New Japanese Post Office Rule

[robokochan]

Well the post office here in Japan just opened up after the O-Bon vacation. I make my trip to mail out items as usual.

Packages to America....No problem

Packages to UK.....No Problem

Packages to the Philippines....No Problem

Package to Hong Kong....Red Flag...Stop.....problem.

I guess it turns out that Japan is cracking down on boot-leg items. So anything that goes to Hong Kong now...you have to jump through hoops, fill out additional forms and have your package re-opened and inspected. And they are not very gentle about it either. Luckily nothing was damaged.

Questions:

1. How often do you send items to this person?

2. Have you ever mailed items to this person before?

3. What is the purpose for mailing this item to Hong Kong? (??????!!!!!!)

There are a few more but I can't think of the exact wording right now.....

Prior notice to this change woud have been nice since I am that particular Post Offices best customer. But no warning or notice. This is the kicker. Afte they document everything...and I mean everything..they have YOU repackage the item and seal it. then they send it off like nothing happened. So now they have all of this documentation...great.

So they are cracking down on botlegs...great. I applaude them. But if they feel it is such a big deal then why do they allow the package to continue to go out? And I asked this question. Here is the response I received after waiting for almost 30 minutes. If a company complains to the government that a item is being copied in Hong Kong, they take all the "invoices" and find out who is sending items there, then they investigate it.

HELLO! MOST OF THESE ITEMS ARE ALREADY BEING MADE IN HONG KONG ALREADY! WAKE UP! Grrrrrr! That was the stupidest answer I have ever heard.

These toy and model companies kill me (as well as others non-toy related). Blame everybody else except for themselves. If they are so worried about it now then they should move their factories back to Japan and manufacture items there.

So basically what it comes down to is that if I send an item to Hong Kong now, it happens to be copied by somebody, and that company complains to the government, then I have a chance of being investigated. Man you gotta love this backwards country, good intentions...once again the wrong way to do it. Like trying to kill an elephant with a BB gun.....

I know this is not really related to toys, but there is not really a forum for shipping and this does kinda relate to toys and models...sorry MODS if this is in the wrong place.

Rob

[JsARCLIGHT]

Actually in today's day and age this is a common response to "crime"... which is usually make the law-abiding tax paying citizens suffer the hardship and possibly the blame. Most companies realize that bootleggers are like drug dealers, you squash one and ten more pop up. Rather than tackle the roots behind bootlegging and address ways to reduce bootlegging they usually take the easy road which is to pester the goverment for more laws... laws that clamp down on everyone, not just the offenders.

You can't legislate crime away it has to ebb from natural causes. Attack the root of the crime, not the criminal and you will eliminate crime... just attack the criminals and you basically hold back the flood for a few days more.

[Protoplast]

I think it has to do with the crackdown of video bootlegging.

A lot of DVDs likes anime and Japanese TV series are shipped out to HK and they bootleg those DVDs and sell them to abroad.

I don't think that's gonna stop the bootlegging, people these days can rip and send them over the internet in just hours.

[hevangel2]

I don't think many people actually send DVD or tapes to HK for bootleg these days,

the internet is much more convenient. Rip the whole DVD and send 9GB of data to HK won't take too long. Unless they censor everything internet packet, there is no way to stop anime bootleg.

It's funny they censor toys sending to china which are made in china.

[RosarioLuv]

Not sure about DVD's and such, but as far as toys go, I think a lot of bootleg toys are being ripped straight at the factory by the workers (such as the Illustrious 1/3000 SDF-1 Bootleg made from actual bandai/taka parts but packaged in a bootleg box and sold under a different name). I've always thought the 1/65 Mac7 valk boots were also ripped in this manner. And some of those ripped Yamato Prototype (test run) valks that ended up on ebay are another example.

Here's a thought: Hey Japan (and USA, while I'm at it), go back to manufacturing your own quality products instead of outsourcing them to China for cheap labor. If you insist on outsourcing, at least hire better quality workers and give them better pay. If you go cheap, eventually you'll still end up paying the price later in some other way.

I miss the days that my anime products actually read "Made in Japan" on them.

Here's another thought: Hey Japan, why don't you acknowledge that anime fandom now has an economically-viable global fanbase, and expand your anime industry to include the world outside of Japan so that it isn't so hard to get your products to the point that diehard fans would claw for even a bootleg version of your product?

And for Godsakes establish JAPANESE business ambassadors in outside countries who can take charge of and control their own out-of-country license for your products. STOP selling your licenses away to other countries who go and distort your anime storylines, make their own ugly versions of your products, and reap all the income from it that could have potentially been YOURS in the first place (HG case in point, among other companies).

In other words, rather than the reflex response of trying to stop bootlegging, why not take a proactive response that ESTABLISHES licensed releases of your products in countries outside of japan. For once, please get out of this SUKOKU mentality and acknowledge that Japan is not the center of the universe, and that the Sun rises in all parts of the world, not just Japan.

