When the takuhai box is full, where the package actually goes

A 宅配ボックス (takuhai box — locker bank in the entryway) full at the moment of attempted delivery is the second-most-common reason a Tokyo package fails to land. The first is nobody home with no box at all. The fix is not the same. With a box full, the slip in your mailbox looks identical to the no-box version, but the routing options behind it are different.

Four recovery paths exist in 2026. Redeliver to the same address. Pick up at a 営業所 (eigyōsho — branch depot). Pick up at a konbini. Reroute to a different address mid-flight. Each carrier — ヤマト運輸 (Yamato Un'yu — Kuroneko Yamato), 佐川急便 (Sagawa Kyūbin — Sagawa), and 日本郵便 (Nihon Yūbin — Japan Post) — supports a different subset. This article maps the subset by carrier, by chain, and by building.

For the slip itself, the redelivery flow, and the depot-pickup mechanic, read the parent guide on Tokyo package delivery and redelivery. This piece picks up where it leaves off, at the box-full edge case.

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How to tell the box was full

The 不在票 (fuzaihyō — absence slip) the driver leaves does not say "your box was full." It says you were absent. The slip is the same paper either way.

Two signals tell you the box was full. The driver checks a small box on the slip labelled 宅配ボックス満杯 (takuhai bokkusu manpai — locker bank full). It prints in a separate row from the time-window grid. Yamato and Sagawa both print this checkbox. Japan Post prints a wordier 配達ボックス使用不可 (haitatsu bokkusu shiyō fuka — delivery box unavailable) line. The second signal is your own knowledge. If you were home and the driver still left a slip, the box was full and the driver did not ring.

Walk past the box bank when you find a slip. Count the doors that show a green diode (occupied) versus red or no light (empty). If every door is green, the box was full when the driver came.

Three levels: city, ward, building

City level is what each carrier supports. Yamato runs the most flexible network and accepts konbini pickup at FamilyMart and 7-Eleven, plus its own PUDO lockers. Sagawa supports depot pickup and Sagawa Smart Club app reroutes, but no konbini bank. Japan Post supports post-office pickup (any 郵便局 / yūbinkyoku) and 局留め (kyokudome — post-office hold) configured before shipping, plus app-based reroute for ゆうパック (yū-pakku — Japan Post's parcel service).

Ward level is your nearest options. Each ward has 2 to 4 Yamato depots, 1 to 2 Sagawa depots, and a main yūbinkyoku plus 4 to 8 branch post offices. The slip prints the depot's address and phone number; the post-office network is on the Japan Post website at post.japanpost.jp/cgi-charge/.

Building level is where the box-full pattern repeats. Some buildings have a 12-unit box bank serving 80 apartments. Some have a 24-unit bank for 60 apartments. The first kind fills daily; the second clears overnight. You learn which kind your building is in the first two weeks. After that, route around it.

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Reading the box-full slip

The QR code on the slip is the same one used for a normal redelivery. Scan it; the carrier's redelivery page opens. The page lists four buttons in Japanese.

• 再配達 (saihaitatsu — redeliver) goes to the same address. Pick a 2-hour window. Standard flow.
• 営業所受取 (eigyōsho uketori — depot pickup) routes the package to the branch depot's counter for in-person collection. You collect within 7 days; after that, the package returns to sender.
• コンビニ受取 (konbini uketori — convenience-store pickup) routes the package to a chain konbini you select. Yamato only.
• 転送 (tensō — reroute) sends the package to a different address you type in. Sagawa and Yamato support this; Japan Post requires a phone call instead.

Pick one. Confirm. The page closes with 受付ました (uketsukemashita — received). The driver's tablet updates within the hour.

If you skip the slip and want to reroute by app, every carrier has one. Kuroneko Yamato app, Sagawa Smart Club, Japan Post's e-追跡 (e-tsuiseki — e-tracking) site at trackings.post.japanpost.jp. App reroute requires the tracking number and your registered phone number; the app remembers your address from the first login.

Konbini pickup, by chain

Yamato runs konbini pickup at FamilyMart and 7-Eleven. Lawson does not host Yamato pickup. The Yamato app or the slip's QR page lets you pick a specific store from a list within 2 km of your address. The store has 5 days to hold the package after arrival; on day 6 the package returns to the depot.

To collect, walk to the konbini with the slip's reservation number (a 7-digit code the QR confirmation emails you) and photo ID. The clerk types the number into the register, scans your ID against the reservation name, and hands you the package from the back room. The interaction takes under three minutes. You sign a tablet; no hanko required. Cash on delivery (代金引換 / daikin-hikikae) is supported at the konbini counter, but most online orders are pre-paid.

