ACP’s limitation

ACP is not capable to handle all kinds of goods.

If the goods are subject to specific regulations such as Food Sanitation Act, Act on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, or PSE/PSC it shall not allow to import by appointing ACP.

The said regulations require the importers should be a Japanese resident entity. On the other hand, if a non-resident entity uses ACP for their import, it means that the non-resident entity becomes an importer. For that reason, for particular products that are subject to the previously mentioned regulations, it does not allow to import by appointing ACP.

Therefore, we check the eligibility as a first step, to avoid any restrictions for the importing goods.

Japanese import-related regulations

Let us introduce several websites regarding import-related regulation, so that you can understand and follow the required compliance before shipping goods to Japan.

Overall

Japan Customs Office: List of import-related laws and regulations
Mipro (Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization) : Guide to Safety Assurance for Products Imported to Japan

Foods

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Food Sanitation Law
Mipro (Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization) : Importing Health Foods
Mipro (Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization) : Guide to Food Import
Mipro (Manufactured Imports and Investment Promotion Organization) : Guide to Import of Apparatuses for Food

Medicines

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Import medicines for personal use

Electrical appliances

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry: PSE (Electrical Appliances and Materials Safety Act)

Plants and their seeds

Japan Customs Office: Import restrictions in accordance with the Plant Protection Law

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We’re a reliable ACP service provider for Amazon FBA’s seller

In recent, we’ve been supporting many import projects of goods related to the Amazon-FBA program. If you are looking for a reliable ACP service provider, please let us know.

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Guidance by Amazon

According to the seller central website in Amazon, there is guidance by Amazon that a non-resident entity needs to appoint an ACP or IOR. You may check on this “Non-resident requirements”. Also, you can check the document developed by Amazon “Understand ACP and IOR guidance”. —–

How the Japanese New Invoice System affects? – Advantage of using ACP –

Recently, many companies register JCT (Japanese Consumption Tax) because the new invoice system for JCT will start in October 2023. The concept of the new invoice system is very similar to the EU’s VAT invoice system.

Your Japanese customer can’t claim input tax credits unless the sellers(suppliers) issue a qualified invoice that is written a JCT number. To issue a qualified invoice, sellers(suppliers) need to be a taxable entity and get a JCT number.

Since the seller becomes a taxable entity, the seller is obligated to file JCT tax returns on a regular basis.

For the case of a non-resident entity, when you import and sell to customers in Japan
(1) Pay import JCT to a customs office, 10% of the import customs value when you import
(2) Collect JCT from a customer in Japan, 10% of the sales price when you sell
(3) Submit JCT tax return to a tax office periodically
(3-1) If you paid (1) as IOR = Importer, which means you appoint ACP, then you’re required to pay only the difference amount (2) – (1)
(3-2) If you paid (1) but you were not IOR = Importer, then you’re required to pay all the amount of (2). You can’t deduct (1).

Please be careful that only the IMPORTER can deduct the import consumption tax at the time of tax filing. In other words, if another IOR service provider became the IMPORTER when you import, basically it would not be possible for the non-resident entity to deduct the import consumption tax. Therefore, you have to pay all the amount of (2) to a tax office.

On the other hand, if you import with ACP, means that you became an IMPORTER thus you can deduct the import consumption tax, when you do JCT tax return. Therefore, you only need to pay the difference amount (2) – (1) to a tax office.

This is one of the significant advantages to use ACP service, not IOR service.

For this reason, we strongly recommend using ACP so that you can become IOR.

Our strengths

Professional of Customs and International Trade – The CEO, as a Certified Customs Specialist in Japan – Mr. Sawada has been providing consulting services in the Trade & Customs area for many years. He was in a management position at KPMG, then started with his own company – SK Advisory to continue the customs-related services to the international clients.
Fully compliance in accordance with Japanese Customs Law – Maintaining the service quality with full compliance with Japanese Customs Law. ACP Japan is capable to manage all the necessary import compliance issues, including the classification of HS code, and setting of the appropriate Customs Valuation of the import goods to Japan.
Experienced and credible partner – As ACP Japan has been providing ACP services to many clients as demand has increased, you can totally rely on us as a credible partner. We registers 40+ ACP customers every year, the customers from around the world. In this way, all customers successfully became non-resident IOR – Importer of Record in Japan. You can see a list of our customers in here “Experiences”.
Qualified ACP service provider in Amazon SPN (Service Provider Network) – ACP Japan has officially become a qualified ACP service provider in Amazon’s Service Provider Network (SPN) under the Compliance category.