Blackship

Blackship gives you your own personal address in Japan. You shop on any Japanese website, have your purchases delivered to that address, and Blackship forwards everything to you wherever you live. It's run by White Rabbit Japan, who have been doing this for years and also operate Japan Rabbit (the proxy buying service) and OMG Japan.

The service is useful for one specific reason: a lot of Japanese shops only ship within Japan, or they ship internationally but charge crazy rates and limit which products are eligible. With a Blackship address you sidestep all of that. Stores like Mercari, Surugaya, ZOZOTOWN, the Pokémon Center, Animate, Bandai, Yahoo Auctions and even Amazon Japan suddenly become accessible.

This is the part that confuses most people, so it's worth being clear: Blackship does not buy anything for you. You place the order yourself, on the shop's website, with your own card. Blackship only receives the package, repacks it, and ships it on.

If the Japanese shop won't take your foreign card, or you can't read the site well enough to order, that's a problem Blackship can't solve. In that case use Japan Rabbit (their sister service), which actually does the buying. Items bought through Japan Rabbit can later be moved over to Blackship for free if you want to consolidate them with other packages. We have a separate guide on how Japan Rabbit works if you want to read up on it.

The flow is the same every time:

1. Sign up and verify your ID. Blackship has to confirm who you are before issuing your address (Japanese law). You upload a photo ID and proof of address. Verification usually takes a day or two.
2. Get your address. You receive a unique mailbox number that looks like K123456. The mailbox number always has to be in the address line when you order, otherwise Blackship can't connect the package to your account.
3. Shop online. Use your Blackship address as the shipping address on any Japanese site. Pay with your own card or PayPal directly at the shop.
4. Wait for the package to arrive. Once it lands at the warehouse, Blackship logs it into your account within 24 to 48 hours. You'll get an email and an app notification.
5. Decide what to do with it. You can ship it right away, hold it and wait for more packages to arrive, or combine several packages into one (consolidation) to save on shipping.
6. Fill out the customs form and pick a shipping method. This happens in the app. You declare the value, choose between EMS, FedEx or DHL, and pay. After that the package is on its way.

Blackship has two plans, and the difference matters more than it looks at first.

Basic Plan: free. No monthly cost. You pay the standard fees for everything (1 USD per package received, 3 USD per consolidation, etc.). You can never earn loyalty points on this plan.

Rewards Plan: 12 USD per year (1 USD per month, billed annually). You pay this small fee, and in return you can earn loyalty points. The more points you earn, the cheaper your service fees get. You also get 100 points just for signing up.

If you order from Japan more than two or three times a year, the Rewards Plan pays for itself easily.

This is the part that looks complicated but is actually simple. There are seven levels, named after sea animals. You start at Goldfish and move up as you earn points. Each level reduces the fees you pay.

At the top level (Whale) you pay nothing to receive a package and you get 5% off every shipment with EMS, FedEx or DHL. That adds up fast if you ship vinyl or figures, where shipping is often the biggest cost on your invoice.

How to earn points

Points are mostly earned through your spending at Blackship, but there are a few easy one-time bonuses worth grabbing early:

• 100 points when you join the Rewards Plan
• 100 points the first time you use consolidation
• 100 points the first time you use priority processing
• 100 points the first time you request photos of a package
• 300 points if you refer a friend (and your friend gets 5 USD off their first shipment)

So just by signing up and trying out the basic features once, you're already at 700 points before spending anything else. That's enough to reach Sea Turtle.

Beyond receiving and consolidation, there are optional services. Prices below are for Basic level; they get cheaper at higher Rewards levels.

• Priority Processing (5 USD): moves your request to the front of the queue. Useful when you need something shipped fast, but it doesn't guarantee same-day shipping.
• Photo Request (5 USD): Blackship sends you photos of the actual contents of a package. Useful for verifying condition before you ship, especially for second-hand purchases or Mercari items.
• Invoice Removal (1 USD): removes the original sales invoice before shipping. Helpful if a package is a gift or you don't want the recipient to see what was paid.
• Discreet Pack (1.20 USD): plain unmarked packaging instead of Blackship-branded tape. Worth thinking about if you're shipping anything that might draw extra customs attention.
• Price Tag Removal (0.40 USD per tag): removes visible price stickers.
• Non-Branding (1 USD): generic tape and box instead of Blackship's branded ones.

