Just got my order from digitaka. Would have had it here before Christmas, but it sat in Memphis for an extra day for whatever reason. Pretty stoked. About to spool it up, put it on the new zodias and ride across the street to the middle school and cast on the practice field..

Anyone order from Japan Lure Shop?  They have some stuff I can't find anywhere else. 

I’ve not used JLS. I know @bulldog1935 has used Zen Market before, which is just a proxy shopper. Check with him?

2 hours ago, FishTank said:

Anyone order from Japan Lure Shop?  They have some stuff I can't find anywhere else. 

I'll be ordering in a week or so, but the duties take longer to show up, as you know.

18 hours ago, FishTank said:

Anyone order from Japan Lure Shop?

It’s the million dollar question.

 

Love doing business with them and more importantly the FREE LURE.

 

With that said, I’m sure my next purchase will be from Digitaka.  

16 hours ago, KP Duty said:

I'll be ordering in a week or so, but the duties take longer to show up, as you know.

How do they ship, FedEx, UPS, DHL?  

With UPS log-in and DHL On Demand log-in, you get invoiced import duty and CN23 brokerage before your package leaves Japan.  Pre-paying the invoice also saves COD charge, up to $20.  DHL delivered for me last week, one delivering tomorrow, and another shipping tomorrow (tonight).  Ain't complaining.  

I haven’t ordered from them in awhile but when I did they shipped to Illinois through Fed Ex and that was in January of this year. 

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Eric 26
Wrong information

Another DHL datapoint - paid a rod import duty + brokerage online this morning for delivery tomorrow (quick trip).  

The algebra worked out from the total charge, $17 brokerage and 15% import duty on the rod.  Since I bought this rod through ZenMarket, paying UPS and DHL directly during transit is cheaper than pre-paying ZenMarket's duty calculation and exchange rate, and both are $20 cheaper than paying COD.  

Also, if you're not getting free Digitaka shipping, keep in mind DHL has the lowest courier charge across the Pacific - especially for rods.  

A buddy of mine order a p5 rod from JLS in September.  It was shipped through ups and got stuck at a facility. He gave them about 6 weeks dealing with customer service and never got a direct answer. Seems like nobody knew what they were doing. He did pay tarriffs and whatever was needed also. Decided to have them take the rod back and get a refund instead. JLS was able to refund him. Not sure if he ever got a refund for the service charge and tarriffs fees though.

@torm - thanks, identified that JLS ships by UPS.  Aug 1 is when de minimus exemption disappeared, and all couriers backed-up with paper trail.  

I imported two rods at the beginning of September with UPS shipping (both Yahoo buys shipped together by broker).  

I've had UPS log-in for a long time (DHL, FedEx), mostly so I could track and route work-related shipments.  I get e-mail notifications from the couriers on everything coming my way.  The two rods in September, I received and paid UPS duty + brokerage invoice before they ever left Japan.  Flat 21% duty + $15 brokerage charge - COD was deducted from the invoice when I paid online.  No delay - straight to my house.  

UPS and DHL with log-in make this easy, and FedEx +Digitaka make it easy on their end. 

 

Since August, I've been comparing notes with a friend who literally buys four times as much as I do.  He has shipping brokers in Japan and UK to store and send out his volume.  He had one shipment stall with FedEx - Customer Service contact sent him the CN23 form - he filled out the form and returned it, and his shipment moved right along, no more questions.  He described somebody has to fill out the paper, and they don't care who or what's on it.  

 

It's funny how the couriers evolved since '20 postal crash, getting goods across the Pacific to the front porch.  At one time or another, each one has ranged in service and delivery times from best to worst.  DHL began best even delivering on Sunday morning, but became the worst when local delivery routes overloaded.  FedEx took the speed title with nonstop flight from Sennan-Shi to Memphis.  UPS business alliance with Amazon staffed them up, and Teamsters were zipping import through Anchorage to take the speed title.  Amazon and UPS reduced staff recently, and local delivery routes are overloaded.  For me, locally, DHL is back on top with quick, personal service.  

Ordered a Steez RC from JLS late last week. With shipping and a crappy PayPal exchange rate, total was $580. Just checked tracking (UPS), and it prompted me to pay import fees ($91) to "avoid delays". So that is about 15%.

Ordered a Shimano Aldebaran BFS through Amazon (Shimano store). 320.00$ After taxes/duties 340.00$

Japan Tackle has it on sale for 262.00$.

I had lots o points, so had to order through Amazon.

Another datapoint, and reason to avoid importing through UPS.

I received through mail an unpaid invoice dated Jan 2 for a duty + brokerage that I paid online on Dec 15.

After an hour hold time with my speaker phone playing really bad muzak, a woman from subcontinent Asia told me that I don't have to pay the invoice, and my payment from Dec 15 will be applied to my account within four days.

This is different from each previous UPS import, where I received a paid/zero-balance invoice by mail.

Ordered a Steez A2 from Digitaka last week. Just had to pay 10 percent tariff fee which was $31 I think. Tracking shows it shipped from Japan on Monday and it’s showing scheduled to be delivered tomorrow (Wednesday).

Nice! I almost ordered that reel but decided on a zillion instead. I’m not mad.

