Hello everyone, The same thing happened to me with NOA a the beginning of July, and I looked into it in detail, even writing to the German customs office, which replied explaining the issue to me. In any case, if you ask an AI (such as Google Gemini), you’ll find all the details on the matter.
As Aurele mentioned, from 1 July, the European Union has been applying a charge of 3 euros per type of goods contained in each parcel coming from a non-EU country (it is not only for Japan, it is regardless the sender country), provided it has a customs declaration attached and the value of the parcel is less than 150 euros. For example, if you buy 4 books, you’ll pay just 3 euros (because they have the same HS code). If you buy 3 books, two T-shirts and a screwdriver (in the same parcel, coming from Pakistan, for example), you’ll pay 9 euros. To this amount must be added the fixed customs clearance fee – that is, the cost of processing the new tax, i.e. the customs officer’s labour costs. In Germany, this is 7.5 euros. Hans probably saw a charge of around 21 euros because Danish customs charged him a full 18 euros purely as a ‘handling fee’ (customs clearance). The strange thing about Hans’s case, however, is that this only happens if there is a customs declaration attached to the parcel, and as far as I know, BOS magazines arrive in a plain white envelope, without any customs declaration. So perhaps the Danish postal service has made a mistake, or has misinterpreted the new European directive. I wrote to NOA several days ago and had a lengthy exchange with Mr Fujine. The proposal to send everything in a single annual batch probably came from me (I suggested it to Fujine, who was unaware of this issue). Today I received the OUSA magazine, and as there was no customs declaration, I didn’t pay anything, even though it came from outside the EU. The problem, it seems, is that the Japanese postal service even requires Japanese associations (not just merchants) to complete the customs form. Perhaps this is due to the legal status that an association (NOA, JOAS, etc.) has in Japan. OUSA, for example, does not have to complete a customs declaration to send out its magazines. I fear that Japanese laws will not help us to receive magazines without a customs declaration. I hope that the EU will take corrective action and remove this €3 charge per item type from published works (cultural items), but there’s no guarantee that this will happen. In any case, the ‘blame’ lies solely with us (the EU). The measure was adopted to combat competition from low-cost goods such as those from Temu (and similar platforms): by charging an additional 3 euros on goods made in China that cost 3–4 euros, this makes them no longer competitive on the European market, according to the EU legislator. I’m still interested in physical copies, so if the situation doesn’t change, I’ll have NOA and JOAS send me combined parcels every year. I believe, however, that something will change within a few months, because the publishers’ associations are up in arms. At least at the level of individual EU member states, because each country always has the option to apply corrective measures to the directives, to a certain extent. Let’s keep in touch, Lorenzo On Sun, 19 Jul 2026 at 11:42, Stefan Zingrebe <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > Here is the current situation as far as I’m concerned: > > NOA has offered to send all the remaining issues from my subscription in a > single shipment at the end. > That means going 11 months without an issue. > On the one hand, that’s good; on the other, I’ll really miss the monthly > joy of receiving the new magazine. > > Origami-jp (Tanteidan) has also become aware of the issue and is looking > for a solution. I’m still missing 5 issues from Volume 37. However, with > them, there has always been the option to receive all issues in a single > shipment anyway. > > It’s not a huge deal, really, but 25 years after the digital revolution, I > had imagined things would be different. > > Have a nice day, > Stefan > > ------------------------------ > *Von:* Origami <[email protected]> im Auftrag von > Stefan Zingrebe <[email protected]> > *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 12. Juli 2026 11:10 > *An:* The Origami Mailing List <[email protected]>; Anna < > [email protected]> > *Betreff:* Re: [Origami] NOA Subscription > > > Anna via Origami > 11.07.2026 23:07 > Yes, it happened to me last year with the Tanteidan magazines. > > Hello Anna! > That will probably be my next problem, since I also subscribe to Tanteidan > Magazine. > I really ought to write to them about it in advance. > Thanks > Stefan > ------------------------------ > *Von:* Origami <[email protected]> im Auftrag von > Anna via Origami <[email protected]> > *Gesendet:* Samstag, 11. Juli 2026 23:07 > *An:* The Origami Mailing List <[email protected]> > *Betreff:* Re: [Origami] NOA Subscription > > Hello, > > Yes, it happened to me last year with the Tanteidan magazines. Suddenly > the Austrian customs charged absurd amounts for each magazine, way more > than the price of the magazine itself, so my partner and I had to cancel > our subscription. I'm very unhappy about it but don't know what else to do. > > Anna from Vienna/Austria > > Am Sa., 11. Juli 2026 um 01:36 Uhr schrieb Stefan Zingrebe < > [email protected]>: > > Dear origami friends, > > I’ve subscribed to NOA magazine since 2022 (starting with issue 563). > Yesterday, for the first time, the mail carrier asked for 11 euros to > cover customs charges (in Germany). > I refused delivery because I can’t afford that in the long run (the > subscription still has two years to run). > Have any of you had similar experiences recently (in Europe)? > Has something changed? > I haven’t contacted NOA yet, but I plan to do so. > I would really appreciate any feedback. > > Best regards, > Stefan > > -- Lorenzo Lucioni Duesseldorf - Germany [email protected]
