Importing Japanese knives into the USA

Importing Japanese kitchen knives into the United States from Japan

As of April 6th, 2026 US-bound parcels from Knife Japan are subject to a revised tariff rate of 25%. Our understanding is that this is in addition to the import duty relevant to your purchase but we are waiting on clarification. Import duty rates for knives are listed in Section 8211 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

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(3)  Effective with respect to goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on April 6, 2026, for the copper articles and for the aluminum and steel derivative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.

If you are a US resident please expect to be hit with a tax bill of between 25% and 31.1% for a knife purchased from Knife Japan and sent to your address in the United States. 

Please note that Knife Japan is not involved with the collection of tariffs or the import processing fee. 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. 

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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