Shipping Time from Japan to India – how long

Are you shipping from Japan to India? Or are you in India and expecting a shipment from Japan? When shipping a cargo internationally, one of the things people are concerned most is the time it takes for shipping. On this page we will show you how long it takes by ocean when shipping from Japan to India using the services of a freight forwarding company or an international moving company.

While there are some direct shipping services from Japan to Indian ports, shipments from Japan to India are often transported via Singapore, which is a major hub port in Asia. That means that the shipments will first arrive in Singapore and then will be transported on a connecting vessel to the ports in India.

Below is the information on the actual sailing/shipping time from ports of Tokyo or Yokohama, Japan to ports in India (port-to-port transit time)

For example, if your shipment is on a ship leaving Yokohama port on November 12, it will be scheduled to reach the port of Chennai on December 8. You may think that the shipping time of 19 days is very short considering the distance between Japan and India, however, the time required for customs clearance and also for loading the shipments into the containers on the Japan side must be taken into consideration.

In short, the following points must be taken into consideration.

1) At the bonded warehouse in Japan they must load the shipments to containers at least 5 days before the departure of the ship in the case of LCL shipments.

2) The shipment needs to be cleared through Japan Customs a few days before it is loaded to the consolidation containers

3) There is one ship leaving Japan for India every week. If the shipment is transshipped at Singapore, the frequency is 2 ships per week.

Also, pickup from a Japanese address would need to be done a few days prior to customs clearance. If you consider all these points, the actual time it takes from collection in Japan to arrival at the port of India would be about 30 to 42 days depending on the timing.

It is also important to note that it is normally at least a few days after the arrival of the ships at the destination ports that shipments can be cleared through customs. The carrier’s destination agent send arrival notices to consignees prior to arrival of the shipments, so you may want to prepare for customs clearance in advance so that the shipment will clear through Indian Customs smoothly.