3 hours ago, LonnieP said:

Ordered a Steez A2 from Digitaka last week. Just had to pay 10 percent tariff fee which was $31 I think. Tracking shows it shipped from Japan on Monday and it’s showing scheduled to be delivered tomorrow (Wednesday).

I also ordered a reel late last week from Digitaka and at first when I attempted to pay as a guest, there was no line item for the tariff/duties. So, I created an account and went through the purchase process again as a member, and it was there. My takeaway is that, currently, the tariff splitting feature is there for account holders only. My reel is scheduled for delivery tomorrow (Wednesday).

An interesting side note is that it looks like the package shipped from Japan to Anchorage, AK on Monday, and then went back to Japan and back to Anchorage again earlier today before finally arriving in Oakland, CA later today.

@Big Hands nope,

Travel west across the International Date Line, and the day/date is tomorrow - travel east from Japan, and it's yesterday.

The transit events are always listed by date and time, and on the list it looks like things that happened east of the date line happened a day before events on the west side of the date line, even though they followed in real time.

Anyway, it makes you want to drink a beer and think about it some more.

Noon on a day/date here is 2am the following day/date in Tokyo.

There's a toggle on FedEx where you can show every event by your local date/time, vs. the package local date/time.

50 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Big Hands nope,

Travel west across the International Date Line, and the date is tomorrow - travel east from Japan, and it's yesterday.

The transit events are always listed by date and time, and on the list it looks like things that happened east of the date line happened a day before events on the west side of the date line, even though they followed in real time.

Anyway, it makes you want to drink a beer and think about it some more.

Noon on a day/date here is 2am the following day/date in Tokyo.

There's a toggle on FedEx where you can show every event by your local date/time, vs. the package local date/time.

Doh! Now that I think about it, surely you're correct.

Over the weekend, rec'd FedEx e-mail that my current parts order from Hedgehog was stalled in Anchorage US Customs and needed additional documentation - I simply copied their tracking statement, and pasted it in the Hedgehog contact form:

Description provided is insufficient to classify commodity.

Recommended action: Shipper or Importer must provide a more detailed description of goods.

It's first thing Monday morning in Tokyo, and I just received this e-mail from Hedgehog:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding your order...

We would like to inform you that we have completed the necessary

customs updates for tracking number ......... via the FedEx system.

We have provided detailed classification data to ensure your package

clears U.S. Customs as smoothly and quickly as possible.

The shipment should resume its movement shortly.

Please continue to monitor the progress of package ........ on the

FedEx website.

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

J Kato

____________

Editing in final outcome. After 2 more days and no tracking change, I called FedEx customer service. They were very helpful, and transferred my call all the way to Anchorage. They couldn't identify specific missing information, but did take my contact information in case something came up. I suspect the delay was mostly about Memphis winter storm. Received customs clearance and delivery tomorrow notifications this morning.

20 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Over the weekend, rec'd FedEx e-mail that my current parts order from Hedgehog was stalled in Anchorage US Customs and needed additional documentation - I simply copied their tracking statement, and pasted it in the Hedgehog contact form:

Description provided is insufficient to classify commodity.

Recommended action: Shipper or Importer must provide a more detailed description of goods.

It's first thing Monday morning in Tokyo, and I just received this e-mail from Hedgehog:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding your order...

We would like to inform you that we have completed the necessary

customs updates for tracking number ......... via the FedEx system.

We have provided detailed classification data to ensure your package

clears U.S. Customs as smoothly and quickly as possible.

The shipment should resume its movement shortly.

Please continue to monitor the progress of package 888146081156 on the

FedEx website.

Thank you for your patience.

Best regards,

J Kato

That’s good. Real easy to classify if you know what it is. Also, real easy to have it dangling as an “incomplete classification” if you don’t know. Since they ship to the US all the time, I’d imagine it was an easy oversight, box not checked, something. I’m glad to know that it’s FedEx as well…I perused their website pretty hard last night…

Ordered a Calcutta SE last month from digitaka.com. no issues at all. I only order jdm gear from them.

Surprise, received a $56 refund check from UPS for over-paid import duty in Saturday's mail.

Going back to everything I've bought since last August and imported using UPS, this can only be from an invoice I prepaid to ZenMarket for importing Reply Badger BFS reel - they charged me 38%, and this difference reduced that amount to 21%.

Just received my new stradic from Digitaka. Paid the 10% up front (and they do the balance). Ordered Wednesday at 330 PM EST. Reel got here monday morning 10 AM.

Unfortunately I ordered the wrong one. I wasn't paying attention and grabbed a C2500 and not a regular 2500. No worries, I can swap some reels around to get what I want where I want.

On 2/2/2026 at 10:38 AM, casts_by_fly said:

Just received my new stradic from Digitaka. Paid the 10% up front (and they do the balance).

Thanks for the update.

For the love of Gee O Dee I wish JLS would hop on board their business model.

I'm almost tempted to email them and see if they will.

Their revenue has to be WAY down since the tariffs.

I know it's not a JDM shop in Japan - but Tackle Bros. (Canada) sells lots of JDM items and they have chosen to adopt the Digitaka model - ie, as a USA customer you pay a fixed 10% on your order (noted on your checkout receipt) and they are absorbing the rest (so no extra or surprise charges, what you pay at checkout is your final amount) -- I had stopped ordering from them when I got hit with a $50 UPS surcharge last fall -- with this change I will consider ordering from them again in the future