By Tomomi, Overseas Team, orosy
The short version. Since I started writing this series, every overseas order ended at the same wall: checkout worked, then the order was cancelled because it shipped outside Japan. Today that wall came down. I spent the first hour using it the way an overseas buyer would — here's exactly what I saw.
Key takeaways
- As of today (changelog 0.5.0), orders shipping outside Japan go through — the step that used to end in a cancellation is now open, via both the buyer portal and the API.
- I ran a real cart bound for the US within the first hour: search worked (2,283 hits for washi tape alone), and the cart itself explained the cross-border terms before I could even ask.
- The terms are plain: DAP — duties and import fees are yours as the importer, nothing is hidden in prices — and Japanese consumption tax drops to zero on export orders, automatically.
- Shipping is billed in two steps: the domestic leg with your order, and the international leg later, once your parcel is packed and weighed. Before you order, the cart shows a reference figure for the international leg, for your information only.
- Categories open in waves: stationery and paper goods lead (the US lane is stationery-first), while items needing safety documents — liquids, foods — come in later phases.
What changed today
One line in the changelog, years of plumbing behind it: international shipping is live. Overseas buyers can sign up, browse or query the catalog, and place orders that ship from Japan to their country — through the buyer portal if you like screens, or through the API/MCP endpoint if your systems (or your AI assistant) do the talking.
Until yesterday, the platform was open worldwide except for that final step. If you were one of the people who signed up, pulled the catalog, ran test orders — and then went quiet when you hit the wall — this post is for you. The wall is gone.
The first hour: I ordered like a buyer
I didn't want to announce this from the sidelines, so I did the obvious thing: opened a session as an overseas buyer and ran the whole flow against the live API.
- Search — A query for washi tape returned 2,283 in-stock listings. The catalog runs deep on stationery and paper goods — the categories leading this launch.
- Set the destination — One call to set the cart's ship-to country to the US. That single change re-computes everything downstream — taxes, notices, the works.
- Read what the cart tells you — This is the part I want to show you verbatim. The moment the destination left Japan, the cart attached two notices — before I could ask a single question.
The notices, lightly abridged from the API response:
Import duties, taxes and customs fees are separate from the product price and shipping charges, and are payable by the buyer upon import (Incoterms: DAP — the buyer is the importer of record).
Additional customs declarations or documents may be required in the destination country.
I've written before about how much of cross-border trade is about not being surprised. This is that principle, encoded: the terms are in the response payload, not buried in a policy page.
And one field in the order response made me smile: tax_exempt: true. Export orders automatically drop Japanese consumption tax to zero — you pay the wholesale price, not the wholesale price plus a tax you were never supposed to owe.
How shipping is billed (two steps)
Your order total includes the domestic leg — getting products from suppliers to the export point. The international leg is billed separately, after your parcel is packed and weighed. Before you order, the cart shows a reference figure for that international leg, for your information only; the actual shipping cost is calculated later and billed to you, and it can differ from that figure. That is slower than a flat rate, and it is the honest way round: the international leg is a real, measured cost rather than an average folded into product prices.
What's open, and what honestly isn't yet
Categories open in waves, and the pattern follows regulation, not marketing:
- Open now: stationery and paper goods, plus general merchandise to most destinations. The US lane is stationery-first, and the US-specific paperwork for that lane (such as TSCA declarations) is worked out as part of opening it. Clearance in your country, and the duties and taxes at import, are still yours as the importer of record.
- Later phases: anything needing safety documentation — inks in bottles, cosmetics, liquids — and food, which carries destination-specific rules (FDA registration for the US, ingredient restrictions in the EU). These aren't closed forever; they're sequenced.
- Flagged in the data: some listings can't be exported at all (license-restricted character goods, batteries, aerosols). They carry restriction flags so your integration can filter them out before they become a cancelled order.
Customs numbers: no gate at signup
Some destinations want an importer ID — Korea's personal customs code, the EU's EORI, a US EIN for larger shipments. The launch decision here was deliberately un-bureaucratic: there's no upfront gate. If your destination needs a number, operations will ask for it during fulfillment. If you want your first order to clear fast, have your number ready — but you don't need it to start.
If you've been waiting
The people I most want to reach today are the ones who already tried: you signed up, you pulled data, you hit the wall, you left. Come back and run one real order — the wall is the one thing that changed, and it's the thing that mattered.
Start here: the buyer portal. Screens if you want screens, API and MCP if your systems do the buying. Next post: why the catalog isn't in English — and why, if you bring your AI, that stops mattering.
— Tomomi, launch day, with a cart full of washi tape I have no excuse not to order now.