Table of contents
Introduction
If you run a café or a tea shop and you're thinking about importing Japanese tea directly, this article is for you.
Somewhere between "I found a tea I love" and "the tea is on my shelf," there's a stack of documents. Registration numbers, filings, certificates, and a bond. Most guides explain one document at a time. This one walks you through the whole stack in the order you'll actually meet each piece of paper.
Nothing here is legal advice — your customs broker is the person who files most of this for you. But when you understand what each document does, you stop feeling like the paperwork is happening to you.
A Personal Note
We've been shipping tea from Shizuoka (静岡) and Kagoshima (鹿児島) to buyers overseas for many years now, and I can tell you the number one thing that stops a first-time buyer isn't price or shipping cost.
It's this paperwork.
I've seen people fall in love with a tea, get three documents into the process, and quietly give up. That's the reason this article exists.
The Big Picture: Three Agencies, One Shipment
Your tea shipment is subject to three different parts of the US government, each of which wants something different.
The FDA cares about food safety — is the facility registered, did they get advance notice, is the label honest? CBP (Customs and Border Protection) cares about the border itself — what's in the container, what it's worth, where it came from, and whether the duty is paid. The USDA only applies if your tea is organic.
Almost every document in this article belongs to one of those three. Once you can sort them into those buckets, the stack no longer looks like chaos.
Before Anything Ships: The Registrations
Two things need to exist before a single gram of tea leaves Japan. Neither one is a per-shipment document — they're standing registrations.
FDA Food Facility Registration
The Japanese facility that processes and packs your tea must be registered with the FDA, and because it's a foreign facility, it must designate a US Agent — a person or company physically in the United States who acts as the FDA's point of contact. Registrations renew every two years, in the October-to-December window of even-numbered years.
As the buyer, your job here is simple: confirm your supplier's facility registration exists and is current. A supplier who exports to the US regularly (we do) will have this ready before you ask.
We wrote a full guide on this one: Food Safety Registration for Importing Tea into the United States.
FSVP: The Importer's Own Homework
Here's the document nobody warns you about — because it isn't really a document. It's a program, and it's yours.
Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the US importer must run a Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP). In plain terms: the FDA doesn't just regulate the Japanese exporter. It makes you, the US buyer, responsible for verifying that your supplier produces food as safely as a US company would have to.
What that means in practice:
- You (or a qualified person you designate) evaluate the hazards in the food — for dried tea leaves, this analysis is mercifully short.
- You verify your supplier — reviewing their food safety records, certifications, or audit results.
- You keep records of everything and produce them if the FDA asks.
- At customs entry, you're identified as the FSVP importer, with your company's unique facility identifier (in practice, a DUNS number) on the filing.
Small importers get modified, lighter requirements, and your broker can tell you which tier you fall into. But you can't skip it. Of everything in this article, FSVP is the piece most often discovered after the first shipment, not before — and I'd much rather you hear about it now.
The Paper That Travels With the Tea
These are the per-shipment documents — the ones physically or electronically attached to your tea.
Commercial Invoice and Packing List
The unglamorous foundation of the whole stack.
The commercial invoice is the exporter's bill: what the tea is, how much there is, what it costs, who sold it, and who bought it. CBP uses it to check the classification and the declared value, so the product descriptions need to be specific — "sencha green tea, loose leaf, 10 kg (22 lb)" — not just "tea."
The packing list describes the physical shipment: how many cartons, what's in each, weights and dimensions. It's what lets a customs officer open box 14 of 30 and find exactly what the paperwork says should be there.
Neither requires anything from you except accuracy. Sloppy invoices cause more customs delays than any exotic document on this list.
Bill of Lading / Air Waybill
The transport document, issued by the carrier, does double duty as a receipt for the cargo and (for ocean freight) as a document of title to it.
Ocean shipments travel on a bill of lading; air shipments on an air waybill. We've covered both in detail already, so I'll point you there rather than repeat it: Bill of Lading: Its Importance in Shipping and How to Protect Your Goods, and Waybill for Tea Importation and How Does It Work.
One practical note: for the small-to-mid shipments most cafés start with, air freight is common, and the air waybill process is simpler — no original documents to courier around.
Phytosanitary Certificate: The One Document You Can Skip
Here's some rare good news in this article: for processed tea — sencha, matcha, hojicha, anything steamed, dried, and finished — going from Japan to the US, no phytosanitary certificate is required. Japan's plant protection office (植物防疫所) treats processed tea as outside the scope of plant quarantine because the heat and drying steps leave essentially no risk of live pests. No certificate, no export inspection. This comes straight from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture and JETRO's export guides, so you can cross this one off with confidence.
If you're curious about what the certificate is and when it applies — for fresh plant material, other product types, other markets — our standalone guide is here: What Is a Phytosanitary Certificate?
But don't relax yet. The plant-quarantine worry you just crossed off gets replaced by a different one — and this one has teeth.
