Japanese Taste Reviews 178

I’ve ordered from Japanese Taste twice, but sadly will not be doing so again. After my first order, delivery was included and everything went smoothly. However, when placing my second order — without any notice of a policy change — I was informed after checkout that I would now need to pay additional delivery fees totalling over €70.

This was never mentioned beforehand, nor was I contacted in advance to explain the change. Only after committing to the purchase did the company reveal that the delivery policy had been altered. It feels deeply misleading and unfair to loyal customers.

For a company trading internationally, transparency and clear communication should be basic standards. Instead, this experience has left me feeling taken advantage of. I would urge others to double-check delivery terms before ordering, as what you see advertised may not be what you end up paying.

I'm in the UK. Unfortunately my order was lost by UPS. I contacted Japanese Taste customer support, they responded quickly the first time. But that was the only response from them. UPS came to collect my signature about me not receiving the parcel and that's it. The promised 1-3 business days passed. I tried to follow up - no response. Oh well... Should've read the reviews before ordering. Luckily it is only £50, will try and contact my bank to cancel the transaction.

Terrible customer service no refund nothing recieved never again
Not even one star

DHL made mistake with custom.
My Order was returned to Japanese Taste after 1 week.
JT did not want to send product again to me.

Weird policies.
Do not buy anything.

I have made two orders from this company to the UK. The first delivery was good and problem-free.
The second time I was stung for £48 of import fees, with no breakdown of costs from Fedex. The email from Fedex was real but looked like a scam, which was worrying. Fedex were due to deliver today. They didn’t show up but claimed that I wasn’t home, even though the parcel was clearly stuck at their depot.
I contacted Japanese Taste, only to be met with lots of AI garbage. Who knows if the parcel will arrive or not. Just too stressful an experience and I see now that I am not the only person having these problems.
An expensive mistake that I won’t be repeating.

Terrible.
Stay away unless you are willing to pay extremely high fees for their goods.
I got an invoice from FedEx close to $150.
The company is not transparent enough and should give you the option to see what the duties would be.
They refused to reimburse me for this extra charge.
Better to look elsewhere.

DON'T BUY FROM THIS COMPANY....YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR MONEY BACK FROM THEM. I did not see these negative reviews before I spent a lot of money purchasing gifts (my bad). My expensive package was destroyed at custom. From what I read from other buyers, I will probably not get a refund from them. I will dispute with the credit card company. Best to contact your credit card company if you are not receiving your packages. I did a lot of research with whom to file. UPS will not do anything. Japanese Taste will have a lot of excuses to not give your money back. For example, near expired cookies received...they wouldn't refund me. This is a clue of how bad their customer service is. I wrote a separate negative review on this here. It was too late to cancel the second package (which is now destroyed at custom).

I think this company is a scam. I always get the same customer service representatives...Simon and Shanaya. What are the chance of this for a big company? They always have the same scripted answers and never take responsibility. After I disputed their expired cookies, they went and changed their item description that they have a short shelve. They also deleted my negative review.

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY. PLEASE DO NOT BUY. IT WILL CAUSE YOU A LOT OF HEADACHES, STRESS, AND MONEY. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS VERY POOR. ALWAYS EXCUSES, NEVER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, BLAME THE CUSTOMERS, AND WILL NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY BACK.

WILL DISPUTE WITH CREDIT CARD COMPANY ON PACKAGE CONFISCATED AT CUSTOM DUE TO MISSING PAPERWORK FROM JAPANESETASTE. It took custom over 3 weeks to decide if package will pass import custom. At the end, they decided to confiscate and destroy the package.

I was actually extremely concerned due to the general opinion...but I still ordered 2 Kendamas from them and to my great surprise, everything went absolutely smooth. The Kendamas were carefully packed and were exactly like they were in the description. They arrived on time and the company kept me informed about the status throughout the shipment process...
So, I can only say that I am very satisfied and give them 5 stars...

I just bought a knife, a pocket for knives and some coffee filters, and everything came nicely wrapped and hand delivered by FedEx within the time limit I expected. No problems.
I must admit that the communication from the site was less than I'm used to from other sites, so I was actually a bit nervous, but I really had no problems. So I recommend to just improve communications a bit, on the web site itself, and in the ongoing process.

It sounds from some of the other reviews that the site has designed their process and communication for one success scenario (that matches my experience) and not thought about errors, mistakes, and what-if scenarios. This is a very common design mistake, and I recommend Japanese Taste to re-visit their customer journey design 👍

Ordered from JT twice prior to this experience and everything turned out fine. This order was placed on 8.16.25 close to when the de minius exemption was getting ready to end for imports into the US. When I checked out, there wasn't any indication of whether or not the 15% tariff on items from Japan were already included in my total or not - a lot of other sites such as Yami and Olive Young are already including a line item for tariffs during this time or indicating that this are included. To my surprise a week after my package arrives, I get a bill from Fedex for not only the 15% tariff, but 3 other separate fees for custom clearance. The tariff was the smallest fee out of all the fees in the bill and the total bill was about the same amount what I paid for products. To make matters even worse when I contacted customer service, Shanaya kept sending me terms and conditions (that were updated after my purchase date) and denying any wrong doing. After wasting time going back and forth she finally admitted that when I purchased my items they did not have the option for me to pay the duties in advance yet - but she spent the first two or three emails sending me the terms highlighting the option for duties paid on purchase multiple times. Needless to say I'm disappointed in how my order was handled, but how Shanaya at customer service dealt with the issue after is what ultimately lost my business for good.