You choose between EMS, FedEx and DHL when you ship. The Shipping Calculator on Blackship's site lets you estimate costs before you commit. Their rates include a small weight-based service fee on top of what the carrier itself charges.

Two notes that catch people off guard:

• EMS to Germany is currently not available for the same reason it's blocked at most Japanese shops (Japan Post can't share tracking data with Deutsche Post right now). FedEx and DHL still work.
• Big or fragile items can have extra packing fees. A boxed scale figure or a guitar will need more padding than a CD, and Blackship charges for it. Worth checking the help center before ordering anything bulky.

Your packages are stored for free for 45 days after they arrive at the warehouse. (Blackship temporarily had a 90-day window during the US tariff situation, but that ended and it's now back to 45 days.)

After 45 days, you start paying a daily storage fee based on the package size:

• Extra Small (CDs, manga, keychains): 0.15 USD per day
• Small (magazines, vinyl): 0.25 USD per day
• Medium (photo books, hoodies): 0.45 USD per day
• Large (figures, shoes, backpacks): 0.75 USD per day
• Extra Large (scale figures, consoles, large plushies): 1.20 USD per day

If you don't ship or dispose of a package within 90 days total, Blackship considers it forfeited. So set yourself a reminder.

There's also a quirk in the workflow: if you choose the two-step checkout (pack first, ship later), once the package is marked "Ready to Ship" you only get 7 more free days before storage fees start. So don't pack things up early if you're not ready to ship soon after.

When the package arrives in the EU, customs treats it like any other shipment from Japan. 19% VAT applies (in Germany), plus a clearance fee from the courier (around 6 USD with DHL).

Blackship doesn't collect EU VAT in advance. They aren't registered for IOSS like a regular Japanese shop would be, because forwarders aren't really set up for that. So you'll always pay VAT and the handling fee on delivery, no matter how small the order is. This is normal for any forwarding service.

You declare the customs value yourself in the app. Don't be tempted to under-declare; if customs opens the package and finds a different value, you can be hit with penalties or have the package held.

Blackship recently switched to USD-only billing to simplify things internally. You used to be able to pay in Yen, Euro or four other currencies; that option is gone for now (they've said they're looking into bringing it back via Stripe Adaptive Pricing).

For European customers this means your card or PayPal will convert from USD to Euro at whatever rate your bank uses. The cost is the same; only the displayed currency changed.

A few things worth knowing before you sign up.

Consolidation can take a while. When you ask Blackship to combine several packages into one, it takes a few business days, sometimes longer if they're busy. Plan ahead. Priority Processing speeds it up but doesn't make it instant.

Always include your mailbox number in the address. If you forget the K-number, your package may sit somewhere unidentified for days while support tries to figure out who it belongs to.

Some shops don't accept foreign cards. Even with a Japanese address, certain Japanese shops will reject a non-Japanese credit card at checkout. For those, switch to Japan Rabbit or use Cash on Delivery (Blackship can pay COD on your behalf for an extra fee).

Shipping is the biggest cost. The receiving and consolidation fees are pocket change. The actual shipping by EMS, FedEx or DHL is what hurts. This is why consolidation matters so much: combining three packages into one can cut the international shipping cost almost in half.

Blackship is the right tool when you want to shop directly on Japanese sites yourself, and you trust your own ability to navigate them and pay. It's perfect for buying from Mercari, Surugaya, the Pokémon Center, ZOZOTOWN, Animate, Yahoo Auctions and the many small specialty shops that don't ship abroad.

It's the wrong tool if you want someone else to handle the actual purchase, deal with the language, or fight with a shop that won't take your card. For that, use Japan Rabbit instead (read our guide). They're literally the same company, so moving things between the two services is seamless.