The Japanese have been banned from shipping packages of any significant size to the land of the free as the US believes they are likely a bunch of freedom-hating terrorists.
Japan Post, Japan’s main international package delivery service, have announced (less detailed English announcement here) that due to terrorism fears in the USA they have been forced to indefinitely stop accepting any items over 453g (16 freedom ounces) in weight for air shipment to the US or its various island territories.
The size restrictions are apparently intended to limit the size of bomb the Japanese can send.
Companies holding business accounts with Japan Post should in principle be exempt, meaning international retailers operating from Japan will probably be completely unaffected, but small businesses and individuals are now unable to ship packages of any great size to the US in a timely fashion.
Other international postal services in Japan may have different policies (although many are already highly restrictive, refusing to ship figures and so on if they lack CE marks, software, adult items, etc.). The patient should also be able to make use of sea shipment options.
Similar air shipment restrictions in other freedom-hating countries are likely.
The background to the crackdown is that bombs disguised as toner cartridges were shipped to the US from Yemen, and as a result the Department of Homeland Security imposed sweeping restrictions on “certain inbound international air cargo shipments” thought to be high risk, which evidently includes those coming from Japan.
Fortunately, as a result of the policy Americans can now once more freely imbibe the heady air of liberty knowing that the homeland is again secure and it is even harder than ever for any subversive Japanese otaku goods to reach their shores.
AKB48 “Connected To Yakuza”
GungHo Stock Plunges: “The Social Bubble Finally Bursts!?”
Photo Kano Wet Meganekko Anime
Busty Maoyuu Maou Figure
Otaku Elect Fan Sex Rino in “Creepiest Ever” AKB48 Election
Louis Vuitton’s Hatsune Miku Figure: “Miku = Fashion Icon!”
“70% of Guys” Hate Nail Art
Top 20 Anime of the 21st Century
If My Heart Had Wings Announced
Xbox One “Clearly Inferior” To PS4, Sony Stock Surges
Microsoft Unveils Xbox One – “Enjoy Your TV & EA!”
China Quality Crossing: “Cross 100m in 5 Seconds…”
One Piece Cancelled Again as Eiichiro Oda Hospitalised
PS4 Revealed as “Square”
Top 25 Anime Girls Love & Guys Hate
Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Bride Naked Apron Anime
BlazBlue Gets TV Anime
Guilty Gear Xrd Sign: “In 3D & Using The Unreal Engine!?”
Electrifying Mikoto Misaka Figure
Japanese Makeup Terrifying as Ever…
Korean Plastic Surgery More Impressive Than Ever
Fancy Frontier 21 Cosplay Fancier Than Ever
Wonder Festival 2013 Winter Cosplay
Ultra-Sexy Babes of Tokyo Auto Salon 2013
“Why Are Seiyuu Such Great Artists As Well?”
Even More Comiket 83 Day 3 Cosplay
Comiket 83 Day 3 Cosplay Cuter Than Ever
Comiket 83 Day 2 Cosplay Has Otaku Wet With Desire
Comiket 83 Day 1 Cosplay Cool As Ever
Chinese Cosplay Pure Quality: “They Even Have Enako!”
The Terrorists have won.
The terrorist won when DHS was formed.
A retard like you in no way represents the awesomeness that is Char. You're just another paranoid conspiracy theorist, which makes calling the DHS paranoid hypocritical and contradictory.
This is completely unrelated, but I just noticed that "DHS" is also an German abbreviation for "Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen", so if you've got Drug issues, tell them ;)
And there still americans who claim that US is a free country.
freedom died long ago buddy
The US is one of the only countries in the world where EVERY SINGLE RACE IN EXISTENCE can live together without blatant racism. This alarms some US citizens so much that they try to find racism where it doesn't exist to reclaim their precious excuse for everything that goes wrong in their life. In your "enlightened" Japan, it's not rare to see a kid saying (translated) "Look mommy, it's a gaijin!"
hahahah, OMFG
i cant believe this comment, the amount of racism in US is huge, you may not see kids saying "gaijin" but you can see almost anyone saying "wetback" or other such racist insults
people should really pay attention to what REALLY is around them and stop putting idiotic hypocritical things like this
what a pathetic excuse of a reply...
but fine, im not jesus, i cant cure the blind
But barely anyone acts on those impulses. In Japan, if a japanese girl walks around with an american they're likely to get purposefully bumped into. The only people who try to say others are racist are the people who are the most racist.
It's like they want us to pirate our goods or something.
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?
Rofl, even Shonen Jump is 670g.
