A First Packing Order in Japan, Step by Step With the Dates

Most of what goes wrong on a first Japanese packing order is sequencing. Nothing is individually hard. The steps simply have to happen in an order, several of them take longer than they look, and two of them are not ours at all.

This is the whole thing in one place, with the real numbers and the real dependencies. Work down it the first time and backwards from your launch date every time after that.

The twelve steps

#	Step	Who	Rough duration
1	Agree the material with your producer	You plus producer	Weeks to months
2	Decide the retail fill weight	You	A day. It sets everything
3	Work out the material quantity	You plus us	An email
4	Choose the bag	You plus us	An email, / longer if printed
5	Settle the label wording	You plus your broker	Weeks. Start early
6	Appoint a Customs Procedure Agent	You	Weeks. Non residents only
7	Engage a licensed customs broker	You	Days to weeks
8	Confirm the order with us	You	Starts the clock
9	Ship the material to Kyoto	You plus producer	Your freight, plus clearance
10	Food import notification	You plus broker	From 7 days before arrival
11	We fill, seal, label, carton	Us	Three to four weeks
12	Hand over to your forwarder	Us plus you	One day, if booked

Steps 6, 7 and 10 only apply if the material is coming from outside Japan. If your producer is already in Japan, step 9 is a domestic pallet and the three approvals disappear entirely.

Backwards from a launch date

The useful direction. Say you want finished stock in your own warehouse in the middle of March, shipping by sea.

Working backwards	By when
Stock in your warehouse	Middle of March
Sea freight plus clearance at your end	Allow for it first. It is the leg you control least
Cartons handed over in Kyoto	First half of February
Order confirmed, material already here	Middle of January
Material clears Japanese customs	Early January at the latest
Material ships from your producer	December, aimed past the New Year close
Label wording settled	November
Customs agent plus broker appointed	November
Material quantity agreed with producer	October

Five months, for a job whose packing takes three to four weeks. That is the honest shape of a first order, and almost none of the elapsed time is filling.

Run the same arithmetic for a September launch and it is comfortable, because nothing in the chain crosses a Japanese shutdown. The three weeks when nothing ships is the article on why one quarter is so much harder than another.

What the packing side costs

For a 500 bag first order in a stock bag with one label, so you can put a number on the step that is actually ours.

Line	Rate	500 bags
Fill & seal, single material	USD 0.65 per bag	USD 325.00
Fill & seal, measured mix	USD 1.10 per bag	If you need it
Stock bag	USD 0.10 to USD 1.85 each	USD 50 to USD 925
Label application	USD 0.15 per position	USD 75.00
Set up fee	USD 130 once	USD 130.00
Handling, your own packaging	USD 45 per order	Only if you supply bags
Dispatch handling	USD 2.55 per shipment	USD 2.55

A typical first order lands somewhere around six to eight hundred dollars of packing. The material and the freight sit on top, and on most projects they are the larger numbers by a long way.

The domestic version, when your producer is already in Japan

Everything above assumes the material is imported. If your producer is in Japan, a large part of the list disappears and the project changes shape completely.

Step	Imported material	Producer already in Japan
Customs Procedure Agent	Required for a non resident	Not needed
Licensed customs broker	Required	Not needed
Food import notification	Required	Not needed
Getting material to Kyoto	International freight plus clearance	A domestic pallet
Realistic elapsed time	About five months	About two months

Two months against five is the difference, and it is worth knowing before you choose a producer. A brand that can buy from a Japanese producer who ships domestically to us has a materially simpler first order than one importing the same material from elsewhere, even if the material itself costs more.

It also removes the step that stops the most first shipments, which is not the packing and not the freight. It is the two approvals.

The whole cost of a launch, and which parts we can price

The packing figure above is one line in a larger bill, and brands who budget from it alone get a surprise. Here is the whole shape, with an honest note about which numbers we can give you and which we cannot.

