Tokyo packages: how delivery and redelivery actually work

Three carriers handle nearly every package in Tokyo: ヤマト運輸 (Yamato Un'yu — the black-cat company, Kuroneko Yamato in conversation), 佐川急便 (Sagawa Kyūbin — Sagawa), and 日本郵便 (Nihon Yūbin — Japan Post, including ゆうパック / yu-pack and EMS).

Amazon and most domestic shops route to one of these three. The carrier is printed on the shipping label and on the slip you find in your mailbox.

The base rule: nobody leaves the package

Carriers in Tokyo do not leave packages at the door. They do not leave them with the konbini next door, and they do not hand them to a neighbor. The driver knocks once, waits about thirty seconds, and leaves.

If the building has a 宅配ボックス (takuhai box — locker bank in the entryway), the driver puts your package in an empty unit and slips a code into your mailbox. If the building has no box and you are out, you get a 不在票 (fuzaihyō — absence slip).

The fuzaihyō is the whole system. Lose it and you can still recover, but slowly. Keep it and you are five minutes from your package.

Three levels: city, ward, building

City level is the carrier. Yamato, Sagawa, Japan Post each run their own depot network across Tokyo, with separate apps and separate redelivery flows.

Ward level is the depot. Your package sits at one specific 営業所 (eigyōsho — branch depot) for that ward. Yamato in Shibuya is on Higashi 3-chome; Yamato in Setagaya runs out of the Sangenjaya depot. The slip prints the depot's name and a Japanese phone number at the bottom.

Building level is the takuhai box, the front-desk concierge, or nothing. Many manshon built after about 2005 have a box bank near the mailboxes; older walk-up apaato usually do not. If your building has a concierge (most serviced apartments do), the concierge accepts deliveries during stated hours and signs for you.

Reading the fuzaihyō

The slip is roughly business-card sized. It has six fields you actually need.

Carrier name and logo at the top. Black cat = Yamato. Sagawa wordmark in red = Sagawa. Posthorn = Japan Post.
Date and time of attempted delivery, usually a 24-hour timestamp.
Tracking number, a long string, sometimes with hyphens.
Driver's name and the depot's phone number, handwritten or printed at the bottom.
A QR code. Every modern slip has one.
A grid of redelivery time windows: the boxes you would tick if you used the paper return method. Most readers will skip this and use the QR code instead.

Scan the QR code with your phone camera. It opens the carrier's redelivery page in your browser. You enter the tracking number again (yes, even though the QR identifies the slip) and pick a 2-hour delivery window from a list.

Confirm. The page replies with a Japanese sentence ending in 受付ました (uketsukemashita — received). You are done.

If the QR code does not open a page, the slip is from a small regional carrier or the QR is damaged. Call the depot phone number and use the booking phrase: お荷物の再配達をお願いします (onimotsu no saihaitatsu o onegai shimasu). The clerk will ask for your slip number and a window.

Redelivery windows

Standard windows across all three carriers, posted in Japanese as a single column on the slip:

8:00–12:00
14:00–16:00
16:00–18:00
18:00–20:00
19:00–21:00 or 20:00–21:00 (Yamato extends latest, Sagawa cuts off earlier)

Same-day redelivery is possible if you book before about noon. After noon, expect next-day. After 8pm, expect day-after-next.

Sundays and national holidays count as normal delivery days. The carriers do not pause.

When you have no slip

Sometimes the slip ends up in the wrong mailbox. The wind takes it. The mail-room cleaner sweeps it.

You can still redeliver. Each carrier has a tracking-number lookup. The original shipper email (Amazon, Rakuten, Yodobashi) usually contains both the tracking number and the carrier name. Open the carrier's site, paste the number, and the redelivery page is one click away.

If you have no email and no slip, call the shipper. They can pull the carrier and tracking from your order ID. This adds maybe twenty minutes; nothing is lost.

When the box is full

If every unit in your takuhai box is occupied, the driver leaves a normal fuzaihyō and takes the package back. They do not stack packages on the floor next to the box. Box capacity is a fixed constraint.

This is most common in two situations: the day after Amazon Prime Day, and Sundays in any building with more than thirty units. If you are expecting a package on those days, watch for the slip rather than the box.

If you find a takuhai-box code in your mailbox (a small slip with three numbers and the unit number), go to the entryway, open that unit, take your package, close the unit. The box clears the code automatically. You do not return the slip.

Pickup from the depot

If you cannot wait for redelivery, every depot has a counter where you collect packages directly. Hours vary by depot but most run 8am to 9pm, seven days a week.

Bring two things: the fuzaihyō (or the tracking number if you have lost the slip), and photo ID showing your current address. Residence card, driving license, or My Number card all work. The address on the ID must match the delivery address; this is the only check.

The depot is rarely more than fifteen minutes from your apartment by bicycle or train. The slip prints the address; type it into Google Maps. If you misread the kanji, the phone number on the slip is the same address.

Signature and seal

Most home deliveries no longer require a hanko or signature. The driver scans the package and leaves. For 簡易書留 (kan'i kakitome — registered mail) and any high-value package marked 印鑑必要 (inkan hitsuyō — seal required), you sign on a tablet or stamp with a personal hanko.

If you have no hanko, a printed signature works. The driver hands you the stylus and you write your name. It is not a fight.

Outgoing packages

Sending a package out is the inverse. Drop it at a konbini or the depot, fill out a small slip, pay cash or by IC card.

7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Lawson all run Yamato. Mini-stops sometimes run Sagawa, and the post office runs Japan Post. The clerk weighs the box, prints a label, and hands you a receipt with a tracking number.

For Yamato pickups from your apartment, the Kuroneko Yamato app schedules a driver. Pickup is free, and the driver arrives within a 2-hour window. Pay at pickup or via the app.

Set this up before the first slip arrives

Find your nearest Yamato and Sagawa depots. Open Google Maps, search "ヤマト営業所" and "佐川営業所" centred on your address, and bookmark both. The day a slip lands in your mailbox you will not want to look this up.

Open the Kuroneko Yamato app once and log in with the phone number you registered for your residence card. The app remembers your address and trims a step from every redelivery.

Check whether your building has a takuhai box. If it does, walk past it once with the unit numbering in mind. 1 to 12 is the bottom row, 13 to 24 the top. You will find your box on the first try at 9pm in winter with cold hands.