Thursday 2 April 2020

Thank you coronavirus and Japan Post!

TOKYO
Japan Post has announced a temporary suspension of the acceptance of international mail from 126 countries for EMS and Air Mail, and for all types of mail from 27 countries. The change is due to a significant decline in flights to and from Japan, and various safety measures being put in place to counteract the coronavirus pandemic.
The temporary suspension also extends to Japan Post’s Economy Air (SAL) Service, and to all 86 countries where the service is available to.
The EMS and Air Mail suspension includes countries like Italy, Russia and Brazil. Meanwhile, countries like India, Indonesia and New Zealand are affected with a broader suspension of all types of mail. However, mail coming from the United States, France and the United Kingdom are unaffected.
According to a report by NHK, the suspension started Wednesday. International postal items that have already been received by April 1 from the aforementioned countries will be returned to their point of origin.
Japan Post has not announced when they will resume the acceptance of international mail from the affected countries.

This means we can't send (or receive) postal mail except from the USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia & New Zealand. As a result we can process orders only from these countries.
Let's all hope things will get back to normal soon.
Stay safe and keep modeling everyone.

3 comments:

Danilo said...

Let me say it is a foolish decision. Apart from the fact I do not see why they shouldn't accept mail to and from -let's say -Italy but on the other hand mail from the USA is accepted while this country is facing a disaster worse than any other nation. But more than that it is amazing to note Italy has not suspended the mail service to and from abroad including China (!). Sanitation procedures can grant fully safe deliveries....i.e.just in these days I am going to receive mail from UK! It is surprising to realize how each country doesn't get in touch with the others - no experiences and information exchange, no common strategy for a virus that a is common enemy! How can we get rid of coronavirus?...

D. Chouinard said...

After watching the response here in the U.S. I agree that there has been a somewhat haphazard approach. I'm not sure there is really a "plan" as such. All countries should be communicating with each other, I agree.

R. Vieira said...

This is really an unfortunate development. In Spain, a lot of small vendors are not processing orders, even from customers inside the country... Generally speaking, a big slowdown in normal mail delivery is being reported from other European countries, eg. France, Portugal, even Germany. Let's hope we can get back to a more 'normal' situation soon!
Cheers,

R. Aballe