Cost	Who prices it	Can we tell you
The material itself	Your producer	No
Freight into Japan	Your forwarder	No
Duties on the way in	Your broker	No
Customs Procedure Agent	The agent you appoint	No
Customs brokerage	Your broker	No
Filling, bags, labels, set up	Us	Yes. Published in full
Label printing	Your label printer	No
Printed bags, if you supply them	Your printer, plus USD 45 handling here	Partly
Freight out of Japan	Your forwarder	No
Duties at your end	Your broker in that market	No
Laboratory testing, if required	An accredited laboratory	No

Eleven lines, and exactly one of them is ours. That ratio is the real lesson of this article, and it is why the packing quote is almost never the number that decides whether a project works.

What that means for a budget

Get the two largest unknowns early: the material at your actual quantity, and the freight on your actual lane, quoted for both air and sea. Those two move far more than anything we charge, and they are the ones people leave until last.

Our side you can model before speaking to anybody, because the rates are published. Five hundred bags of a single material in a stock bag with one label, on a first order, lands somewhere around six to eight hundred dollars depending almost entirely on which bag you pick. Whether to pack in Japan at all puts that figure against the alternative.

The part worth protecting in a first budget is the testing and the regulatory work, because it is the longest lead item and the easiest to under scope. Start it in month one even if you cannot price it yet.

The three steps that cause the delays

Step 5, the label wording

Start it first and finish it last. Whether your bag may say a given thing is a question for your customs broker or the regulator in your market, and it takes weeks to get a straight answer. Put the wording on a label rather than into printed film until it has survived a season. Packed in Japan or product of Japan covers the claim most often got wrong.

Steps 6 and 7, the customs appointments

Japan Customs requires a person living abroad to designate a Customs Procedure Agent in Japan and notify it in advance, on Customs Form C No. 7500. Separately, a licensed customs broker files the declaration. One firm covers both only if it holds a brokerage licence.

This is where first shipments actually stop, and it cannot be fixed while a pallet is in the air. Sending your material to a Japanese packer has the detail.

Step 10, the food notification

Article 27 of the Food Sanitation Act obliges the importer to notify on each occasion, filed with the quarantine station rather than with customs, before clearance is finished. Notifications are accepted from seven days before arrival, and a first import is more likely to be inspected than a repeat one.

What to get in writing, from whom

Each party in the list owes you something specific. Collecting these as you go is much easier than reconstructing them later.

From	Get
Your producer	A specification: what it is, how it was made, particle size
Your producer	Test reports, where your market needs them
Your producer	The quantity they will actually sell, in writing
Your broker	What your label may claim in your market
Your broker	What the entry needs for your specific product
Us	An itemised quotation with a validity period
Us	Confirmation that your bag feeds through the sealer
Us	The carton count, weights plus dimensions, when the run is scheduled
Your forwarder	A quote for both air / sea on your actual lane

The last one is worth doing early even if you are sure you want sea freight. On a first order of 500 bags the consignment is physically small, and the two numbers are sometimes closer than people assume.

A short version to keep

• Material first, retail size second, everything else after.
• Label wording starts in month one and finishes in month four.
• A non resident appoints a customs agent before anything ships.
• Food needs a quarantine station notification as well as a customs entry.
• Our clock starts when the order is confirmed with material already in Kyoto.
• Book the forwarder while the run is still in progress.
• Check every date against the Japanese shutdown weeks.

Our rates, minimums and conditions are on the contract packing page.

Questions we get asked

How long does a first order take, honestly?

About five months from agreeing the material to stock in your own warehouse, if the material is imported. The packing itself is three to four weeks of that.

Which step should I start today?

Two in parallel: the material conversation with your producer, and the label wording with your broker. Those are the two with the longest tails.

Can I skip the customs agent if I use a broker?

Not if your company has no address in Japan. They are separate appointments, and a broker is only also your agent if you appoint it as one.

What if my producer is already in Japan?

Then steps 6, 7 and 10 disappear and step 9 is a domestic pallet. A first order becomes a far shorter project, often two months rather than five.

What is the smallest first order you will take?

500 filled bags, counted across the whole order, with no minimum on the fill weight. The 500 bag minimum explains how the count works across several products.

Related reading

• Sending your material to a Japanese packer
• Where our part ends, and the leg after it
• The three weeks when nothing ships in Japan
• How to find a contract packer in Japan