Pesticide Residues: The Rule That Actually Stops Shipments
The US EPA sets legal limits — called tolerances, the American term for MRLs (maximum residue limits) — for every pesticide allowed on every crop. The FDA enforces those limits on imported tea at the border.
And here's the part that specifically applies to Japanese tea: if a residue is found for which no US tolerance exists, there is no grace amount. Any detectable level is a violation. Japan and the US approve different pesticide lists, so a compound that's fully legal and normally used on tea farms in Japan can be completely unregistered in the US. Tea grown properly by Japanese rules can still fail American ones — one detected compound, one refused shipment.
It gets worse than one lost shipment, too. A violation can put the supplier on an FDA import alert, which means their future shipments are automatically detained until they prove the problem is fixed.
What you do about it is simple, and it's a supplier question, not a paperwork one: before your first order, ask whether the tea was grown to US tolerance standards, and ask for residue test results (a certificate of analysis) checked against US limits — not just Japanese ones. Any supplier who exports to the US seriously will know exactly what you're asking and why. If they seem surprised by the question, that itself is your answer.
Filed Before the Ship Arrives
Two filings happen while your tea is still in Japan — or still on the water.
ISF "10+2": The Ocean-Freight Filing
Ocean shipments only. The Importer Security Filing — everyone calls it "10+2" — must be transmitted to CBP at least 24 hours before the container is loaded onto the vessel in Japan. Not before arrival in the US. Before loading, on the other side of the Pacific.
The "10" refers to 10 data elements from the importer's side (seller, buyer, manufacturer, country of origin, HTS number, and so on); the "+2" refers to 2 more from the carrier. In practice, your customs broker or freight forwarder files it — but they can only file what you've given them, which is why brokers nag for complete supplier details early. Miss the filing, and the penalties run into the thousands of dollars per violation.
Air shipments skip this one entirely. One more small argument for starting with air freight.
FDA Prior Notice
Every food shipment entering the US — every single one, by ocean, air, or mail — must be announced to the FDA before it arrives. That announcement is Prior Notice.
It's filed electronically, usually by your broker as part of the entry process, and the deadline depends on the transport mode — from a few hours before arrival for air and road up to longer windows for ocean freight. The FDA uses it to decide which shipments to examine before they reach the border.
Our standalone article covers the background: FDA Prior Notice — Everything You Need to Know. For the exact current deadlines by mode, ask your broker or check the FDA's Prior Notice page directly — the FDA amended its Prior Notice regulations as recently as September 2025, so this is one area where I want you reading the source, not a blog post's memory of it.
Customs Entry, Bond, and Duty at the Border
When the tea arrives, your customs broker files the customs entry with CBP. This is where everything above comes together: the invoice value, the classification, the origin, the FSVP importer identity, and the Prior Notice confirmation.
Three pieces matter to you as the buyer:
The HTS classification. Tea lives in chapter 0902 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, with separate lines for green tea by package size. Your broker classifies it, but it helps to know your tea's specifics — flavored or not, package weight over or under 3 kg (6.6 lb) — because those details pick the line.
The customs bond. CBP requires a bond — essentially insurance that guarantees payment of duties and penalties. A single-entry bond covers one shipment; a continuous bond covers a year. If you import more than a couple of times a year, the continuous bond usually wins on cost.
The duty itself. Plain green tea's base duty rate is zero, and after the tariff turbulence of 2025–26 — which at one point put an extra 15% on Japanese goods before the Supreme Court struck it down in February 2026 — tea came out exempt from the surcharge that replaced it. The full story, kept up to date, is in our freshly updated guide: How Importing Japanese Tea Customs Duty Works. Rates have moved several times in two years; check that article (or your broker) close to your ship date rather than trusting any number printed here.
Tea Break 🍵
Take a breath. You're more than halfway through the stack.
And here's something worth knowing while you sip: the trade you're about to join is over 400 years old. The first commercial tea cargo reached Europe in 1610, and merchants have been moving this leaf across oceans — with paperwork — ever since. It's not a fading tradition, either. Japan's green tea exports grew 42% by volume in FY2025 alone, the biggest boom in their history. The buyers driving that growth are people exactly like you: someone who tasted a tea, loved it, and decided to bring it home. You're not filling out forms. You're joining a 400-year-old story in its best year yet.
"Product of Japan": Two Agencies, Two Different Jobs
Here's a distinction I've never seen another importing guide explain properly. Two agencies govern the words "Product of Japan" on your tea — and they're doing two completely different jobs.
CBP makes you say it. The FDA makes sure you're not lying about it.
CBP Makes You Say It
Under 19 CFR Part 134, CBP requires every imported article — or its retail container — to be legibly marked in English with the country of origin, for the "ultimate purchaser" to see.
