I hope everyone out there is keeping safe, healthy and working on those backlogs.
So firstly, I'm happy to announce that I've added courier options for shipping. It's just UPS and FedEx right now but I'm talking to DHL and hoping for some updates soon. This is especially useful for those of you living in areas where Japan Post have suspended air services. They're also fast, which is a nice plus.
The downside is that they're more expensive than Japan Post. I've worked hard to get a good discount so it's a lot more palatable but this is just the World we occupy right now. I'm not privy to Japan Post's internal operations or when things may improve. However, looking at the backlog of items bound for the US since March 27th up until the April 23rd cutoff, at the time of writing this, only 11% have departed Japan. As per Japan Post's April 23rd update, at current capacity the backlog for EMS was around 4 months long (3 months now, I guess). I don't know what this means for regular Airmail or if it's included in this estimate. This can also change very quickly with a second wave of infections.
At the time of writing Japan Post is still operating air services (Airmail and EMS) to the following destinations:
- Canada
- Mexico
- France
- Germany
- UK
- Finland
- The Netherlands
- Switzerland (2020/06/05)
- South Korea
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Philippines
- Taiwan
- Hong Kong
However, as ePacket Light is no longer available, I've removed this option. If you have an outstanding order, you'll be bumped up to ePacket but you may want to consider EMS. Some destinations (particularly Canada) have considerable shipping backlogs and extensive delays (EMS is around 12-14 days to some provinces).
Those living outside these destinations are recommended to select FedEx or UPS as a shipping option. If you have an outstanding order, please contact me if you'd like to make the switch (or a quote) and I'll sort it out for you.
Also, if you'd like to use FedEx and live outside the US, please be aware that there's an out of service area charge that may be applied if you live outside of a major population area. If you're uncertain, please contact prior to purchase and I'll be happy to check for you or you can consult this list.
Finally, to accommodate for courier shipping, which is charged volumetrically, I've had to overhaul how shipping was calculated and use dimensional weight with a few tweaks to get it to align between different carriers (since they all work differently). There's probably some bugs, so please contact me if you notice something weird.
If you have any questions, you're more than welcome to contact me.
Stay safe.