USA to Japan Freight Forwarding

Japan buys American machinery, medical and laboratory equipment, chemicals, vehicles and farm products, and on the industrial side almost none of it pays Japanese import duty: cars and most machinery enter duty-free, with the 10% consumption tax collected at import. The difficulty on this lane is not the tariff but the standards. An American car has to pass Japanese inspection before it can be registered; electrical equipment has to suit a 100/200-volt grid split between 50 Hz in the east and 60 Hz in the west; and Japanese customs expects documents that match the goods exactly. Alongside the commercial trade runs a steady personal one from Southern California, home to one of the largest communities of Japanese nationals living abroad: families returning to Japan after an assignment, and Americans relocating there for work.

Last reviewed: October 2026

Offices and representative on this lane:Glendale, USA

Services Available on This Route

AGF Advantage on This Lane

We work through WCA partner agents in Japan; AGF has no office there. The US end is coordinated by our own team in Glendale: we arrange pickup anywhere in the country, export crating and container loading through partner facilities in Los Angeles, the EEI filing in AES, and — for vehicles — presentation of the title to CBP at least 72 hours before export. In Japan, our partner agent arranges customs clearance through NACCS with the consignee, delivery to the door — often by smaller trucks, because many residential streets cannot take a container chassis — and coordination with the inspection and registration specialists an imported car needs. AGF is an FMC-licensed NVOCC (OTI #031665NF) and a WCA member.

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