And there's a placement rule that catches importers constantly. If your label carries a US address — and almost every retail tea label does, because your distributor line reads something like "Distributed by Your Café, Portland, OR" — then the origin statement must appear in close proximity to that US address, in comparable font size, preceded by "Made in," "Product of," or similar words. The moment your Portland address goes on the bag, "Product of Japan" has to sit right there next to it, same size, so nobody mistakes where the tea came from.
The FDA Makes Sure It's True
The FDA, meanwhile, doesn't force you to state origin under its own rules. What it polices is honesty. Under 21 CFR 101.18, any geographical statement on a food label must not be false or misleading.
So picture tea grown in China, shipped to Japan, and merely packed there. Put "Product of Japan" on that bag, and the FDA can seize it as misbranded — packing doesn't make it Japanese.
That's not a technicality. Under the substantial-transformation standard customs uses, the origin is where the leaf was grown and processed. Repacking and blending in Japan don't change it. If you've ever wondered how to verify that "Japanese tea" is actually Japanese, this is your answer on paper: the origin declared on the customs documents, backed by the exporter's records, is a legal statement with a seizure behind it. It's one of the quiet reasons buying farm-direct matters.
What Else Goes on the Label
The rest of the label rules come from the FDA's Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, and our earlier guide covers the foundations — statement of identity, net quantity in both metric and US units, the ingredient declaration, your name and address: Tea Packaging Requirements from the FDA.
A few things have been added since that article was written, and they're worth knowing:
- Sesame became the 9th major US food allergen in 2023. Plain green tea has no allergens to declare, but if you ever import blends, sesame now needs the same declaration treatment as peanuts or wheat.
- Plain tea usually doesn't need a Nutrition Facts panel. Foods containing insignificant amounts of all the nutrients the panel would list — plain tea and coffee are the textbook examples — are exempt under 21 CFR 101.9. You lose the exemption the moment you make a nutrient claim on the package.
- Plain tea is officially "Healthy." The FDA finalized its updated claim rule for calling tea "Healthy" in December 2024. Now, unsweetened tea with fewer than 5 calories per serving is explicitly qualified, and you can call it "Healthy." For a wholesale buyer building shelf copy, that's a word you couldn't safely print before and now can.
- If Japanese text features prominently on your package, the mandatory statements must also appear in English. Beautiful Japanese packaging is a selling point — just make sure the required lines are bilingual.
The Organic Layer (Only If You Sell Organic)
If your tea isn't sold as organic, skip this section entirely. If it is, this is where the USDA joins the party — and the rules here changed hard in 2024.
The NOP Import Certificate
Under the USDA's Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule, fully implemented March 19, 2024, every shipment of organic product entering the US must be tied to an electronic NOP Import Certificate. The certificate is issued by the exporter's certifier — for Japanese tea, typically the JAS certifier — and recorded in the USDA's Organic Integrity Database, and it must be issued before the shipment leaves Japan. It cannot be backdated. Your broker then files the certificate number in CBP's ACE system at the time of entry.
Since September 19, 2024, the US importer of record must itself be certified organic. This is the part that surprises buyers the most. The database no longer lets certifiers issue import certificates naming uncertified importers, and a shipment arriving without a valid certificate is rejected at filing — no discretion, no workaround.
So if you're planning to import organic tea under your own name, organic certification of your own operation goes on the to-do list early — it takes time.
JAS–USDA Equivalence
The good news half: Japan and the US recognize each other's organic systems for plant products, so JAS-certified tea can be sold as USDA organic without double certification. The JAS certifier issues the NOP Import Certificate under that equivalence arrangement. The mechanics of reselling JAS-certified tea — labels, logos, the "Certified Organic By" statement — are in our companion guide: How Do I Legally Resell JAS Organic Certified Tea?
We're Here for You
I'll be honest with you.
If you read this whole article in one sitting, the stack probably looks impossible. Registrations, filings, a bond, and a verification program with your name on it.
It isn't impossible. Every tea shop and café importing Japanese tea today stood exactly where you're standing, staring at the same list. A good customs broker files most of it. A good supplier hands you the rest ready-made. What carried those buyers through wasn't paperwork skill — it was caring enough about a tea to see it through.
So when it feels like too much, do the obvious thing: make a cup of the tea that started all this, take a break, and keep going. You can do this.
And we're here for you — genuinely. We've prepared these documents for buyers around the world for years, and our team is here for you too, from farms in Shizuoka and Kagoshima — different farms but the same team. If you'd like help with your first import or you just want to ask which of these documents applies to your situation, contact Gwen through our wholesale page, and we'll walk through it together.
Download: The Complete Document Checklist (Free PDF)
Want all of this on one page? We put every document in this article into a one-page checklist — who requires it, when it's filed, and whose job it is (yours, your broker's, or your supplier's) — with a check-off box for each item. Enter your email below and we'll send it to you as a free PDF, along with occasional wholesale tea updates from us.
The Complete Document Checklist
About the author
Kei Nishida
Author, CEO Dream of Japan
Certification: PMP, BS in Computer Science
Education: Western Washington University