Shipping & Delivery

With DHL

• Area covered: North America, Western and Central Europe, Oceania and some Asian countries.
• Limitations: DHL charges very expensive fees for packages longer than 120 cm, preventing us of using it for orders containing items longer than 115 cm.
• Delivery: between 3 and 5 days after shipping.
• Online tracking: DHL Tracking website
• Delivery address modification: contrary to FedEx and UPS, delivery address modification to the same city is free of charge when requested online from https://ondemand.dhl.com.
• Access point pick up: yes (depends on location).
• Insurance: yes, fully covered. Usually settled within 10 days.
• Signature required: you must sign for the packag e, but you can transfer the responsability to a neighbor via https://ondemand.dhl.com.

Arranging delivery with DHL: the driver may or may not contact you prior delivery but DHL offers a very handy system: DHL On Demand Delivery accessible via: https://ondemand.dhl.com.
If you believe you may not be home at the time of delivery, we strongly recommend using On Demande Delivery, with which you will be able to select one of the following option: "Change your delivery date (and time)", "Collect from Service Point", "Leave with Neighbor", "Alternative Address" and "Vacation Hold".
Due to the necessity of signing for the package in order to keep the package insured for its whole value, the "Leave in Safe Place" option is not available.
Please note that when customs duties are due, some options may not be available.

DHL has a few limitations, the package total length as specified above and some remote area delivery surcharge (very expensive fees), but also a relatively inconsistent pricing that goes up very quickly. If your order is moved to another carrier, it is because of specifics limitations that our system cannot predict.

As an environmentally conscious company, we enrolled in DHL's the carbon-neutral program, "Go Green". Using Gogreen Express we pay an additional three percent fee on top of the cost of the overall bill. DHL then invests the money into green projects like vehicle technology, solar panels and reforestation. More information on DHL's Climate Protection Projects on DHL's website. You can download our official certificate for 2023 on our website (certificate are established 6 months after the end of the year. We will provide all past certificates on request)..

With FedEx (Main carrier, 80% of all shipments)

• Area covered: North America, Western and Central Europe, Oceania and some Asian countries.
• Limitations: FedEx cannot handle the customs procedure for certain items delivery to some countries (such as Iaito shipped to UK).
• Delivery: between 4 and 6 days after shipping.
• Online tracking: FedEx website
• Delivery address modification: after shipping charged 1400 YEN for the entire shipment.
• Access point pick up: yes (depends on location).
• Insurance: yes, fully covered. Usually settled within 10 days.
• Signature required (unless you have a specific arrangement with the carrier, you must receive and sign the package in person).

Delivery arrangement with FedEx: FedEx will try to contact you at least after the second unsuccessful delivery attempt. Please provide an easily reachable phone number.
You can also get in touch with FedEx on your end as soon as your package reached your country to make an appointment for delivery or pickup at an access point. Find more details and the FedEx contact information via the tracking link sent in the shipping confirmation email.

FedEx does not deliver certain destinations in Europe (such as some islands like Corsica or Sicily, and mountainous regions). For such destinations the carrier is switched to UPS, without previous notice.

Countries delivered by FedEx: The whole European Union, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Greenland, Israel, Monaco, Poland, and Slovakia.

UPS (Mainly North America)

• Area covered: Mainly North America. (UPS is also used in some cases in Oceania and Western Europe when DHL and FedEx can't offer reasonable shipping conditions).
• Limitations: No specific limitations.
• Delivery: between 2 and 4 days after shipping.
• Online tracking: UPS website
• Delivery address modification after shipping charged 1400 YEN for EACH package of the shipment.
• Access point pick up: yes (depends on location).
• Insurance: yes, fully covered. Usually settled within 10 days.
• Signature required (unless you have a specific arrangement with the carrier, you must receive and sign for the package in person).

Delivery arrangement with UPS: UPS will try to contact you at least after the second unsuccessful delivery attempt. Please provide an easily reachable phone number.
You can also get in touch with UPS on your end as soon as your package reached your country to make an appointment for delivery or pickup at an access point. More details and UPS contact information are available via the tracking link in the shipping confirmation email.

Delivery to APO, FPO & DPO (Armed Forces Americas, Armed Forces Europe and Armed Forces Pacific) US territories is not possible via UPS, but only via USPS (which correspond to a shipping via Japan Post on our end) and are subject to a surcharge of 1000 YEN.

Main countries covered with UPS: United states, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada.