[myk]

[ For once, please get out of this SUKOKU mentality and acknowledge that Japan is not the center of the universe, and that the Sun rises in all parts of the world, not just Japan.[/color]

Unfortunately, isn't that the mindest of the Japanese culture?

[wolfx]

Here's a thought: Hey Japan (and USA, while I'm at it), go back to manufacturing your own quality products instead of outsourcing them to China for cheap labor. If you insist on outsourcing, at least hire better quality workers and give them better pay. If you go cheap, eventually you'll still end up paying the price later in some other way.

Then you will complain about expensive toys/products made with quality workers....as if it isn't already very expensive with Chinese workers already.

Here's another thought:  Hey Japan, why don't you acknowledge that anime fandom now has an economically-viable global fanbase, and expand your anime industry to include the world outside of Japan so that it isn't so hard to get your products to the point that diehard fans would claw for even a bootleg version of your product?

Actually they are doing something about it. The Jap government has acknowledged anime as an economically viable source of income for the country and are implementing plans to take advantage of this. Like setup manga schools etc. I read it somewhere....ANN maybe.

And for Godsakes establish JAPANESE business ambassadors in outside countries who can take charge of and control their own out-of-country license for your products.  STOP selling your licenses away to other countries who go and distort your anime storylines, make their own ugly versions of your products, and reap all the income from it that could have potentially been YOURS in the first place (HG case in point, among other companies).

I wonder about this too.....maybe there's some kinda legal barriers that prevent Japan from directly selling overseas? Not sure....cause clearly ADV, HG, Manga Ent. are making more money selling internationally than selling only in Japan itself.

[Draykov]

Bootlegs of mass destruction!

[eugimon]

awesome...

in america, cops are too busy giving people taffic tickets to monitor ports for weapons of mass destruction but in japan they have enough free time to monitor ports for anime!

now if they could just solve the problem of their school kids murdering each other with knives...

[kidkorrupt]

EVERY item going to hong kong must go through this process?

wow, thats a crock. i wonder if they have similar restrictions in place for mainland china, taiwan, and s. korea.

[robokochan]

Nope only Hong Kong. But I also found out that if I go to a larger post Office I get to avoid the questions...but I still have to fill out the additional paper work which is a pain.

ROb

[RosarioLuv]

So only HK but not mainland China? What about Taiwan? Well, I guess HK is where most of the business stuff would take place..... That's kinda wierd though, I mean, aren't some companies like SonMay and Ever Anime based on mainland and Taiwan? (although, Ever Anime is suppossedly licensed, but not considered legal in USA because it conflicts with American licenses for the same product lines like CCS, Macross/RT, etc...). That's what I never understood, is how all the otaku here ban Ever Anime from the conventions as of ot were a bootleg. It's licensed in HK, but not USA, so it's a boot? With that thinking, any japanese import would be considered a boot (including Macross, which would infringe on RT). But we've all been there on that one (HG) sheesh.

SonMay, though, is definitely boot, isn't it? But no restriction to Taiwan? Then again, HK has chucked out TONS of boot DVDs, games, and CD's almost the same time the real ones come out. MacZero case in point. At least SonMay and EverAnime only seemed to cover CD's that are hard to find now, but the new bootleggers are competing directly with the original companies during immediate releases. That sucks. The only "plus" I can see for the HK boots is that it's the only way HK'ers can watch anime with chinese subtitles....or *ungh* gosh-forbid, cantonese dubs! Man, I thought english dubs screwed up the flavor of anime characters, but man, hearing cantonese intonation (which can be pretty abrupt compared to japanese intonation) totally gives the characters a different spin. The only cantonese dub I could sorta stand was DBZ. But even in Japanese, I always thought of the DBZ characters as chinese anyway, so it doesn't seem so out of place to hear Goku's wifey yelling (in cantonese) outside for Gohan to come in for dinner. Reminds me of my aiyi when I was a kid.

[Anubis]

This deal is complete bull$&*^.

[yellowlightman]

now if they could just solve the problem of their school kids murdering each other with knives...

Yeah, them Japanese kill each other with knives ALL THE TIME. Just like how us c-r-a-z-y Americans run around all day shooting our six-shooters and yelling "Yee-haw!"

I think the SM/Ever Anime/etc situation pertains to the fact that Taiwan is a bit of a 'grey area' when it comes to being an actual independant country, and as such copyrighted material is sketch and enforcement lax.

This whole thing sounds like a major pain in the butt Rob, do you do a lot of business with people from HK?

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

Hahaha! Dude, this is crazy even by Japanese standards.

Do they ask this only for packages of all sizes? If you try to send like a poster or a flag do they do this same routine?