Importing Japanese knives into the USA

Importing Japanese kitchen knives into the United States from Japan

The latest advice.

On April 14th, 2026 Japan Post parcel post services resumed from Japan to the USA.

Shipping with Japan Post requires payment of the tariff prior to posting in order that your parcel may enter the USA as 'DDP' or Delivered Duty Paid. The tariff rate that is applied by the postal system is 10%. The disbursement fee is 736 yen (around $4.60 at the time of writing). If you wish to have your order delivered by Japan Post then Knife Japan will prepay your tariff and send an invoice in Japanese yen for reimbursement. 

Delivery by DHL Express is the faster option, but the addressee charges are higher. As of April 6th, 2026 courier-delivered parcels from Knife Japan are subject to a revised tariff rate of 25% (down from 50%) under section 232 of the Trade Act. 

From the White House Proclamation of April 2nd:

(3)  Effective with respect to goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 6, 2026, for the copper articles and for the aluminum and steel derivative articles listed in Annex I-B to this proclamation, the applicable additional ad valorem rate of duty imposed pursuant to section 232 under Proclamation 9704, as amended; Proclamation 9705, as amended; and Proclamation 10962 shall be:

(a)  25 percent, unless a lower rate of duty applies pursuant to clause (3)(b)–(3)(c) of this proclamation;

Relevant Harmonized Tariff Codes are listed on pages 14 and 15 of the aforementioned Annex 1-B: 25% Section 232 Tariff on Full Value.

Please note that Knife Japan is not involved with the collection of tariffs or the import processing fee for a parcel shipped with DHL. DHL Express will send an invoice to your email address along with a payment link before your parcel reaches US territory. DHL applies a processing fee of $17.00 for this service. 

If you are a US resident please expect to be hit with a tax bill of between 25% and 30% for a knife purchased from Knife Japan and sent to your address in the United States by DHL Express. 

If you wish to confirm shipping with either method when you place your order please indicate your preference in an order note during the checkout process.

A note about state sales tax.

State sales tax, if it applies in your state, is levied at the point of sale.

It's only relevant for an overseas vendor if sales for that vendor exceed a certain threshold per annum (the figure varies, but it's A LOT of knives). We don't exceed those thresholds for any state, so state sales tax will not apply to your order.

If you've ordered from an overseas vendor on a platform like Ebay or Etsy and found yourself paying state sales tax, that's why. For state sales tax purposes sales on those platforms aren't calculated on a seller-by-seller basis, but on the sales of the platform as a whole. As a result they will collect state sales tax on every transaction.

If you have any questions about our products or how we can deliver them to you in the USA, please drop us a line using the form below.

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