Japan Post Tracking

Japan Post is Japan's national postal operator, handling domestic mail and parcels as well as international shipments through services such as EMS and standard airmail. One status that causes a fair amount of confusion is Retention, which typically means a delivery attempt failed and the parcel is now being held at a local post office, usually because customs or another process needs to be completed before redelivery can happen. It's also common for a shipment to sit at Dispatch from Outward Office of Exchange for an extended period, particularly with surface or SAL mail, since this simply reflects the item being in transit by ship or plane rather than a lost parcel. This page shows the tracking events published for your Japan Post shipment so far.

Enter your Japan Post tracking number into the box above and select Track. The number is usually a 13 character code included in your shipping confirmation, often starting with two letters and ending in JP. If a parcel was recently shipped, allow up to 72 hours before expecting the first tracking update to appear, since a number can occasionally take time to register in the system, particularly if it's been reused from a previous completed shipment.

Japan Post tracking numbers typically follow the 13 character international format, made up of two letters, nine digits, and a two letter country code ending in JP. Common service prefixes include EN or EE for EMS, RR for registered mail, and LM or LX for tracked airmail or SAL. If your number isn't returning results, double check your shipping confirmation for the correct reference, since order numbers and tracking numbers are sometimes listed together.

Delivery timing depends heavily on the service used, with EMS generally being faster than surface mail or SAL, which can take considerably longer since it travels by ship rather than air. A recurring theme in customer feedback is a shipment appearing to pause at Dispatch from Outward Office for an extended stretch, which is a normal part of how slower international services move rather than a sign of a lost parcel. If your tracking shows Retention, contacting your local post office promptly is important, since the parcel may be returned to Japan if it isn't collected or redelivery arranged within a certain window.

International Japan Post shipments typically move through collection and processing within Japan, dispatch from the outward office of exchange, international transport, arrival and customs clearance in the destination country, and then handover to the destination country's postal service for final delivery. Once a shipment clears the outward exchange in Japan, the pace of updates often slows considerably until it's picked up by the destination country's own postal network, particularly for surface and SAL services which rely on sea or slower air transport.