How to select a Japanese Exporter?

[Tsuchiyama]

I was contacted recently by an importer who had bought a car from a Japanese car dealer on Tradecarview and was worried that he'd been ripped off. He'd contacted the exporter and didn't get a reply. And when the reply eventually came through he couldn't understand it.

It seemed that communication had completely broken down and the importer had sent his money and wasn't going to get his car. It seems it happens sometimes:
http://www.tradecarview.com/help/blacklist/

I just sent through a few simple questions - in simple English - that the importer could ask the exporter to confirm the status of the shipment and what docs he should ask the exporter to send through. The importer eventually got the docs and the car.

Got me wondering how an importer selects a Japanese exporter. With hundreds of exporters to choose from it seems confusing. Some exporters even have the same website templates from the same website developers offering basically the same services. How does an importer choose?

Do you check the blacklists, like the JUMVEA blacklist?
http://www.jumvea.or.jp/e/introducti...awals_list.php

Do you Google the exporter company name with words like "ripoff", "fraud", "scam" or "complaint" after the company name and just see what pops up?

Or do you just contact a few exporters and see what kind of response you get?

Or look for recommendations from other importers?

There's a few more ideas to select a Japanese exporter here:
http://www.ts-export.com/faq.php#48

What advice have you got on how to select a Japanese exporter?

[dah_hunter]

6 years ago, when i first was looking for a exporter.. i had very limited options.. at the time, there wasn't any sites with reviews.. or listing sites, or much useful information at all..

I emailed a exporter that i read about on a local Vancouver Car web site, and then he called me, and i felt i could trust him..

Sometimes you can just tell when talking to someone if they are trustworthy or not.. as someone that can only speak English, i also trust people the speak English (West coast style) My First exporter was from Vancouver originally, Second was from Ontario (His East coast English was understandable though not as desirable) Currently, the 2 exporters i use i have never even talked to on the phone.

[Sastrad]

Nice posting. A lot of important issues you've brought up.

As you can follow the posting about Carrage Co. Ltd and the people burnt by that company's criminal activities, using even trusted sites like tradecarview, and an exporter with no public track record, is a risk.

Personally, I think references are very important. Using an exporter with proven success stories is important. While new exporters who are honest cannot show a track record, perhaps they must come up with another way to demonstrate their trustworthiness. While I don't have any suggestions, I'm sure there must be some way they can show their honest character.

Frankly, another way is to find out if they have a physical presence (brink and mortor, on in Japan, concrete and steel) like a car yard. Also important is a dealer's license in their company's name, and some other assets. While the visit to Carrage Co. showed they have fixed assets, they used the system to close their business but open another under a different name and in the same location. Showing assets may not be fool-proof, but it does help. I would ask someone for a scan of their dealer's license or even a recent invoice from an auction. This could prove they are still in business under their company name. If an export doesn't have their own auction access...what do you do?

I think the key is communication. As with the Carrage Co. incident, the importers were first getting worried with Carrage because they weren't responding to their emails as the time-lapse between emails grew longer. I know I would get worried if someone had my money and were not telling me more about my purchase. Quick turn around in emails or phone calls shows the exporter is both on the ball and really there.

Communication in the same language, or pretty damn good second-language capability, is important. Personally, I deal with people whose first language is not English, but they prefer to communicate in English because my language skills in their language is not as good. And, fortunately for me, English is the universal language of business. Many exporters in Japan are Japanese with weak English skills. This would scare me off because of the communication barriers. With no disrespect to those exporters, I would prefer to communicate with someone who has strong English skills; I don't want to be misunderstood.

I'm sure other exporters and importers will give very insightful opinions. Hopefully with this post, someone will learn something that will keep them from making a terrible mistake!

[Derek]

While I think that this is a good thread, I am going to try to be silent here.

I wish this thread a long life and I look forward to seeing the results.

One mention,

Do you check the blacklists, like the JUMVEA blacklist?
http://www.jumvea.or.jp/e/introducti...awals_list.php

This is not a blacklist. It is a list of companies that were once members of the association and have quit. There is good reason why someone might have quit this organization so this list is not helpful at all.

It is nice to have a blacklist up on Tradecarview finally.

Please understand that the exporters who type in here have an agenda to push their services and discredit the way other exporters do business. In other words, read it with a grain of salt.

The best tool for you to use is your common sense and research, research, research.

You will find exporters from all over the spectrum. Find the one that works for you.

[Tsuchiyama]

Do you check the blacklists, like the JUMVEA blacklist?
http://www.jumvea.or.jp/e/introducti...awals_list.php

You're right Derek. This is confusing.

The first list "A list of voluntary withdrawal members" should probably be called something like "Former JUMVEA Members Who Have Voluntarily Withdrawn From JUMVEA".

These are the "good guys" who for whatever reason - didn't want to keep paying the JUMVEA membership fees, stopped exporting etc. - and wrote to JUMVEA and let them know that they wanted to cancel their membership.

If you scroll down the page further to "A list of striking off members", this should probably be called something like "Former JUMVEA Members Who Have Been Expelled by JUMVEA"

These are the "bad guys". Reasons for being expelled vary, but are commonly having up to 2 years arrears with their JUMVEA membership payments or unethical conduct, e.g. ripping off their customers. Unfortunately the reasons for expulsion are not detailed like in the Tradecarview blacklist:
http://www.tradecarview.com/help/blacklist/
But either situation is not good. If they wanted to leave JUMVEA they just needed to settle their accounts in arrears and leave as a "good guy".


Which takes us back to the start of the thread and the importer who was pulling his hair out because of communication breakdown and worried about being ripped off. As an importer have you ever been the victim of Japanese English? Or other mis-understandings?

[Boyblue]

I'm bring this thread back, we need more of this kind of info, is Tsuchiyama in anyone's bad books

[jdmvip]

I'm not going to bump a bad thread (not this one but one you can surely find). There is definitely someone not getting along with them but as far as I can work out, it is something very personal and someone who refuses to identify themselves or the sources of their info. Other than that I do not know of any reviews either way, to be fair.

[Tsuchiyama]

I'm not going to bump a bad thread (not this one but one you can surely find). There is definitely someone not getting along with them but as far as I can work out, it is something very personal and someone who refuses to identify themselves or the sources of their info. Other than that I do not know of any reviews either way, to be fair.

Yes. There's a scammer trying to impersonate us:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201101...ortnippon.com/

You can learn more about his operation and ours here:
https://www.ts-export.com/page.php?p..._export_nippon

One of his victims has created this page:
http://www.scamexportnippon.com/