International Mail
About Electronic Advance Data (EAD)
There is a possibility that your postal item may be delayed in customs clearance or returned to you by a decision of the destination customs authority if you use a handwritten label beginning from January 1st, 2021. Moreover, in principle, we do not accept postal items addressed to the United States with a handwritten label.
Please use the "International Mail My Page Service" to send EMS, international parcels and small packets, etc.
About Electronic Advance Data (EAD)
For enhanced security, it has become obligatory to transmit data, such as the sender's name and address and names of the contents, to the destination postal service in advance converted into an electronic format called Electronic Advance Data (EAD).
| For sending EAD |
Please use International My Page Service (free of charge). If you use this service from a personal computer or a smartphone to create the label, EAD are transmitted automatically. More information about this service is here. 
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| Postal services requiring EAD |
It is obligatory for EMS, international parcels, small packets, international ePacket and international ePacket Light containing goods. |
| When will it become obligatory? | It will be obligatory for postal items mailed at the service counter or handed to collection personnel beginning from January 1st, 2021. Please allow plenty of time for complying with the EAD requirement. |
| Kinds of data sent | The data that you enter are sent such as the sender's name and address, recipient's name and address, names of contents, gross weight and number of items. |
| Treatment of postal items without EAD |
・To the United States: To prevent customer inconvenience, Japan Post does not accept postal items without EAD because such items will be returned by the United States Postal Service under a United States law called the STOP Act. ・To other countries: We accept such postal items if customers agree to the possibility that the item may be delayed in clearing customs or returned to the sender. Please use International Mail My Page Service for sending EAD as much as possible because all countries require EAD. We will revise the "Table of conditions for international mail" to include this condition. |
FAQ
It is an American national law for counterterrorism and control of drugs. This law mandates the USPS to send customs data on postal items it receives to the U.S. customs authority in advance.
- Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act
Yes. It will be obligatory from January 1st, 2021. Labels for unrecorded small packets cannot be made with International Mail My Page Service at present. It will be possible around November 2020.
Labels for registered small packets can be made now.
We cannot reimburse senders for the postage on postal items that are delayed or returned due to the failure to send EAD because this treatment is determined by the destination customs authority.
List of FAQs is here
