2001

Apr.3, 2001

Minebea First to be Approved by Tokyo Customhouse for Simplified Declaration Procedure for Imports

March 16, 2001, Friday saw Minebea being authorized by the Tokyo Customhouse to hold its "Approval No. 1" as an eligible applicant for the Simplified Declaration Procedure for imports which has newly come into effect.

This new system aims to implement the program of simplifying the conventional procedures for customs clearance, thereby helping local importers facilitate their work expedition and other expediency.

This system works under the new laws and regulations enforced by the Ministry of Finance and the customs authorities of Japan in April this year; qualified importers will be in a position to take their imports out of the bond ("release of goods") prior to their application for tariff clearance and subject to their assurance to observe the relative laws and regulations. In practice, such importers can gain favorable positions, inclusive of the following.

1. When a qualified importer applies for a "release of goods," its procedural requirements can be much less than before.
2. Importers will be no longer required to submit their decaration for the release of goods, declaration for customs duty payment, and other conventionally required papers.
3. Customs clearance time can be shortened thanks to the customs' omission of the inspection/examination and or the sampling inspection conventionally required for the taxes to be paid for an applied release of goods.
4. Declaration for customs duty payment can be submitted all in one later on after cargo importation.
5. Electronic data storage can be promoted by means of CD-ROM or else, thereby helping to diminish papers.

This new simplified declaration procedure has already begun working since April 2, 2001, Monday, as to the imports which came on waters; as for the imports shipped by air, this new system will become applicable in October this year.

What led Minebea to be "Approval No. 1"

Importers' petitions for application of the new system have been filed by the customhouses throughout Japan since March 1 this year. Just for your reference, among these customhouses, Tokyo represents more than 70% of the clearance at declared value. Minebea and five other large trading houses and manufacturers had applied to the Tokyo Customhouse; as a result, its first approval number, K1010001, has been granted to Minebea. And, this approval will be effective not solely in Tokyo but in common with the Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and other customhouses throughout the country.

Then, how could Minebea gain the Approval "No. 1"? Answers can be outlined like the following.

1. According to the Customs Act of Japan and other local laws and regulations, Minebea was recognized to have been a proper declarant of duty. Besides, the investigations followed by the customs authorities in February this year have found no issue pending with the company.
2. In addition, the customs authorities in Japan have recognized Minebea as excellent in view of the fact that the company has achieved almost 100% (as processed by means of EDI = electronic data interchange) in terms of the rate of perfection expected of its applications made to the customs, even though the number of customs clearance applied by Minebea has amounted to more than fifty thousand cases with its exports and imports combined on the latest annual basis.
3. Another outcome of Minebea's appreciated by the Japanese customs is that the authorities had recognized Minebea in August 1999 as the company first qualified to electronically store its data (by means of CD-ROM) of its invoices prepared for exports of its products. This new simplified declaration procedure has already begun working since April 2, 2001, Monday, as to the imports which came on waters; as for the imports shipped by air, this new system will become applicable in October this year.

Favorable positions to be gained by Minebea:

Implementation of the new system for simplified customs clearance is expected to provide Minebea with a great number of advantage for its logistics in particular, as follows.

1.Shorter time to clear customs will furthermore assure the punctuality for our products' deliveries to our local customers.

1. Conventional systems are causing us to spend nearly a half day before custom officers can complete documents examination, sampling inspection, and other procedures.However, such time consuming factors will be eliminated so much that we can expect a large shortcut in the time to clear customs.
2. As the customs will no longer require us to submit papers by hand through our agent, we anticipate that our labor and time can be saved favorably.
3. Now that we may more correctly estimate the time to be taken for customs clearance, we may well be more accurate with the time for our shipments committed to our local customer base.

2.Our electronic data storage by means of CD-ROM or else can be apparently promoted (with papers diminishing).

1. Conventional systems require us to keep our exports/imports documents in file for seven years maximum, causing the duplicates/photocopies of our printed invoices and other shipping documents to heap hugely in our store, thereby further causing us to have to secure depository and to pay for the costs and expenses incurred to store a mountain of these papers in effect. However, now that our import customs-clearance documents can be electronically stored, similarly as the case of our export invoices as remarked earlier, we expect to be able to reduce our costs and expenses while enhancing our work efficiency.
2. Upon digitization of our data in these ways, we estimate that a single disc of CD-ROM can store a monthly volume of the data prepared in order to clear customs for exports and imports, respectively. Anyhow, CD-ROMs need little space for filing. In addition, such digitized data storage system will help us greatly facilitate many of our jobs including reconfirmation of some data concerned.

Overseas applicability of simplified customs clearance systems

Thailand:

Minebea's major manufacturing base stands in Thailand in that some 60% of Minebea's recent annual turnover as group come from the products the company is making at its Thai subsidiaries.
Fortunately, the Thai customs authorities have been very actively striving to simplify their customs clearance procedures for either exports or imports. In this direction, Minebea has become the first foreign investor authorized by the Thai customs to employ electronic data storage system for customs clearance procedures.
In practice, in September 2000, Minebea was granted the Thai Customs Approval No. 1 for the application of CD-ROM to clear customs of exports from Thailand, on the one hand. As for our imports to the Kingdom, on the other hand, her customs authorities and Minebea are advancing together toward an early introduction of electronic data storage system.

China:

With their perspective expanding toward their nation finally joining the World Trade Organization before long and under the guidance of the central customs authorities in Beijing, the Shanghai Customhouse is planning for a system of simplifying their customs clearance, on the one hand.
On the other, Minebea has been operating manufacturing in mainland China and is prepared to be applicable with new local laws and regulations when they are enacted sooner or later.

For further information and inquiries, please contact

Minebea Co., Ltd.
Corporate Communications Office, Corporate Planning Department
Yasuaki Miyahara
Address :  ARCO Tower, 19th Floor, 1-8-1, Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8662
TEL : 03-5434-8637
FAX : 03-5434-8607
E-mail : ymiyahara@minebea.co.jp
URL : http://www.minebea.co.jp/

Back to Press Release List

It ends about main text.