Import duty from Japan to USA: what you actually pay

There is no single duty rate for Japanese goods. Japan and the United States have no comprehensive free trade agreement, so most Japanese imports pay the ordinary Column 1 MFN rate for their HTS code: 2.5 percent on passenger cars, 25 percent on light trucks, and Free on semiconductors, laptops and most pumps. A narrow 2020 agreement covers roughly 241 tariff lines and can zero out the duty on machine tools, camera lenses and pianos if you claim it. On top of that sits a policy layer that is genuinely unsettled this month, so the rest of this article separates the durable structure from the parts you must check on your entry date.

The two Japan-specific facts worth knowing before anything else: a Japanese passenger car does not pay 2.5 percent plus 25 percent, it pays a flat 15 percent under a Japan-specific provision, and the temporary 10 percent surcharge that has applied since February 2026 is scheduled to lapse on July 24, 2026.

The two agreements people conflate

The US Japan Trade Agreement entered into force on January 1, 2020 and lives at General Note 36 of the tariff schedule. It is a limited market-access deal, not a free trade agreement. The US granted tariff elimination or reduction on roughly 241 tariff lines, mostly agricultural goods such as cut flowers, persimmons, green tea, chewing gum and soy sauce, plus a selection of industrial goods. It conspicuously excludes autos, auto parts and motorcycles, which is precisely the trade Japan is best known for.

You claim it by entering the special program indicator JP as a prefix to the HTS number. Country of origin and country of export both have to be Japan, and the good has to qualify as originating under General Note 36. Where it applies it is worth real money, and it is claimed rather than automatic, so a filer who does not know to look for it simply pays full freight.

A separate 2025 US Japan arrangement set a 15 percent baseline on Japanese goods. Its general baseline component rested on IEEPA authority and was voided when the Supreme Court ruled in February 2026, but its Section 232 auto and auto-parts components survive because they rest on a different statute. That is the source of most of the confusion in circulation right now.

Base MFN rates on common Japanese imports

These are Column 1 General rates from the 2026 tariff schedule. The last column shows whether the 2020 agreement gives you anything.

Three things in that table run against the common wisdom. Motorcycle duty does vary by engine size, but backwards from what most people assume: everything at or below 700 cc is Free, and only bikes above 700 cc pay 2.4 percent. The 25 percent light-truck rate, the old chicken tax, is not uniform across heading 8704, since off-highway dumpers are Free and certain 5 to 20 tonne cab chassis are 4 percent. And ordinary unflavored sencha or matcha is already Free at MFN, so the 6.4 percent figure you see quoted for Japanese green tea applies only to flavored tea.

Section 232 is where Japanese goods actually get expensive

The metals and vehicle actions under Section 232 survived the February 2026 ruling and they are the durable layer to plan around.

Vehicles. The tariff schedule contains Japan-specific provisions. Under 9903.94.41, Japanese passenger vehicles and light trucks whose Column 1 rate is below 15 percent pay a flat 15 percent. Under 9903.94.40, those whose Column 1 rate is already 15 percent or more pay just the ordinary subheading rate with no addition. Work that through and the results are counterintuitive. A Japanese passenger car at 2.5 percent MFN pays 15 percent flat, not 2.5 plus the general 25 percent that non-Japanese vehicles face. A Japanese light truck already at 25 percent MFN gets nothing from the ceiling and still pays 25 percent. Auto parts follow parallel provisions at 15 percent. There is also a genuine exemption worth knowing: vehicles manufactured at least 25 years before the year of entry fall under 9903.94.04 and escape Section 232 entirely, paying only the base duty. That is the provision classic-car importers rely on.

Steel and aluminum. Japan has no general exemption and no quota arrangement. Since the restructure effective April 6, 2026, the duty applies to the full customs value of a covered article rather than only its metal content. Steel, aluminum, copper and derivative articles generally carry an additional 50 percent under 9903.82.02. There is a Japan-specific line, 9903.82.22, at 15 percent, but read it narrowly: it reaches only derivative steel articles under a particular note. Primary steel and aluminum articles from Japan remain at the higher rate, and there is no Japan-specific aluminum rate at all. Secondary summaries describing Japan as a blanket 15 percent country on metals are overstating it. If the covered metal is under 15 percent of the article's weight there is a carve-out, though it does not apply to articles of Chapters 72, 73, 74 or 76.

Semiconductors. A 25 percent action took effect January 15, 2026, but its scope is very narrow, limited to advanced logic chips meeting specific processing-performance and memory-bandwidth thresholds. Ordinary Japanese product in headings 8541 and 8542 is not covered and stays Free.

