Reminder on Advance Filing Rules in Japan

We would like to remind you to ensure that your cargo meets all requirements for safe discharge in Japan.

These rules have been in effect since March 2014. Under Japanese customs law, penalties apply if shipping companies or NVOCCs submit no cargo information or false information by the filing deadline.

Additionally, if no House Bill of Lading (House B/L) is filed by the NVOCC, the cargo will not be permitted to discharge at any port in Japan and will be returned to the port of origin.

Please note that we will not load any cargo with missing House B/L data from the final loading ports. All related costs will be borne by the cargo owner.

You can find the initial announcement regarding the Japan Customs rules here.

For more detailed information, please refer to the Japan Customs resources below.

• Filer requirements under the AFR (March 2025 )
• Notification of AFR for NVOCC in ( English ) and ( Chinese )
• Summary of the Advance Filing Rules on Maritime Container Cargo Information

If you should have comments or questions concerning this topic, please reach out to our teams at your preferred location.