International courier from Bangalore to Japan. Free home pickup.
Collected from your Bengaluru door at any hour, packed and precisely declared, and flown out of Kempegowda on the DTDC International network. 6–9 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,400 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST. Japan rewards accuracy more than any destination we ship to — get the declaration right and this is one of the smoothest lanes in the world.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to a Japanese address.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+ and available at any hour, because the HSR Layout desk does not close. A good share of this lane is booked late in the evening by people who have just finished a call with a Tokyo or Nagoya office, and the parcel is collected the same night. We bring tape, bubble wrap and the international airway bill.
Declare precisely.
Not "gifts" and not "personal items". Each thing in the box gets its own line with a quantity and a value: one silk saree, two packets ground coffee 250 g, four cotton shirts. Japan's officers check the box against the paper, and a declaration that matches is the whole trick to this destination.
BLR gateway.
Handover at the Bengaluru international facility, then out of Kempegowda on the East Asia routing. Because Bengaluru is a gateway city in its own right, a Japan-bound parcel is not spending its first two days on a road or rail leg to Mumbai or Delhi. Once it is airborne the timings are the same for everyone.
Japanese customs (Zeikan).
Clearance at Narita or Haneda for Tokyo, Kansai for Osaka, Chubu for Nagoya. Zeikan is fast and unfussy with clean paperwork — 24 to 48 hours is normal. The rigidity sits with MAFF plant and animal quarantine and with MHLW on anything medicinal, and neither of those negotiates.
Doorstep delivery.
Last mile through the Japanese domestic carrier. Send us the seven-digit postal code and a Japanese mobile number; both matter more there than a written-out address does. If nobody is home the carrier leaves a redelivery slip and holds the parcel at the local depot, and the POD comes to you the day it is signed for.
Starting rates. The final number turns on weight.
We bill on whichever is higher of actual and volumetric weight, then add the fuel surcharge applying on your booking date, with GST after that.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (6–9 days, door)from ₹1,400 / kg
- Economy (9–14 days, door)from ₹1,050 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 3 kg parcel — winter clothing, two sealed packs of filter coffee powder and a stack of documents, about 40 × 30 × 20 cm:
- Volumetric4.8 kg (billed over actual)
- Express, 4.8 kg × ₹1,400≈ ₹6,720
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹1,680
- + GST 18%≈ ₹1,512
- Approx total, express≈ ₹9,912
Indicative only. Clothing is the classic volumetric trap — compress it and the same parcel bills far lighter. Ask us before you seal the box.
What you’ll need at pickup.
Japan does not ask for unusual documents. It asks for ordinary documents that are exactly right, and it notices when they are not. We prepare them at your address so the parcel arrives with nothing to query.
KYC of the sender
One photo ID for whoever's name goes on the AWB — Aadhaar, passport or driving licence. We photograph it at pickup; it is not retained beyond DTDC's own record.
An itemised declaration
For a commercial shipment, a printed invoice with quantities, unit values and HS codes. For a family parcel, a written declaration — but itemised, with a value per line, not a lump sum. The recipient's residence card number, their Zairyu card, is worth adding: it identifies the consignee cleanly and shortens the clearance conversation.
Medicines and the personal limit
Sealed strips, the prescription with the prescribing doctor's registration number, and the recipient's name matching their residence card. Japan permits a personal quantity for personal use; beyond that the recipient needs an import certificate — a Yakkan Shoumei — issued by the regional health bureau before the parcel arrives. Tell us the quantity at booking and we will say which side of that line you are on.
What Japan doesn’t let in.
These are Japanese Customs, MAFF quarantine and MHLW pharmaceutical rules rather than our own caution. Japan's medicine restrictions in particular catch well-meaning Indian families every year, because the items involved sit in every household cabinet here.
Don’t even try
- Cold and sinus medicines containing pseudoephedrine, and painkillers containing codeine — this is the Japan-specific one nobody expects. Several ordinary Indian over-the-counter tablets and inhalers contain substances Japan classifies as stimulants or narcotics, and they are prohibited even with a prescription. Do not put a cold-medicine strip in a care package.
- Meat and meat products — absolute, including dried, sealed and vacuum-packed. MAFF rejects these on sight.
- Fresh produce, seeds, plants, soil and untreated plant material — fresh curry leaves and coconut are the two that Bengaluru senders try most often, and neither is permitted.
- Fresh and perishable dairy — ghee, paneer, khoya-based mithai. Milk-solid sweets like Mysore pak and dharwad pedha are the ones to leave at home.
- Narcotics and precursor chemicals — penalties in Japan are severe and applied to small quantities.
- Counterfeit branded goods — Japanese customs runs an active IP-enforcement programme at the border.
- Aerosols, liquids and lithium cells above 100 Wh — the universal air-cargo rules, which apply here as everywhere.
Allowed with care
- Roasted and ground filter coffee — sealed, commercially packaged, ingredients on the pack. Roasted coffee is a processed product, not plant material, and it travels this lane routinely.