If you import machinery rather than finished vehicles, the item to check is whether your exact ten-digit code appears on the Section 232 derivative inclusion lists, which were expanded substantially in 2025 to cover fixed industrial equipment. A machine tool that is a listed derivative gets pulled into the metals action instead of the general treatment, which changes the math completely. Do not assume either way; check the current annex against your code. The same analysis applies to any Chapter 84 machinery import.

The volatile layer, with dates

This is the part that will age fastest, so here is exactly where things stood on July 19, 2026.

On February 20, 2026 the Supreme Court held 6 to 3 that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, and all IEEPA-based tariffs terminated on February 24, 2026. They were immediately replaced by a Section 122 balance-of-payments surcharge of 10 percent, reported under 9903.03.01. It stacks on the MFN rate, and it expires by operation of law on July 24, 2026 under the 150-day statutory cap on that authority. The Court of International Trade struck it down on May 7, 2026, but the Federal Circuit stayed that ruling on June 11, 2026, so collection has continued in the meantime.

Importantly, the surcharge does not apply to everything. There is an express carve-out at 9903.03.06 for steel, aluminum and copper articles and their derivatives, and for passenger vehicles, light trucks and their parts. So a Japanese car pays its Section 232 rate and not the surcharge on top. CBP's reporting sequence is Section 301, then Section 122, then Section 232.

What comes after July 24 is genuinely unknown as of this writing. USTR has two open Section 301 investigations that name Japan. In the forced-labor investigation, USTR published findings on June 5, 2026 covering dozens of economies and proposed a 12.5 percent duty on Japan with no sunset provision. Comments closed July 6 and hearings began July 7, but no final action had issued as of July 19. A second investigation into structural excess capacity in manufacturing, initiated in March 2026, also names Japan, with hearings held in May and no proposed rate yet. Press reporting suggests USTR intends to complete this work around July 20 so a replacement can take effect before the surcharge lapses, but that timing is not established by any primary source I could verify.

The practical instruction: treat the 12.5 percent as proposed, not in force, and check the rate applicable to your entry date rather than relying on any figure published before you ship.

A worked example

A CNC horizontal lathe, HTS 8458.11.00, made in and shipped from Japan by ocean, customs value $180,000. The MFN rate is 4.4 percent, and JP appears in the Special column, so a valid claim under the 2020 agreement takes the base duty to zero.

Three honest scenarios follow from that. Entering today with the JP claim made, total duties and fees are $18,848.52. If the surcharge lapses on July 24 and nothing replaces it, the same entry costs $848.52. If the proposed 12.5 percent Section 301 takes effect instead, it costs $23,348.52. Filing the JP claim is worth $7,920 on this one entry, and the policy layer swings the bill by more than $22,000. That is the real argument for timing large capital-equipment entries deliberately rather than by accident.

For the fee mechanics behind those last two lines, see how the Merchandise Processing Fee works and the Harbor Maintenance Fee, which is ocean-only and has no minimum or maximum.

Two things that changed for everyone in 2026

The $800 de minimis exemption is gone. CBP indefinitely suspended it effective June 24, 2026 across all modes and all countries, and Congress separately repeals it by statute on July 1, 2027. Every commercial shipment from Japan now needs a formal entry with a full ten-digit classification and duty paid, including the small direct-to-consumer parcels that used to clear free. If your model depended on that exemption, it needs rebuilding.

Duties collected under the voided IEEPA program are being refunded through a dedicated CBP process rather than through drawback. If your entries touch the period from February 2025 to February 2026, that refund is worth pursuing, and it is separate from any duty drawback claim you might file on exports.

Practical checklist for a Japan lane

• Classify to ten digits first. Everything else, including whether you even qualify for the JP preference, keys off the code.
• Check the Special column for JP. On machine tools, optics and instruments it is frequently there and frequently missed.
• If the product is a vehicle or auto part, go straight to the Japan-specific Chapter 99 provisions rather than assuming the general 25 percent.
• If the product contains steel, aluminum or copper, check the derivative lists against your exact code before assuming the surcharge applies instead.
• Confirm the policy layer for your entry date. Between July 20 and 24, 2026 this lane is genuinely in motion.
• Keep the origin evidence. A JP claim you cannot substantiate is worse than one you never made.

Most importers running this lane work through a customs broker or forwarder, which is sensible given how much of the above turns on current Chapter 99 text. It does not transfer the liability, though: as importer of record you still owe reasonable care on the classification, which is worth reading up on in do I need a customs broker. If you are managing a panel of forwarders and carriers, it is also worth keeping their certificates of insurance current and verified rather than discovering a lapsed policy after a claim.

To get the code and the reasoning behind it, describe your product in the classifier at the top of this page, then build the layers you have confirmed in the import duty calculator.