With EMS (Asia & Oceania, including Russia and eastern Europe)

• Delivered: within 4 to 10 days after shipping (not guaranteed: depending on the delivery country and region, customs clearance may take up to 2 weeks).
• Online tracking: available on the Japan Post Website or from the local EMS partner. for partners abroad of Japan Post)
• Modification of delivery address after shipping: not possible.
• Access point pick up: usually yes, at your nearest post office.
• Insurance: yes, order fully covered. Usually settled within 1 month.
• Signature required upon reception of the package, unless you have a specific arrangement with the carrier.

Arranging delivery with your local post office: Depending on the country, this service might not be available or very reliable, but how the postal service works in your country, you probably know better than us. But in any case, you will be contacted or left a notice with instructions on how to pickup your package.

You want to change the carrier to FedEx/UPS in Asia/Oceania/Middle East?
Because the shipping fees are much higher in that case, we cannot offer this service free of charge. But if you are willing to pay an additional fee, contact us prior to placing your order.

EMS is offered only for destination where no other express carrier is available at a reasonable rate. EMS is believed to be efficient in Asia, but it is not in Europe and America due to the fact packages are transfered by Japan Post to national carriers on the way. We do avoid EMS as much as possible.

You would like to be delivered with DHL/FedEx/UPS but the option is not available at checkout?
This is possible, but the shipping rates are far higher than with EMS. Please contact us prior to placing your order to arrange the payment of the additional fees.

Some locations are not covered by EMS, e.g. French Polynesia and a few remote areas. To deliver to those locations, we will ship through Japan Post standard shipping, without previous notice. You will find more information on the covered areas by EMS on the Japan post website:

For Dubai only: Since there is no national postal service, we deliver to PO Boxes exclusively in Dubai.

Paid Shipping - Africa & South America - With EMS/AIR・SAL/FedEx/DHL

Although we would want to offer worldwide free shipping, the current conditions offered by all carriers in Japan do not allow us to do so in regard to Africa and South America. The shipping costs are extremely high, and hence, we have to charge extra fees for these destinations. These fees depend on the order content, size and weight of the parcel and are usually between 1000 YEN for small orders (accessories) and 25,000 YEN for larger orders.
In these destinations, customs clearance often causes issues as well when it comes to orders of a high value. For that reason, you cannot directly place big orders online. Please contact us to discuss shipping fees and the best solution for you.

• Delivered: within 10 to 20 days after shipping (not guaranteed: depending on the delivery country and region, customs clearance may take up to 2 weeks).
• Online tracking: available on the Japan Post Website
• Modification of delivery address after shipping: not possible.
• Access point pick up: usually yes, at your nearest post office.
• Insurance: yes, order fully covered. Usually settled within 1 month.
• Signature required upon reception of the package, unless you have a specific arrangement with the carrier.

Arranging delivery with your local post office: Depending on the country, this service might not be available or very reliable, but you probably know better than us how the postal service works in your country. In any case, you will be contacted or left a notice with instructions on how to pickup your package.

Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Colombia benefits from our specific agreement DHL and FedEx, so those carriers will be available at checkout (with additional fees similar to EMS).

You would like to be delivered with FedEx/UPS/DHL in Africa/South America ?
All countries where we can ship with FedEx are already listed with FedEx shipping at checkout (mainly South America and North Africa). For other countries, this is possible as well but shipping rates are far higher than with EMS. Please contact us prior to placing your order to arrange the payment of the additional fees.

Important: Because of aeronautic limitations regarding the size of packages (max. 105 cm length), weapon sets, Iaito and Jo cannot be shipped to Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia (we have no solution for that at the moment, but incredibly expensive fees with other carriers).

Those conditions include some overseas territories, such as French Polynesia, Madagascar, etc.

Other carriers

KuSakuraShop specializes in international and domestic sales and offers additional services to make the shipping and delivery as convenient as possible for you: We track all parcels until actual delivery, contact you if we notice anything unusual, and immediately get in touch with the carrier to solve any issues. We spent years to develop these manual and specific procedures, adapting them for each carrier and each destination.
For that reason, we will not accept any shipping method other than those mentioned on this page.

Please note that the Japan Post ePacket (small package) service has been terminated by Japan Post on October 1st 2023 without plans to reinstate a similar service in the future.

Damaged package at delivery

What matters most is to react fast whilst following the steps described below in the exact order. Before any refund procedure can be started, the carrier will ask for details. To make it possible for us to back you up and act as fast as possible, we need you to first follow the steps below.

1. First, get in touch with the carrier to file a complaint. You will have to provide pictures of the package, the packaging, any signs of damage from the outside and the inside, and pictures of the damaged product itself.
2. Send us a copy of the complaint via email, include all pictures.
3. We forward these pictures to our related account manager in Japan.
4. Usually, he gets back to us within 2 or 3 business days.
5. We get back to you with the record of our account manager.
6. If the carrier confirms the claim in your favor, we proceed according to your choice with either a financial compensation or reship of the product).
   If the carrier denies the responsibility, we will work on a solution that fits both parties. In that case as well, we will not let you down!

