Suspension of international mail service destined to various countries/territories |
March 17, 2022
We will make the following changes to mail service shown in the table below effective March 18, 2022.
Mail transportation to various countries/territories has been significantly reduced or suspended due to the unstable situation in Ukraine. However, we have now managed to ensure some air transportation capacity and we will resume service for some kinds of airmail letter-post items to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium. On the other hand, we will suspend some kinds of mail service to seven countries, including Iceland, because mail transportation has been disrupted. Additionally, mail service to Tonga has been temporarily suspended due to the eruption of an underwater volcano, but we will resume service for surface letter-post items to Tonga because the postal operator there has confirmed that it is able to accept such mail.
✔: acceptable, X: acceptance suspended, -: No service
*1: See in the table below. *2: Only letter-post items are accepted.
Resumption
| Countries/Territories | Previously | Effective March 18 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | SAL | Surface | EMS | Air | SAL | Surface | EMS | |
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium | X | X | ✔ | X | *1 | X | ✔ | X |
| Tonga | X | - | X | - | X | - | *2 | - |
Suspension
| Countries/Territories | Previously | Effective March 18 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | SAL | Surface | EMS | Air | SAL | Surface | EMS | |
| Iceland | ✔ | X | ✔ | ✔ | *2 | X | ✔ | X |
| Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania (United Rep.), Nigeria | ✔ | - | X | ✔ | X | - | X | X |
| Kenya | ✔ | X | X | ✔ | X | X | X | X |
| Liberia | ✔ | - | X | - | X | - | X | - |
Table for acceptance of airmail letter-post items to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium
Air letter-post items
| Postal items | Previously | Effective March 18 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary Mail | Registered Mail | Insured Mail | Ordinary Mail | Registered Mail | Insured Mail | ||
| Letters | Standard-sized Mail | X | X | X3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔3 |
| Nonstandard-sized Mail | X | X | X3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔3 | |
| Greeting cards | X | X | X3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔3 | |
| Aerogrammes | X | X | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Postcards | X | X | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Postal items for the blind | X | X | - | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Printed Matter | X | X | - | X | X | - | |
| Special Mailbags for Printed Matter | X | X | - | X | X | - | |
| Small Packets | X | X | - | X | X | - | |
| International ePacket | - | X | - | - | X | - | |
| D-mail | X | X | - | X | X | - | |
Air parcel-post items
| Previously | Effective March 18 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary Mail | Registered Mail | Insured Mail | Ordinary Mail | Registered Mail | Insured Mail |
| X | X | X4 | X | X | X4 |
3: There is no insured mail service to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Germany.
4: There is no insured mail service to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
For details on the latest status concerning the acceptance of mail items destined to countries and territories worldwide and information about mail delivery delays, etc., please check here.
We continue to temporarily suspend acceptance of mail items destined to these countries and territories because their postal operators are still not accepting inbound postal items and/or our transportation performance remains significantly reduced due to reduction of flights from/to Japan. Items which have already been accepted and cannot be dispatched to their destinations will be returned from the delivery offices to the senders in order. Items to countries/territories in the table above that have already been accepted as of today's date are likely to be handled in the same way.
We previously announced on March 8, 2022 that items addressed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium would be returned from the delivery offices to the senders in the order of their acceptance. However, letters, postcards and postal items for the blind to those countries that have already been accepted will be dispatched in the order of their acceptance because we have managed to ensure some transportation capacity. Please note that EMS, airmail parcels and other airmail letter-post items to these countries will be returned from the delivery offices to the senders in the order of their acceptance. It would be appreciated if you would kindly understand this situation in advance.
In addition, because of the global reduction of flights, considerable delivery delays are expected for accepted outbound mail items.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. It would be appreciated if you would kindly understand this situation in advance.
