Shipping a boxed scale figure from Japan to Australia

Local-currency figures are approximate, converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 2026-10-01 (1 A$ = ¥109.8). Your card or the proxy will use its own rate on the day.

EMS charges by weight band, not by the gram, so this same ¥4,400 postage applies to anything up to 1000g: a model kit, a boxed game console accessory all land in the same band. Going one gram over moves you to the next band.

Where this sits in the EMS weight bands

At 1000g you are billed at the 1000g band, so you are paying for exactly the weight you have. Going over 1000g moves you to the 1250g band and adds ¥600. A single extra gram can cost that much.

This is why consolidating matters in one direction and hurts in the other: putting four small purchases in one box usually keeps you inside a single band and saves three lots of postage, but pushing one gram over a boundary costs the full step.

One box or several?

Buying more than one? Sent separately, 3 parcels like this cost ¥13,200 in EMS to Australia. Put in one box, they cost ¥8,800, a saving of ¥4,400 (33%). That is the case for collecting purchases at the warehouse and asking for them to be consolidated.

The same weight at different prices

The postage is fixed by weight, so it weighs heavily on a cheap item and hardly at all on an expensive one. At this weight to Australia, everything on top of a ¥3,000 item adds 201% to its price; on a ¥100,000 item it adds 16%. Doorzo is cheapest at every price on this list.

Each service, line by line

The postage is identical for all five at this weight. These are the lines that are not:

Cheaper than EMS?

Everything above is priced by EMS. Sent by airmail small packet instead of EMS, the same order comes to ¥14,543 through Buyee, ¥2,297 less. The trade-off is time: EMS is Japan Post's fastest service and surface parcels its slowest.

Japan Post's published rates. A service is only counted where its own site lists the method; the shipping methods guide shows which do. SAL (economy air) is not shown because Japan Post has suspended it.

What can go in this box to Australia

scale figure and plastic model kit (kit only) can go through any of the five. model paint / thinner is refused by at least one service on this route, so the cheapest total above is only the answer if the cheapest service will take it.

Cheapest service by marketplace at this weight

Doorzo is cheapest at this weight whichever marketplace the item comes from. The last column is how far ahead it is of the next cheapest service; where the lead is a few hundred yen, what each includes may matter more than the price.

How much of the bill is the weight?

On this order the postage alone is ¥4,400, against a ¥10,000 item and ¥2,440 of everything else: service fee, packing, domestic postage inside Japan, payment fees and tax. Weight is the one input you can still change after you have chosen what to buy, by having the box packed tighter or by leaving the outer packaging behind.

The five services differ on how they treat weight. One charges for packing by weight on top of postage; the others fold packing into the service fee. That is why the ranking at 1000g is not automatically the ranking at a different weight. The table above is worked out for this weight specifically.