vPOST

Here’s something intersting for Singaporeans like me. Singapore Post is offering something call “vPOST USA” and recently started “vPOST Japan”. This two services allow you to order items online from US and Japanese websites that do not ship overseas. You pay for the shipping from the seller to a local office (in US or Japan) for the Singapore Post and from there to Singapore. It definitely costs more than direct shipping to your house, but then again that’s assuming that the website shipped internationally. And with a lot of US websites, domestic shipping could be free under certain conditions, especially with a lot of the stuff on eBay. It’s also possible to use this service to buy stuff through Yahoo Auction Japan, where 99% of the sellers do not ship out of Japan.

More information on their website at https://www.vpost.com.sg/

The prohibited items on the Singapore side:

a. Dangerous goods classified by the Japanese local regulation or IATA Dangerous Regulations including any materials with dryice.
b. Restricted or controlled items by the Japanese Government. (Click here for the latest updated list.)
c. Food Staffs, perishable
d. Chemical, Drugs, Animal, Plants, Precious Stones and Metal, Cigar and Cigarettes, Guns, Swords, Knives
e. Items restricted by the Washington Treatment, ivory.
f. Beef Extract
g. Any items that require temperature control.
h. Coin and Bills

And on the Japanese side:

(a) Opium, other narcotic drugs, equipment for opium smoking, stimulants (including Vicks inhalers and Sudafed), and psychotropic substances (excluding those designated by an ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare);

(b) Firearms (pistols, rifles, machine guns, etc.), ammunition (bullets) for such articles, and firearm parts;

(c) Counterfeit, altered, or imitation coins, paper money, bank notes, or securities;

(d) Books, drawings, carvings, and other articles which harm public security or morals (obscene or immoral material such as pornography);

(e) Articles which infringe upon rights in patent, utility models, designs, trademarks, copyrights, breeders, neighboring rights, or layout designs of integrated circuits.

Drats. ._.