And shonen jump is a dangerous mass destruction weapon! think, you can use it to put forests on fire!
but we use the US Constitution for that already! Wouldn't using Jump be a little disrespectful?
This had better be FUCKING TEMPORARY!!
What is temporary? A year? Five? We know how that shit works...
The Department of Homeland Security can't tell the difference between words that are the opposite of each other, thus they can't tell the difference between Temporary & Permanent...it's sad really...
The TSA was supposed to be temporary these wastes of carbon atoms also tried to pass real id which would have bankrupt the state level governments.
Fortunately real id seems to have failed.
I do not buy the official story on 9-11 either it's too ludicrous.
I suspect they allowed it to happen.
The idiots could not even have an original idea and ripped off the script to the 1985 movie Brazil.
Watch this movie and you'll see so many parallels with the US government's post 9-11 behavior it would be funny if was not real.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/
oh US, how much you've fallen...
Department of Homeland Security has always been run by the dumbest members of our government which arn't too bright to begin with. So I'm totally not suprised about this at all.
Haha. Pure protectionism masked as anti-terrorism measures. So much for the free market and capitalism.
Hmmm...
Personally ~ I don't jump to any conclusion ~
The - ONLY WAY - to be certain is to - *ask directly* - which is what I did.
I *just* sent an email (to Hobby) - asking directly - what the situation (really was) concerning this issue and if any policy changes were to be taking place (now or in the future).
Only thing to do now is await the response.
UPDATE!
*This ~ *just in* ~ via Twitter:
=====
J-list - Peter Payne:
Yes, we got word from the - Japanese post office that J-List will not be affected by the new rules - about shipping larger packages.
(as we have an existing contractual relationship with Japan Post)
=====
Some people - *just* - need to know or they - *just* - don't believe.
Respects !
thank you deth for the update *goes to import goods as usual*
Thank God for J-List. I'm buying from them now. :)
UPDATE!!
and I - *just* - received the email from Hobby:
=====
HobbySearch to me:
Show details 23:00 (1 hour ago)
Dear Customer,
Thank you very much for your contact.
Please be assured that the rule you refer to ~ (only applies individual users) ~ so that our business is not affected by it.
Thank you so much for your time.
Sincerely yours,
Kinzo Tajima
=====
No WE ALL know! ~ ^_^
So, please remain calm!
Respects!
Guess nobody has anything to fear. As for individuals wanting to send large packages: EVERYBODY PANIC!
Finally!! Someone with the good sense to not jump to conclusions (so they can promptly demonize their universal excuse for everything that goes wrong, the US).
No need for the package to be large. A single manga anthology and you're beyond the weight limit.
No more foreign friends sending you something. No more international auctions.
And this bullshit is supposed to stop terrorism? Laughable.
WHAT THE FUCK?! How the hell am I supposed to get my rare anime shet now?
Not at all, I guess...
... what about American companies that are always selling new imported items from Japan? Will they be affected?
Damn it, this is just some kind of Japanese Exclusion Act...
No they won't. Again, business accounts aren't affected.
Of course not. This law just fucks the normal people, as laws usually do.
For the greater good.
WHAT!? oh HELLLLLLLLLL NO I IS IMPORTING MY A.C.E:R ONE WAY OR ANOTHER DAMNIT!
(Canada sure looks good right about now...)
They are actually sparing you the suffering of playing it, if you ever thought that ACE R would be like the early ACE 1-2-3 you will be in a world of pain....
Absolutely stupid! How many Muslims live in Japan again?
Americans are unable to tell Muslims apart from other pagans and heathens.
Everyone who's not a fundamental christian extremist is possibly dangerous.
Yeah, after all they could teach children about sex, making them aware that what the priest does isn't something he needs to do...
We pagans and heathens resent being lumped in with the Muslims.
It has nothing to do with Japan per-se the new regulations are blanket for ALL international shipments inbound to the US.
cmon guys, hop the border :D
everyone should learn how to properly hop a fence!
The world is falling apart!
When was it ever not falling apart?...
The world is corrupt!
This is nothing more then the the latest manifestation of the corruption that is poisoning western civilization.
Just WTF? Is that a bad joke? I really DO feel bad for our fellow US otakus if that proves to be serious.
Same here, this is just awful & pointless to begin with...
Thankfully amazon shouldn't be affected by this and rightstuf isn't either. Also, as others mentioned, play-asia should be safe as it is based in Hong Kong. We're okay SO FAR. I think.
Well considering that Americans have access to lots of anime stores in lots of major cities you don't have feel sorry for them.
Not everyone lives in major cities you know...