Advice for International Amazon Japan Sellers regarding the Consumption Tax update on October 1st 2019.
Key points of Tax Changes for Amazon Sellers in Japan
Japan is changing the rules around consumption tax on 1st October 2019.
Amazon Japan have been sending out email reminders via seller-central about how it affects sellers on Amazon Japan and what action they need to take.
Here is the email in full (click to enlarge):
What is happening?
Consumption Tax (like VAT / Sales Tax) is increasing from 8% to 10% for most categories of products.
What do I need to do?
Probably nothing. Just be aware that when you send a batch of inventory to Japan next time you will pay 2% more in your tax charges.
What categories does the tax rise affect?
All categories of products except the following:
- Food & (non-alcoholic) drinks – These are staying at 8% and is called reduced rate.
- Some nursing care goods/ wheelchairs – These are going to be 0%
Here are the full rules in the help section of seller-central:
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/help.html?itemID=GJYN3ND6A829Z5AM
Click to enlarge the image:
Amazon mention about updating tax settings for my products – What do they mean?
You probably don’t need to do anything as products get the default code automatically. If you want to check a product’s tax code you’ll need to go into your inventory management and view the offer tab. A detailed explanation is here: https://sellercentral.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/G8E67JPEXAPQ4672/
Click to enlarge the image:
How am I currently paying tax as an international Amazon seller in Japan?
You pay at the point your inventory is imported into Japan. It’s usually handled by your shipping company.
Here is our general article on Tax requirements for overseas Amazon sellers in Japan
Amazon mention about updating my account tax settings – What do they mean?
Your account has an account level default tax code which is applied to all products if you don’t set them at individual product level. You probably don’t need to do anything as products are set at the default rate automatically. If you want to check your settings then here is where it is:
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.jp/tax/jpenrollment/home
Click to enlarge the image:
Conclusion
As an international seller, you probably don’t need to do anything other than be aware of what’s happening. And plan your pricing strategy the next time you send inventory to Japan to take account of the increase.
We are Amazon Japan listing set-up, optimization and advertising specialists. Carry on reading to see how we can help you in Japan.
If you are looking for general advice about selling in Japan you can still drop us an email and we’ll do our best to give you some pointers. Also, we have some contacts that can help with logistics, imports, storage and compliance for Japan.
PRICING SUMMARY
100% Transparency
Rising Sun Commerce prides ourselves on being the most transparent Amazon agency on the planet. We don’t hide our prices behind a ‘schedule a call’ link.
You will understand exactly what we do and exactly how much things cost by simply reading this page.
Listing creation/ optimization
$399 per product type (Parent ASIN) + $25 per addition variation (Child ASIN)
Account and advertising management
Fees vary depending on your revenue goals and the length of time to achieve these goals.
E.G. Revenue goal $41,667 per month ($500,000 annual run rate) within 24 months = $2083/ month in Rising Sun Commerce fees plus an additional marketing budget.
| Annual Run Rate Target | Monthly Revenue Target | Achieve within 12 Months Fees (% of target revenue) | Achieve Within 12 Months Fees ($) | Achieve Within 24 Months Fees (% of target revenue) | Achieve Within 24 Months Fees ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | $8,333 | 9% | $750/month | 6% | $500/month |
| $500,000 | $41,667 | 8% | $3333/month | 5% | $2083/month |
| $1,000,000 | $83,333 | 7% | $5833/month | 4% | $3333/month |
Carry on reading or jump to your desired section to learn more about what we do and get more of a breakdown of our pricing.
AMAZON JAPAN PRODUCT DETAIL PAGES
Make sure your Amazon Japan product listing is as good as possible.
You can try and cut corners, but you will be found out. Machine translated (AKA auto-translated) Amazon Japan product pages are not good enough because of the complex nature of the Japanese language. It is not a simple one-to-one relationship between English words and Japanese words, and the structure of a Japanese sentence can look completely different to an English one.
The quality of your Amazon Japan Product Detail Page (AKA your listing) is directly linked to your Amazon Japan sales potential.
Your Amazon listing needs:
- An optimized Title (Integrated keywords, descriptive & appealing to browsing shoppers)
- Optimized Bullets (Well written, keyword integrated, benefit and feature rich)
- Solid Description (Keyword integrated and contains all necessary details)
- Solid A+ Content (Visually appealing, benefit and feature rich)
- Fantastic Images (Visually appealing, product and lifestyle rich, benefit describing)
- Great Videos (Visually appealing, descriptive, feature and benefit describing)
PRICING: Amazon Japan Product Listing Creation & Optimisation.
$399 per product type (Parent listing) + $25 per additional variation (Child listing)
This price includes your Title, Bullets, Description, A+ Content, Image Annotations and even Video Annotations. It also includes in-depth keyword research and integration into the Title, Bullets and Description as well as the creation and upload of a fully completed Inventory Upload Flat File.
Pricing example 1:
5 x product types with each product type having 10 size variations.
- 50 products in total, 45 of which are classed as Child variations and 5 are classed as Parents
- (5 x $399) + (45 x $25) = $3120
Pricing example 2:
