Today my friend and my teacher Mr.Shiotsu from Shiotsu Autotrade who taught me the basics of car exporting business came to my office. We had many fruitful discussions about the used car export business.

As a matter of fact ,my company’s staff Raj (Indian computer genius software professional )made several home pages. My used car exporting network incudes Mitz trading Japan (Mr. Mituhashi my best friend), Hashimoto Trading (Mr. Hashimoto who is a very clever person). Their home page’s are by also made by Raj.  They are very close friends with me.

Actually,  I have a many friends who are Japanese used car exporters. Kuroyanagi shoten (Mr. Kuroyanagi who is also my teacher of car exporter)ARC Japan  (Mr. Sano ,my best friend),  OverDrive Japan (Mr. Suga who is used to rally driver),  X-Cars (Mr. Nishimura who is also genius computer programmer), Mac Trading (Mr. Kakurai),  Oriental Trading (Mr. Nishida who is the best SUKEBE “Japanese”,  Japan Rokukawa Trading (Mr. Rale who is Sri Lankan rich man),  A Auto (Mr. Kunimoto who lives in Kyushu), KMG Thirty Corporation (Mr. Kyi Min Gaung who is Myanmar’s best dealer), Extreme (Mr. Shibata who is also rich man in Nagoya), Fukuda Trading (Mr.Fukuda who is my parts teacher). Monkys (Mr. Totoki who is my sports car teacher), Oriental Vehicle Exports (Mr. Yodo who taught me about Australia business),  Kyoshin Auto Service (Mr. Asano who is one of the best used car dealer in Osaka), Inoue Tusho (Mr. Inoue who is big container dealer), K Project (Mr. Kitahara), Auction Service (Mr. Suzuki), Toyo Trading (Mr. Kita), Veritas (Mr. Kamata who is construction specialist), Nakahara Trading (Mr. Nakahara who is my truck business teacher),  Ace Supply (Mr. Harada who is a Vodka lover).

So even though they are all my competitors, we learn a lot from each other. Some of these exporters are very good used car dealers too.

Technorati Tags: used car export, Japanese used car, exporters

I went to Kyushu in Japan last weekend. I went there to participate in the squash competition. Kyushu also happens to be my home town and it gives me a chance to visit  my father’s grave too. Kyushu is  far from Tokyo -  it takes about 1 hour 45 minutes by air plane. If you happen to come to Tokyo in my office and if you love squash, I’d definitely invite you play squash with me.

Tokyo’s real estate is the one of the most expensive all over the world. Around my house (near Shinjuku) real estate price is about 5,600 USD per one square meter. But in my home town Kyushu, the price is about 140 USD per one square meter (Ooita prefecture).  I think country side is better environment for the kids to grow than Tokyo. However if I would live there I would lose my job. So the question is ‘to be or not to be’ !! You can see picture of my home in Kyushu here.

This week we had a big computer problem. We lost  internet connectivity for some of our computers in office. And the same thing happened at my home too.That’s too bad. Normally I always reply all emails from my home from 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM and 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM. We have internet cafes here and it is not a bad option, but I prefer to use my own computer. My friend came to my home to fix the problem; he needed just 20 minutes to fix it. It was very simple for him but I couldn’t fix myself. Really, is the computer wise? Certainly, we can not live without it in this modern world.

Technorati Tags: Kyushu, Japan, Tokyo, real estate

Today we received a call from a customer in South Africa. He wanted to bid for auction but he was skeptical of sending the deposit needed for bidding to our bank account. Well, such doubts are natural which could come to our prospective customers’ mind. So I need to share here about our various memberships.

We are a registered member of prestigious institutions such as  JUMVEA (Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporter Association),  Japan chamber of commerce, and various auction houses such as USS, CAA etc. Thus if we swindle customer’s money, we are liable for severe punishment under internationa trade laws. You can see here copies of some of our membership certificates.

Technorati Tags: JUMVEA, Japan, auction, USS

It’s getting hot here in Tokyo and in recent years heat in Tokyo is abnormal. Perhaps, the sultriness equals tropical countries like Thailand and the Philippines. Today’s temperature was 28 degrees.

The most farthest used car auction house in the north of Japan is in Sapporo, Hokkaido and the farthest one in the south is in Fukuoka.

Though Japan is a small country, the labor costs here are the highest in the world. Therefore, costs of transporting a car by land within Japan is considerably high.

Thinking Yokohama to be a central city, transportation cost of standard car is about 4,000 yen from Yokohama, 15,000 yen from Nagoya, 20,000 Yen from Osaka, 25,000 yen from Sapporo, and 35,000 yen from Fukuoka. So the distance is a disadvantage even though sometimes cars could be bought at cheap prices at auctions in the far off cities like Sapporo and Fukuoka.

Technorati Tags: Hokkaido, Japan, transportation, Fukuoka

We have begun translation of our homepages and other promotional materials into Russian now.  Our Russian staff Zoya is a clever woman and she translates with surprising speed.Russia has now outnumbered New Zealand in the imports of cars from Japan. So we will try to do our best to satisfy Russian customers.Today I went to JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization). JETRO is organizing a trade fair for exibhiting  Japanese products in Saudi Arabia this November. We will participate in the fair because it is an event that is completely organized by JETRO and we can get the visa easily. Saudi Arabia is a difficult country for the Japanese to get a visa.Saudi Arabia can not import right hand drive cars from Japan.T hat’s why weplan to export 4 WD engine or GTR there. However JETRO staff said that Saudi Arabia we can not have any alcohol or other kind of entertainment. That may be difficult for we Japanese and I am worried about it,  but I am also looking forward to meet new customers.

Technorati Tags: Russian, New Zealand, imports, JETRO, Trade, Saudi Arabia, Japanese

I’m back from my business trip to Russia.Well, overall the trip was fruitful, but I had some problems. First one was due to the fact I that I was not able to speak or understand Russian, which leads to a communication barrier. Russians don’t understand English much, and my only mode of communication was through one of my Russian friends.

An unpleasant experience I faced was I was taken by the police in their car while I was waiting for a taxi.  I was questioned with full body and baggage check and released.  But when I returned to my hotel room I discovered that the police had stolen my cash in the bag while they searched my baggage.

I visited the Japanese car market and met some car dealers and also distributed of our promotion material.  I also arranged publishing of our ad in a local newspaper.

I really hope that they soon start flights from Tokyo International airport to Russia other than flights from Kansai International airport in Osaka and Niigata.  Niigata and Osaka are very far from Tokyo and thus it is not so convenient to take these flights.

Technorati Tags: Russia, Russian, car, Japanese car, Tokyo, Osaka

Today I’ll share with you one incidence which was a mistake on our part.

One of our customers from a Carribean country placed an order for a car with us. He had transferred part of the money to our bank account. Trusting that he will send the remaining money I went ahead and shipped the car to St. Lucia. I however did not send him the bill of loading. I was planning to send it to the customer only after getting the full payment. However the payment did not arrive from the customer. So I decided to stop the shipment at the port of Jamaica and negotiated with a shipment company in Jamaica to ship the car back to Japan. It was not possible for us to selll the car to any other customer in Jamaica because of the regulations regarding year of manufacturing.

The transportation fee for shipping the car back to Japan was huge - around $50,000 because no container was available and ours was the only car to be shippped by LO/LO ship. Reluctantly I agreed to ship the car though the price was high.In the meantime, the buyer got in touch with me again asking for discounts. We told him that we have stoppped the car in Jamaica because he did not pay the full amount. He was surprised and immediately transferred the remaining money. Fortunately the ship to Japan had not left, so the buyer could collect the car at Jamaica but he had to arrange for the transporation from Jamaica to St. Lucia

So you can see that it causes problems both for the buyers as well as us when customers do not send full payment by the agreed date.

We as exporter have to take care of many financial risks - such as paying for the storage fee of the car at the port, fees for ship backs etc.  So please understand why we ask for full payment before we could ship the car.

Technorati Tags: shipment, Japan, container, Jamaica, St. Lucia, car