At some point on a trip to Japan the question arrives: do I carry this home, or post it? The answer turns almost entirely on where home is, and the gap is larger than people expect. A five-kilo box costs 6,400 yen to Seoul and 15,100 yen to the United States — the same box, the same service, 2.4 times the price.
Here is the official rate table, the point at which posting stops making sense, and the two things the price does not include.
The rate table, by zone
| Weight | China / Korea / Taiwan | Rest of Asia | Europe, Oceania, Canada, Mexico, Middle East | United States | C&S America, Africa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 g | 1,450 | 1,900 | 3,150 | 3,900 | 3,600 |
| 1 kg | 2,200 | 3,150 | 4,400 | 5,300 | 5,100 |
| 2 kg | 3,400 | 4,550 | 6,700 | 7,900 | 8,100 |
| 3 kg | 4,400 | 5,750 | 8,800 | 10,300 | 11,100 |
| 5 kg | 6,400 | 8,150 | 13,000 | 15,100 | 17,100 |
| 10 kg | 10,600 | 13,350 | 23,500 | 27,100 | 29,700 |
| 20 kg | 18,600 | 23,350 | 44,500 | 51,100 | 53,700 |
| 30 kg | 26,600 | 33,350 | 65,500 | 75,100 | 77,700 |
All figures in yen. Thirty kilograms is where the published table ends.
The United States is its own zone
Worth noticing in that header: Canada and Mexico sit with Europe and Oceania, while the United States has a band to itself — and the US band is the more expensive of the two. The official definition also states that this zone includes Guam and other US territories. If you assumed North America was priced as one region, that assumption costs you 2,100 yen on a five-kilo parcel.
Where the price actually starts to bite
Read down the table and the shape becomes clear. Up to about 2 kg the difference between zones is a few thousand yen — noticeable but not decisive. From 5 kg the near and far zones separate sharply, and by 10 kg the far zones have roughly doubled the near ones. The decision point for most travelers is between 3 and 5 kg: below it, ship without thinking; above it, do the comparison properly.
The gap widens with weight
So the calculation is not the same for everyone. Shipping a heavy box to Taiwan is a reasonable proposition; shipping the same box to the United States is a 75,100 yen decision, and at that point an airline's excess baggage charge deserves a serious look.
Never split a shipment
The rate rises far more slowly than the weight, which makes consolidation the single biggest saving available to you.
| To the United States | Cost | Per kg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kg | 5,300 yen | 5,300 |
| 5 kg | 15,100 yen | 3,020 |
| 10 kg | 27,100 yen | 2,710 |
| 30 kg | 75,100 yen | 2,503 |
Five kilos costs under three times what one kilo costs, not five times. Put the other way: sending five separate one-kilo parcels to the US would cost 26,500 yen against 15,100 for one five-kilo box — 11,400 yen wasted for the convenience of posting things as you buy them.
The practical version: collect everything and send one box near the end of the trip. If carrying it around until then is the problem, that is what left-luggage services are for, and moving it between cities is what domestic forwarding is for — both are cheaper than splitting an international shipment.
Two things the price does not include
The table is the Japanese side of the cost. Two other things can land on top.
| Not included | Who sets it |
|---|---|
| Provisional surcharges on two of the zones | Japan Post — it states these are tentative and included in the shown figures for those zones |
| Customs duty and import tax at the other end | The destination country, charged to the recipient |
The first means the figures for the middle zones are not as stable as the others — the operator is explicit that a temporary component is baked in. The second is the one that surprises people at the receiving end: a parcel can arrive with a bill, calculated by the destination country's customs on the declared value. Nothing on the Japanese side controls that.
Why two zones carry a provisional charge
The operator does not explain the reason on the rate page, and we are not going to guess at one. What it does say is that the figures for those zones include tentative extra charges, with a link to the specifics. The practical implication is narrow but real: if you are budgeting a shipment weeks ahead to Europe, Oceania, Canada, Mexico or the Middle East, re-check the figure before you go rather than trusting a number you noted earlier.
Declare the value honestly
You will complete a customs declaration describing the contents and their value. Understating it is not a shortcut — it is a customs declaration, and it is also the basis on which any compensation would be calculated if the parcel were lost. Describe what is actually in the box.
The tax-free trap
This is separate from whether the item can be posted at all — it can. It is about whether the tax exemption survives the decision. Our guide to tax-free shopping covers the current rules, including the larger change coming in November 2026.
The clean approach: keep tax-free purchases in your own luggage, and ship the things you bought normally. If most of what you are sending is tax-free goods, the exemption may be worth more than the convenience of posting them.