Sagawa does not run konbini pickup. The Sagawa Smart Club app lets you reroute to a Sagawa depot or a different residential address, but no convenience-store option exists in 2026.

Japan Post runs its own pickup at any post office, not at konbini. To pick up, choose 郵便局留め (yūbinkyoku-dome — post-office hold) on the redelivery page and select a post office. Bring the slip and ID. The post office holds the package for 10 days, the longest hold of the three carriers.

Carrier-direct hold, configured before shipping

The cleanest fix for a building with a chronically full box is to route packages around it before they ship. Each major shipper (Amazon, Rakuten, Yodobashi, Mercari) lets you set a delivery preference at checkout that reaches the carrier directly.

On Amazon, the option is "Amazon Hub Locker" or "コンビニ受取" at checkout. Yamato-shipped Amazon orders to Tokyo can land at any of about 4,000 lockers and konbini in the city. Pick the closest. The package skips the takuhai box entirely. Japan Post-shipped Amazon orders cannot use a Yamato locker. They default to ゆうパック with a kyokudome option set by typing the post office name in the address field.

On Rakuten, each shop sets its own carrier and pickup options. Look for the コンビニ受取 toggle on the cart page. If the toggle is missing, the shop ships only to the address you type. Box-full risk remains. Yodobashi and Bic Camera default to FamilyMart pickup if you set it as the saved preference in the account profile.

For Yamato pickups configured in the Kuroneko app after a package ships, the cutoff is usually the morning of the first delivery attempt. Reroute the package to a konbini before the truck arrives at your building and the driver delivers to the konbini instead. After the first attempt, you can still reroute, but the package sits at the depot overnight first.

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When the box is never empty

Some Tokyo buildings have a takuhai box that fills faster than it clears. The pattern is mechanical, not random. Five conditions push a building into the always-full state.

• Unit count above 60 with a 12-or-fewer-unit box bank. Most prewar-renovation manshon and the cheaper post-2010 construction sit here. The bank was sized for one package per ten apartments per day, which is half the current Amazon-era load.
• No on-site concierge. A staffed front desk clears packages from the box bank into a back-room hold whenever the desk takes a delivery in person. No desk means no clearing.
• Tower buildings above 20 floors with one bank per tower. The lobby is a chokepoint; deliveries cluster between 2pm and 6pm and the bank fills before the late-shift drivers run their route.
• Sharehouse-style midterm operators with rotating tenants. Tenants order new sheets and household goods in the first week of every stay. The box absorbs that surge poorly.
• Buildings within 500m of an Amazon Hub Locker that is also full daily. The locker overflow lands on the building bank.

If your building hits two or more of these, the box is never empty after 3pm on weekdays and full all weekend. Default to konbini pickup or post-office pickup before you ship.

If your building hits zero or one of them, the box clears overnight and you almost never see a full-bank slip. Default to standard delivery and accept the occasional redelivery cycle.

When you missed the konbini-hold deadline

Konbini pickup expires after 5 days. Post-office hold expires after 10 days. Depot pickup expires after 7 days. Miss the deadline and the package returns to the carrier's regional sortation hub for 24 to 48 hours, then to the shipper.

Call the shipper, not the carrier. The shipper decides whether to reship at their cost, charge you for the reship, or refund. Amazon reships to the same Hub Locker for free if you respond within 7 days of the return. Rakuten varies by shop and usually charges shipping again. Yodobashi reships free once. Mercari is a peer-to-peer flow; the seller decides and most sellers cancel the order.

If the package is a Sagawa COD shipment, the courier charges a small re-attempt fee (¥330 to ¥550) on the second delivery if you missed the first. The fee is added to the COD total at the door. The carrier itself does not penalize you for the box-full path; only COD and oversized 大型 (ōgata — oversized) shipments accrue retry fees.

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Set this up before the next slip lands

Walk the box bank tonight. Count the units. Check whether your building hits any of the five always-full conditions above. If it hits two or more, change your default before the next package ships.

Open the Kuroneko Yamato app and set the saved konbini to a 7-Eleven or FamilyMart on your walking route home. The app will offer that konbini as the default for any future Yamato shipment.

Open the Japan Post e-tsuiseki page once with a tracking number you already have, and bookmark it. The kyokudome option sits inside the address field on most shippers' checkout pages. Bookmark a post office near the apartment so you do not type the kanji each time.

If your building has a concierge, ask once at the front desk whether they accept packages on your behalf. Most serviced apartments do; most sharehouse and standalone manshon do not. The answer is binary and the desk gives it in one sentence. Knowing it ends the box-full problem entirely.