I don't trust this company because their checkout window is extremely bare. Once they have your money, they don't care about you and will just copy and paste the same response in emails basically. It is easy to mistake them for a domestic company. They don't warn about custom fees, nor their extremely short cancellation window of 1-hour before purchase. I thought I was being harsh, but I ended up finding another company called Japan With Love recommended by a forum user. Their website immediately informs you that products are direct from Japan. Their cancellation policy is also a bit more lenient (24 hours) which makes more sense to me than 1 hour for international orders. Some people might find it pleasant that Japanese Taste rushes to ship to you, but I would rather have a slightly slower arrival of my product if it meant I can make sure all the details are in order. I did not like their customer service at all. Their online chat room makes it seem like someone is available on the weekends so I waited for someone like a fool. If they truly were available, they never arrived. I won't ever order from this company again. They could do better in keeping customers informed right at the purchase window especially if they have such a short time for cancellation.

crazy shit
the website looks clean and legit so i bought €200+ items, wiat for too long and i have to leave the country i stayed , when i waited till the day it says should arrive customs contacted me ask for all the infos, i have to cancel, contacted both side, they started to say "we do not guarantee a refund of the whole amount"
after wait for 1+month i asked for update and now is "Since this parcel was returned due to your refusal to pay customs, we can not compensate" any way to help me?

This webshop has an abundance of products and it lives up to what they claim. Be sure to read the delivery terms. 9-15 business days. Though this is a lot slower than what we are used to today, they do put the terms on the site so we have to do our homework. My product was shipped on the 15th business day and only a few days later it was delivered to my door.

Can't fault the service
Ordered special Dashi 31/8 arrived 8/9

Placed order 25 Aug and received email acknowledgement that my order has been placed, silent thereafter. Contacted them via the customer support link in their website on 1 sep, received AI reply of assurance that my order is well within the fulfillment window. Contacted them again on 3 sep and requested AI for live chat and escalation but waited 45 mins and no live agent. Received email response next day on 4 sep that they will process my order for shipment faster. Received my order on 8 sep although their shipping advice says eta on 6 sep. I ordered food items, received in good condition with reasonable expiry dates. I regretted not checking reviews before ordering because most reviews here are consistent with my purchase experience, slow order fulfillment and seemingly slow and non-responsive customer support. I will not order again because i felt uncertain with my order fulfillment and the customer support provided.

I accidentally got a part of my address wrong. I tried to fix the address several times, but couldn't. FedEx couldn't deliver my package and returned it to the sender. Japanese Taste told me it was between me and FedEx. I am very dissatisfied with this company, and I don't recommend it.

The kettle I ordered and paid for never arrived even though Fed Ex claimed to have delivered it to my house, which they did not. When I complained Japanese Taste spent three days before replying that Fed Ex had delivered it, and I should have taken it up with them. I have told them it is their responsibility, they chose Fed Ex, and they need to get my kettle or refund. No response yet!

A day later and My kettle has still not arrived. Again I wrote and sent Shanaya of Japanese Taste support the Fed Ex "proof of delivery" saying the parcel was received (which it wasn't) with no picture and a fake name signing for it, and Shanaya's previous email saying "However, they(FedEx) say no one opened the door for them.... We can not help you" No fault when there are 2 stories from Fed Ex? They delivered to a false name but no one opened the door? Shanaya of Japanese Taste support could not care less. She wrote - "Unfortunately, we mention in our policy that we can not help after the delivery has already been made. I have confirmed with FedEx multiple times, and they confirm they already delivered to your building. The proof of delivery also have your name on it. This is a very lengthy and confusing case and I understand your frustration. However, unfortunately, there is nothing more to investigate in this case from our side. Hence, I request you again to contact FedEx UK and ask them to investigate from their end as they may be able to help you better" - In her words they have my money and they couldn't care less"

Despite the low reviews (which I only saw after placing my order lol), I'm actually quite pleased with Japanese Taste. I ordered a couple of skincare products and it arrived, hand-delivered via FedEx, after 9 days. It came in a box with air padding thingies for safety and the items were bubble wrapped. Sure, I did pay customs charges (17dhs / ~4usd) but that's something I've gottten used to when buying things overseas.

If there's anything this platform/shop can improve, it would be to clearly state in bold/highlighted/in a box that there may be customs charges upon delivery. Make the message idiot-proof 😂 I think that's one of the most common issues previous customers had, upon skimming old reviews.
Another thing would be to allow order cancellations if the order is made within a 12-24 hour period or something 🥹 That way I can just redo my cart + add things I missed + i wont have to do 2 orders/worry about bulk order charges/contact the support team. It's just gonna make the customer journey a whole lot easier. (source: im a shopaholic lmao)

False advertising! Paid over £10 for delivery which I thought was odd from a uk company but I thought perhaps it was import fees. Then I received an import bill directly from fedex! Not happy and when I complained they just sent a copy of their terms. Never again!

I ordered foods and cosmetics and it came right away to my doorway safely. The product selection is great delivery time, communication and after service is great. I would repeat.