Shipping versus excess baggage
The honest comparison, because neither answer is always right.
| Shipping wins when | Excess baggage wins when |
|---|---|
| Your destination is in a near zone | You are flying to a far zone with a heavy box |
| You have connections and do not want to handle it | You have a direct flight and can manage it |
| The contents are fragile or awkward to carry | You need the contents immediately on arrival |
| You are still traveling and want to lighten the load now | You are already at the airport |
And what you cannot put in either
Both routes have restrictions, and they are not the same restrictions. Airlines limit what goes in checked baggage; postal services limit what can be sent to each particular country, and those lists differ by destination. We are not reproducing them here for that reason — a list that is right for one country is wrong for another. If your box contains anything that is not clothing, food in sealed packaging, or ordinary souvenirs, check the destination-specific restrictions before you pack it.
The thing the table cannot price
A box posted from a post office does not have to be carried through two airport transfers, lifted onto a train, or watched at a hotel. That is worth something real that does not appear as a number. It is the same logic that makes domestic forwarding worthwhile inside Japan, and it applies with more force when the alternative is an international connection.
What this looks like for a typical trip
Two worked examples, using the published figures. A visitor from Seoul buying ceramics, snacks and a jacket ends up with about 5 kg: that is 6,400 yen, comfortably less than the hassle of carrying it, and the decision takes about ten seconds. A visitor from Chicago with the same 5 kg is looking at 15,100 yen — still often worth it, but now a real comparison against the airline's second-bag fee.
Scale both up and they diverge completely. At 15 kg the Seoul traveler is still in the teens of thousands while the Chicago one is well past forty thousand. The same shopping habit produces a different answer depending on where you live, which is why a blanket "just ship it home" recommendation is bad advice for half the audience.
At the post office
A few practical points for the counter itself.
| Bring or expect | Detail |
|---|---|
| An unsealed box | Staff may need to see the contents for the declaration |
| A customs declaration | Contents and value, item by item |
| Packing materials | Sold at the counter if you need them |
| A larger branch | Better equipped for international mail than a small one |
| Not a holiday | Post office counters close on public holidays — unlike the ATMs in the same building (see cash and ATMs) |
Do it on a weekday, not the last day
Two timing points that cost people money. Post office counters close on public holidays, and Japan has enough long weekends that this is a live risk — our guide to public holidays lists the 2026 and 2027 dates. And leaving it to your final morning means you are packing, weighing and completing a customs declaration under time pressure, which is how a 5 kg box becomes two 3 kg boxes and costs you an extra several thousand yen.
Airport post is not the same as an airport counter
Some travelers plan to post from the airport on departure day. That works where a post office exists in the terminal, but it is not a service every airport counter offers, and departure morning is the worst time to discover a queue. If the parcel matters, send it a day or two earlier from a city post office — and use the terminal time for the duty-free shops instead.
One box, one decision
If you take one thing from this page: decide once, near the end of the trip, and send a single box. Every mechanism in the rate table rewards that — the per-kilo price falls, the customs paperwork happens once, and you avoid the compounding cost of posting things as you buy them. The only reason to break the rule is weight: at 30 kg to a far zone, the number gets large enough that the airline becomes the better answer.
Shipping from Japan FAQ
How much does it cost to ship a box home from Japan?
What are the shipping zones?
Is it cheaper to send two small boxes or one big one?
What is the weight limit?
Should I ship or pay for extra baggage?
Are these prices final?
Can I ship anything I bought duty-free?
Where do I actually take the parcel?
Bottom line (2026) — With Japan Post's EMS, a 5 kg box costs 6,400 yen to China, Korea or Taiwan and 15,100 to the United States — and the US is its own zone, more expensive than Canada. The gap grows with weight: at 30 kg it is 48,500 yen between the cheapest and dearest zones, which is where excess baggage starts to compete. Never split a shipment — five 1 kg parcels to the US cost 26,500 against 15,100 for one 5 kg box. And keep tax-free purchases in your own luggage: shipping them separately stopped being a tax-free route in March 2025.
Sources
All prices and the zone definitions come from Japan Post's published English rate schedule for EMS covering all zones, read from the live page on August 31, 2026 — including the grouping of China, South Korea and Taiwan; the rest of Asia; Oceania, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East and Europe; the United States including Guam and other US territories; and Central and South America with Africa. The note that tentative extra charges are included for two of the zones is stated on the same page. The end of separate shipping as a route for tax-free purchases in March 2025 comes from the Japan Tourism Agency's guidance on the tax-free system. Rates and surcharges change; confirm on the operator's own page before you rely on a figure here.
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