How to import a mini truck

Finding the truck

Kei trucks for sale from Japan come from two places, the dealer auctions and exporters' own stock. The auctions are closed markets for licensed dealers who are members. A buyer abroad buys through an exporter that holds that access and bids in its own name, or buys a truck the exporter already owns. Read your state's page before you look, because your state decides whether a kei truck can be titled for the road at all. Then screen every truck on two facts before anything else. Its date of manufacture must be at least 25 years before the day it will be entered (step 2). Its engine must be the same model it left the factory with (step 7).

Watch out. Buying before checking your state. A truck your state will not title for the road is still a lawful import, but it may only ever work off road or on a farm. Read your state's page first.

What an auction sheet shows is common practice and differs by auction. No official source describes it. The age and engine screens rest on steps 2 and 7, which were read at their sources.

Checking the build date and the frame number

Federal law admits a motor vehicle at least 25 years old. NHTSA counts the 25 years from the date of manufacture to the day of entry, to the day. On 28 October 2026 a truck qualifies if it was made on or before 28 October 2001. A model year on its own is not a date of manufacture. NHTSA accepts the maker's label showing the date of manufacture. Without one it accepts an invoice showing the date the truck was first sold, or a registration document showing it was registered at least 25 years ago. Without those it accepts a statement from a recognized vehicle historical society.

Watch out. Treating the year on a listing as the build date. A listing year is often the first registration year or a model year. Only a date of manufacture, proved by one of the papers NHTSA names, counts.

Export deregistration in Japan

A truck has to come off Japan's register before it can leave. The certificate that proves it is also the paper your state title office will ask for at the end. A kei truck, the yellow plate class, gets the export notice certificate (輸出予定届出証明書) from the Light Motor Vehicle Inspection Organization (軽自動車検査協会). A registered white plate vehicle gets the provisional export deregistration certificate (輸出抹消仮登録証明書) from the transport bureau instead, or an export notice certificate there if it was already temporarily deregistered. Either certificate can be issued from six months before the planned export date. It is shown to Japan Customs with the export declaration.

Watch out. Letting the original certificate stay in Japan. The certificate and its translation are the ownership document your state title office asks for. Make the original a condition of the final payment.

Shipping

A kei truck crosses the Pacific in a container or on a roll on roll off ship. In a container it is blocked and lashed inside a sealed box that can travel on to a rail ramp or a door. On a roll on roll off ship it is driven aboard and driven off again at a vehicle terminal. By arithmetic on the box's minimum inside dimensions and the kei size limits, a 20 foot box holds one truck with about 2.4 metres of floor to spare. A 40 foot box holds three nose to tail. Two never fit side by side.

Watch out. Soil underneath and belongings inside. A dirty undercarriage holds the truck at the port at your cost. A cab full of parts can make a carrier refuse it.

ISF and entry through a customs broker

Two filings bring the truck in. The Importer Security Filing, the 10+2, tells CBP about ocean cargo before it is loaded in Japan. The entry and the entry summary then claim the truck at the US port and pay what it owes. You can be the importer of record yourself. The law lets a person transact customs business for their own account without a licence. Both filings go through CBP's electronic systems, though, so most people hire a licensed customs broker under a power of attorney.

Watch out. Filing the ISF late. The first eight elements are due 24 hours before the truck is loaded in Japan, not when it lands. A late or missing ISF breaks a bond condition that carries liquidated damages of $5,000 for each violation (19 CFR 113.62(j)).

The bond

CBP will not release the truck until a customs bond is on file on CBP Form 301. It is either a single transaction bond for one entry or a continuous bond for a year of them (19 CFR 142.4(a)). The bond is a surety's promise that the duties and fees will be paid and the rules kept. For one truck a single transaction bond is the usual fit, bought through the broker from a surety. The regulation also allows a bond secured by a cash deposit or by obligations of the United States.

Watch out. Leaving the bond until the truck lands. Without a bond on file there is no release. Storage runs while it is arranged. Put it in place before the truck sails.

The regulations and CBP's guide were read. Whether a 25 year truck takes the value plus duties amount or three times the value is for the broker and the surety to settle.

HS-7 and EPA 3520-1

Two declarations travel with the entry. DOT Form HS-7 declares the safety basis. A truck at least 25 years old goes under Box 1. The regulation's own words for that basis are "The vehicle is 25 or more years old" (49 CFR 591.5(i)(1)). EPA Form 3520-1 declares the emissions basis, under code E. Code E is for a vehicle at least 21 years old, by calendar year of manufacture subtracted from year of importation, in original unmodified configuration. Any truck old enough for Box 1 is old enough for code E, so on this lane the one emissions question is the engine.

Watch out. A swapped engine. A truck carrying an engine of a different model is outside code E and cannot enter on its age. Check the engine before you buy, not at the port.

EPA Form 3520-1 and 49 CFR 591.5 were read on the date given. The HS-7 form itself was not, and Box 1 rests on NHTSA's own guidance. The certificate holder words in 40 CFR 85.1511(f)(2) are an open question for the broker or EPA.

The duty and fees

A kei truck classed as a truck under tariff line 8704.31.01 pays 25 percent duty at any age. The 25 year rule decides whether a truck may come in, not what it pays. That 25 percent truck duty is what people call the chicken tax. On top come two federal fees, the Merchandise Processing Fee and the Harbor Maintenance Fee. The importer of record pays all three with the entry summary.

Watch out. Leaving the duty out of the budget, or believing an old truck escapes it. Every kei truck pays the 25 percent truck duty on the price paid, whatever its age.

Release

CBP releases the truck once the entry is accepted, the bond is on file and any examination is done. The truck then leaves the terminal, or the container leaves for a yard, a rail ramp or your door. Keep every stamped paper from this step. They are what your state title office asks to see.

Watch out. Letting the truck sit. Storage and container charges run by the day once free time ends. A truck not entered in time goes to a general order warehouse at your expense. Have the broker, the bond and the pickup ready before the ship arrives.

The drive or carry home

A truck straight off the ship has no plates and no US registration, so it goes home on a carrier or a trailer. A container can ride a chassis to a door, or be opened at a yard so the truck goes on by car carrier or a single truck trailer. Where your state issues a one trip or temporary permit, an insured truck without a title can make a short legal drive, such as to an inspection or the title office.

Watch out. Driving it off the terminal. The Japanese plates came off at deregistration and a US plate comes only with your state's title. On a public road an untitled truck is unregistered unless it carries a permit your state issues.

Title in your state

Federal admission ends at the port. It is not a title and not a plate. Your state decides whether a kei truck can be titled for the road, under what limits and with which inspections. The answers run from titled like any truck to never titled for the road. Most states ask for the same core papers, then add their own forms, inspections, fees and taxes. Your state page has the whole list with a source and a date on every line.

Watch out. Buying first and asking the state second. Some states refuse road use for a kei truck at any age and some limit it to certain roads. A lawful import can still be a truck your state will not plate.

The Texas path was read in full and is sure. One step of the Arizona path, the inspection level, is not settled by any rule found. Every other state is on its own page with its own flags.