Humanoid robot prices in Japan, delivered

Marks and registrations

• Giteki (Technical Conformity Mark, MIC)Radio / EMCJapan's mandatory radio and telecom conformity mark under the Radio Act, issued via a MIC-registered certification body (RCB) such as TELEC. Any WiFi or Bluetooth radio must carry a Giteki number or transmitting it in Japan is a Radio Act violation, even for private use. A US FCC grant or EU RED grant does NOT transfer: the module must hold a Japan-specific Giteki certificate. Type certification covers mass-produced identical models under one number. Japan has mutual recognition arrangements, so testing can be done abroad, but the Japanese certificate is still required.
• PSE (circle mark) on the lithium-ion battery packBatteryUnder the Electrical Appliances and Materials Safety Act (DENAN), lithium-ion cells and packs with an energy density of 400 Wh/L or above are a regulated non-specified (Category B) item requiring the round PSE mark. Category B is self-declared: no third-party test lab is legally required, but the importer must confirm conformity to standard J62133 (based on IEC 62133) and keep records. Note that the DENAN battery standard was tightened in recent years and Japan overhauled the power-bank and battery product-safety regime effective 25 December 2025, so confirm the current standard revision at time of import.
• PSE (diamond mark) on the AC adapter / chargerElectrical safetyThe mains charger, AC/DC adapter and power cord that ship with the robot are 'specified' electrical products under DENAN and require the diamond (specified) PSE mark, which needs third-party conformity assessment by a METI-registered conformity assessment body (e.g. JET or JQA), not self-declaration. In practice, for a rechargeable machine the PSE burden lands on the battery pack, the charger and the cordage, not on the robot chassis itself.
• Radio Act EMC / spurious emissions (assessed within Giteki)Radio / EMCJapan does not run a standalone general EMC mark like the EU EMC Directive. Emission limits for the intentional radiator are assessed as part of Giteki under the Radio Act. There is no separate mandatory EMC certificate for the robot as a whole, though VCCI is a common voluntary EMC scheme suppliers use for IT equipment.
• Robot safety (ISO 13482 / JIS B 8445) is voluntary, not a markMachinery / robot safetyJapan has NO mandatory type-approval mark for the humanoid as a machine. ISO 13482 (personal care robots) and its Japanese adoption JIS B 8445 exist and are used for certification by makers such as Panasonic, but they are voluntary safety standards, not an import gate. There is no Japanese equivalent to CE machinery marking that legally blocks import of the robot body. Workplace use falls under separate Industrial Safety and Health obligations on the operator, not an import mark.
• Customs import declaration (very low duty, 10 percent consumption tax)Customs / dutyClearance is a standard import declaration to Japan Customs (Ministry of Finance) with commercial invoice, packing list and freight/insurance. A humanoid classified as machinery generally attracts a 0 percent MFN duty, but confirm the exact HS classification since that drives any duty; 10 percent consumption tax then applies on the customs value plus any duty. A UN 38.3 test summary and SDS for the battery are expected at booking and clearance. A licensed customs broker normally files as proxy.

Who imports it

The importer of record is whoever files the import declaration to Japan Customs and takes title as the person importing the goods. Separately, DENAN obligations attach to the domestic party that sells or places the appliance on the market: that party must ensure the PSE marks, hold conformity records, and (for a business) file a supplier/importer notification to METI. Since the 25 December 2025 amendment to the product-safety acts, an overseas seller shipping regulated electrical goods direct to Japanese buyers is treated as a 'specified import business operator' and must appoint a Japanese Domestic Administrator (Domestic Representative) who has a registered address in Japan and is authorized to receive METI and Consumer Affairs Agency notices and handle incident reporting and recalls. A foreign buyer with no local entity therefore cannot cleanly be the market-side responsible party alone: in practice they import through a Japanese company, forwarder, or an Importer-of-Record / EOR service that takes on the domestic-representative and notification role, or they buy a unit already PSE-marked and Giteki-certified for Japan by a domestic distributor. Note the Giteki holder can be the foreign manufacturer, though some radio categories still involve a local representative for registration.

How long it takes

If you buy a unit already certified for Japan (Giteki on the radio, PSE on the pack and charger) from a distributor: roughly 2 to 6 weeks, essentially shipping plus customs. If you import a model NOT yet Japan-certified, the radio is the bottleneck: obtaining a Giteki certificate through an RCB typically runs several weeks to a few months depending on test queue and whether MRA-eligible test data exists, while PSE battery self-declaration and diamond-PSE charger certification can run in parallel over several weeks, and sea freight adds roughly 3 to 6 weeks. Realistic end-to-end for an uncertified model: about 2 to 4 months to legally operate.

Private buyer or business

The technical marks are the same for everyone: a private individual gets no exemption from Giteki (transmitting an uncertified WiFi/Bluetooth radio is illegal regardless of who owns it) and the pack/charger still need PSE to be sold in Japan. What differs is the paperwork and the market-side role. A registered company can file the METI supplier/importer notification, act as (or appoint) the Domestic Administrator, keep DENAN conformity records, and reclaim the 10 percent consumption tax as an input credit. A private individual importing for their own use still owes customs duty and consumption tax and still cannot lawfully transmit without Giteki; they typically must buy a Japan-certified unit or route the import through a company or IOR service, because the post-2025 direct-seller domestic-representative regime is built around business entities. MIC does offer a time-limited experimental radio waiver (roughly 180 days) for trials and demos, but it is not a route to open-ended private operation.