- Sealed dry snacks and podis — chakli, mixture, dry banana chips, milagai podi. Factory-packed with a printed ingredient list, no dairy, no meat, no moisture.
- Silk sarees and textiles — Kanjeevaram, Mysore silk, cottons. Declare fabric, piece count and a fair value.
- Sandalwood soap and powder — manufactured toiletries clear. Sandalwood oil is a liquid and does not.
- Prescription tablets within the personal quantity — sealed strip, prescription attached, no injectables, no liquid formulations.
- Books, documents and non-precious jewellery — straightforward. Declare title, quantity and value; precious metal does not ship.
A working corridor, not a holiday lane.
Bengaluru and Japan are connected by employers rather than by tourism. Japanese manufacturers have engineering operations here, Indian IT firms staff projects in Tokyo and Nagoya, and the parcels follow the people.
Families of staff on assignment
Engineers and consultants posted to Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka, and the parcels that follow them — winter clothing, familiar groceries in sealed dry form, children's schoolbooks, festival wear. Edogawa in eastern Tokyo has enough of an Indian community that a parcel arriving there is unremarkable; a parcel arriving in a smaller manufacturing town is not, so put the postal code on it carefully.
Engineering documents and samples
Drawings, signed contracts, quality reports and small physical samples moving on the Bengaluru–Japan automotive and semiconductor corridor. Express, tracked, and with an itemised commercial invoice — Japanese counterparts will usually ask for the invoice copy before the parcel even lands.
Silk sarees and wedding wear
Kanjeevaram and Mysore silk for weddings and for the cultural events the community runs through the year. Declare each garment by fabric and piece count. Ship express and early: the transit is reliable, but customs picking your parcel the week of the event is not a risk worth taking.
Filter coffee and dry provisions
The most requested food category on this lane, and mercifully the one that works. Sealed filter coffee powder, dry podis, chakli and factory-packed mixture all clear. What does not: anything with milk solids, ghee or moisture, and any fresh leaf.
Student and researcher parcels
Indian students and postdocs at the national universities and at the government-scholarship programmes. Books, bedding, kitchen kit, sealed dry food. Address the parcel to the laboratory or the international office with the student's Japanese mobile on it — university mailrooms there are precise about names.
Documents and attested records
Degree certificates, apostilled papers, employment documents, notarised agreements. Always express with a tracked AWB. If a visa or contract deadline is attached, say so at booking and we will route it accordingly and watch it through clearance.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB reaches you on WhatsApp the moment the parcel is booked into DTDC International — at any hour, because the Bengaluru desk is staffed around the clock. Track it at dtdc.in. Japanese clearance is quick, so the quiet stretch on this lane is usually the air leg rather than customs. One thing worth telling the recipient in advance: if they miss the delivery attempt, the Japanese carrier leaves a slip and holds the parcel locally for a few days, and they can reschedule it themselves by phone or online. We forward the POD within the hour of signature.
Asked most often on this lane.
My son has a cold and asked me to post his usual tablets. Can I?
Please check with us first, because this is the mistake we intercept most often on the Japan lane. Japan classifies pseudoephedrine — which is in a great many Indian cold and sinus tablets — as a stimulant, and codeine, which is in several common cough and pain preparations, as a narcotic. Both are prohibited to bring or post into Japan, and a prescription does not fix it. The consequences fall on the person receiving the parcel, and they are not trivial. What does work: a genuinely prescribed medicine that contains neither, sent in its sealed strip with the prescription and the doctor's registration number, in a personal quantity. Everything else he can buy at a Japanese pharmacy in ten minutes, and it is a far better outcome than an intercepted parcel.
How detailed does the declaration really need to be?
More detailed than you think, and it costs you nothing. "Gift" or "personal effects" on a Japan-bound parcel is the reason parcels are opened. What we write instead looks like this: silk saree, 1 piece, ₹6,000; ground coffee, 2 packs of 250 g, ₹700; cotton shirts, 4 pieces, ₹3,200; printed books, 3, ₹1,500. It takes five extra minutes at pickup and it is why paperwork-clean parcels on this lane clear within a day or two of landing. Add the recipient's residence card number if they have one, and always give the seven-digit postal code — Japanese delivery routes off the postal code far more than off the written address.
Can I send Mysore pak and filter coffee to Tokyo for Deepavali?
Coffee yes, Mysore pak no. Roasted and ground filter coffee is a processed food and it goes on this lane every week — sealed, commercially packaged, ingredients printed. Mysore pak, dharwad pedha and anything else built on ghee or milk solids falls under Japan's dairy and perishables restrictions and is liable to be removed. Build the parcel out of what does travel: sealed dry snacks, podis, chakli, coffee, silk, brass diyas, new clothes for the children. Send it two weeks before the festival rather than one, and declare every food item by name and net weight so nothing has to be guessed at the border.
Tell us the rough weight and the destination postal code.
Send us the list before you pack it.
WhatsApp us what is going in and we will tell you what Japan will and will not accept, then collect it whenever suits you. The HSR Layout desk is staffed 24×7.