• With DHL/UPS/FedEx: Usually, the claim is processed and settled within 1-2 weeks.
• With Japan Post (EMS/E-packet): Usually, the claim is processed and settled within a month, but may take up to 8 weeks in some complicated cases.

You worry that your package got lost?

If that IS the case, we are here to help, and most likely we already have noticed it and taken all the necessary actions. We use our own custom tools to survey the shipping process, sending us alerts if a parcel is stuck at the same location for more than a few days.
If something appears strange, we immediately take actions and contact the carrier to figure out what is going on with the package.

Is the package lost? DHL/UPS/FedEx odd tracking status
It happens that your parcel seems to travel back and forth between your country and several Asian and European countries, and that is perfectly normal!
The parcel is registered on the carrier's server by KuSakuraShop and is later picked up at our facilities.
Parcels shipped from Japan pass various transit sites on their way to your country such as China, India, and Germany. The customs clearance information of your package are transmitted to the customs services of your country before the parcel actually reaches it, in order to clear the goods for import in advance which saves time.

But what if the parcel really got lost? Contact the carrier first!

1. Prior to contacting us, contact the carrier on your end. This is the fastest way to handle the problem. Doing this on our end, with the time difference, and going through our account manager in Japan who forwards the request to an oversea's carrier department with the help of a translation service and so on, can take much longer.
2. And often, contacting the carrier on your end, the package can be located. If not, please contact us with the details of the carrier's answer.
3. From there, if not done automatically, we will send a localization request to the carrier and make sure to have the case handled asap.
4. 90% of these "lost" packages are found and delivered before we get our request answered.
   It takes between 7 and 10 days to declare a package as lost, shipped with DHL/UPS/FedEx, and about one month with Japan Post. As soon as we have the carrier's confirmation, we reship the order.

• With DHL/UPS/FedEx: Case is handled and settled within 1-2 weeks.
• With Japan Post (EMS/E-packet): Case is handled and settled in a month, but may take up to 8 weeks in complicated cases.

Package returned to sender

If you wish to return/cancel your order after it has been shipped, accept the package and then send it back. Please check the "Returns and Refund Policy" for more information.

• In almost all cases, we will try to contact you immediately if your package tracking shows the "Returned to sender" status, but we might not be able to catch all parcels before they are sent back.
• If you already know that your parcel is sent back please contact the carrier immediately.
• If the parcel is sent back by mistake on the carrier's side (your address is correct and you did not fail to contact the carrier to arrange the delivery), we organize the reshipping with the carrier - free of charge, of course.
• If because of an erroneous delivery address the package is sent back to Japan, or if you simply failed to arrange its delivery, we will contact you as soon as it reaches our facilities, informing you about the total costs for returning it to Japan and reshipping it to your country. Even if your order can be refunded (e.g. non-customized items) the shipping back to Japan must be paid.

The carrier's service makes you want to file a complaint?

At KuSakuraShop we try to make the online shopping experience as enjoyable as possible - from browsing our website and choosing products to receiving your order. Hence, the service our carriers offer, matters : Although we do not really have other choices, as we already work with UPS, FedEx, DHL, and Japan Post, (only carriers offering BtoC delivery outside Japan). Nonetheless, we regularly meet our account managers to work on improving their service.

First, let us take the possibility of a misunderstanding into consideration before sending a complaint.
However, if you did experience a bad service, it is your right to write a complaint. Although FedEx and UPS usually are more professional than other postal services, they are far from perfect. We are aware that the actual service quality strongly depends on the country and region, regardless of the carrier. To monitor all our parcels on their way around the world almost daily, we developed a time consuming and expensive tracking system. This allows us to step in immediately if needed, contact our customer with further instructions, and when a package has arrived, to confirm the actual delivery by email. Some aspects we cannot control though, and you may experience bad service. And the only way to improve it is to file a complaint adding as much detail as possible. KuSauraShop works alongside other export companies in Japan in close relation with FedEx, UPS, and DHL to help improve their service worldwide. That is why we encourage you to email your complaint to the carrier directly (and add us in copy to be kept in the loop).

• DHL: DHL Customer Support Center (Twitter @dhlexpress is also a good option to have your claim published)
• FedEx: FedEx Customer Support Center (Twitter @fedexhelp is also a good option to have your claim published)
• UPS: UPS Claim form (Twitter @upshelp is also a good option to have your claim published)
• EMS: please check the local carrier's website for more information (too many to list here).