypal, sales taxes and shipping.

To USA the only options since April 2020 through Japan Post are:

EMS => Suspended
Airmail => Suspended
SAL => Suspended
Surface => OK

Surface had 3 flavors (small packet is <2Kg):

• Small packet unregistered => $7
• Small packet registered => $11
• Parcel surface registered => $22

They silently discontinued (it's still listed in their simulator) the Small packet surface registered since Jan 1st, 2021. This was confirmed to me at the post office last Saturday.

It's particularly silly because "ePacket/Registered/Airmail" would only cost $10... but this suspended to the USA.

So I informed my first American buyer, providing all the details, that I'd rather like to cancel the transaction and relist them when Airmail resumes or with more restrictions/conditions, and fully refund him.

And then he went directly into "That's b******t!" mode and threaten with negative feedback -- I have informed eBay about that.

What would you do?

Julien

I would pull the listings for now. I've been buying and doing fedex or dhl shipping but that doesn't make sense for an individual remote.

Can hardly wait for these restrictions to finally ease up.