海外での日本文化の人気はニュースで知っていましたが、抹茶が物凄い人気らしく、私の工房にも海外からの問い合わせが沢山来ます
事の始まりは2年程前ですが、工房で実際に石臼を見てから購入したいと言われる連絡があり何時ものように気軽にお受けしたのですが、当日来られたのは外国人。
通訳の若い女性を連れた若い外国の男性で聞けばアメリカのニュージャージー州で抹茶関係の仕事に付いているらしい。
私に抹茶を挽く石臼を作ってくれないかと言ってきたが、その時点では抹茶石臼は本格的には作っていませんでした。
試作を重ねてなんとか抹茶石臼らしき物が出来上がったのですが、さてアメリカまでどうやって送る？
当時利用していたヤマト運輸に相談して「ワールドポータル」を利用できる事を知りアメリカまで発送、国内はヤマト運輸でその後はUPSと言う運輸会社に委託だどうです。
「ワールドポータル」では送り状を登録するとインボイスも自動で発行され、アメリカまでは約12日で最終の住所まで届けてくれます。
続いてお金はどうやって貰うのか？日本の口座に振り込んでもらうか・・国際送金では為替建てになる、で、ヤマト運輸に相談するとクレジット決済は日本国内で発行されたカードは対応するが海外で発行されたカードは対応出来ないと言われたが、営業の人が個人的にPaypalを教えてくれた。
早速Paypalを検索して徹底的に理解出来るまで読み込みビジネスアカウントを取得しました。個人情報の提出とかいろいろを乗り越え若干の審査期間後無事通過。
初めてのPaypal決済は何とか無事終了しましたが、Paypalに付いては後でまた書きます。
通常は商社とか専門の業者に依頼するところですが、法人格が条件だったりするために個人事業主は扱う量もほとんどないので自分で何とかするしかないです。
I had heard from the news that Japanese culture was popular overseas, but I was surprised to learn just how incredibly popular matcha has become. In fact, my own workshop has been receiving many inquiries from abroad.
It all started about two years ago. I received a casual inquiry from someone who wanted to visit my workshop and see a stone mill in person before making a purchase. I accepted the request as I normally would, but on the day of the visit, I was surprised to find that the visitor was a foreigner.
A young man from overseas, accompanied by a young female interpreter, came to my workshop. He told me he was involved in the matcha business in New Jersey, USA.
He asked if I could make a stone mill specifically for grinding matcha. At that time, I hadn't yet made matcha mills in a professional capacity.
After several trials and prototypes, I managed to create something that resembled a proper matcha mill. But then came the question—how do I ship it to the U.S.?
I consulted Yamato Transport, the delivery company I had been using, and learned about their "World Portal" service. It allowed me to ship the mill to the U.S., where Yamato handled domestic delivery and then entrusted it to UPS for the international leg.
With the World Portal, once you register the shipping label, the invoice is generated automatically, and the parcel is delivered to the final address in about 12 days.
Next, how do I receive payment? I considered having the money transferred to my Japanese bank account, but international remittance involves currency conversion. When I consulted Yamato again, they told me that credit card payments could only be accepted from cards issued in Japan. However, a sales representative personally recommended PayPal to me.
I immediately researched PayPal and read everything thoroughly until I fully understood how it worked. I registered for a business account, submitted the necessary personal information, and after a short review period, my account was approved.
My first PayPal transaction went smoothly. (I’ll write more about PayPal later.)
Usually, you would rely on a trading company or a specialized export agent for this kind of work, but they often require a corporate entity to do business. As a sole proprietor with small-scale operations, I had no choice but to handle everything myself.
