Japanese Taste Reviews 232

I ordered four items from this company: an oke bowl, a katsuobushi shaver, and two blocks of katsuobushi. This turned into one of the most frustrating shopping experiences I have had with any retailer.

Before the order even arrived, every item I purchased dropped in price by a significant amount. When I asked about a simple price adjustment, customer service insisted that the only way to receive the lower price was to return everything in unused condition, wait weeks for a refund, and then repurchase the exact same items. They repeated this multiple times instead of offering any practical solution.

When the package finally arrived, the problems got worse. The oke bowl’s brass ring fell off after 15 min and would not stay on. The customer service representative acknowledged that "the bowl appeared damaged in transit." (The outer box was fine) The katsuobushi shaver arrived with the blade badly misaligned, and when I followed the instructions they supplied to correct it, the blade shifted sideways and would not recede at all. The blade gap was visibly wrong, and there was also a noticeable ding in the wood of the shaver. These were not small imperfections. They made the product unusable.

I sent clear photos of all of this, including the ding in the shaver, the shaver’s gap and the oke's detached ring. Customer service repeatedly dismissed the issues with the shaver, claimed the blade was safe to use, and asked for photos of bubble wrap which I had of course thrown away. Even after I explained this more than once, the responses kept circling back to the same questions without addressing the actual defects.

The amount of back and forth, the lack of accountability for damaged items, and the refusal to offer practical support made this a complete waste of time and money. I order specialty kitchen tools from all around the world and have never had an experience this inefficient or dismissive. I am now left with 2 broken items and no way to shave the $60 in katsuobushi blocks.

I will not be ordering from this company again and would strongly caution others to avoid the hassle and money loss.

Never received the order I made back in August and their customer service is useless. I have contacted them since September and I have not received an update on what happened or my money back. Avoid ordering from them at all costs!

My large order of groceries and household goods was delivered in good condition. The website's navigation and the entire checkout process were clear and seamless, making the shopping experience highly positive.

I bought a few gourmet grocery products from them. I appreciate the curation and hard to find Japanese products that I cannot get here. Their customer service (in Japan) was extremely helpful when I alerted them as to my soon departure from my current address in Asia. They made special effort to pack and deliver the package the next day. UPS delivered it in 2 days with no extra charge. The goods arrived nicely packed and I cannot be more pleased. My first purchase will not be my last. Watch out for their yearly 20 percent sale in November.

Total scam — ordered 6 weeks ago and was provided FAKE tracking number. Refused to respond to multiple pleas for help or refund!!! Do NOT waste your money!

It has been over a month since I placed my last order. It has been held at the UPS facility in Louisville, KY. I have been requesting them to refund me, but they keep spewing every excuse not to refund. If it was indeed the UPS' fault due to their internal issue, they should be able to settle the financial loss with the UPS. This company is doing nothing but repeating the same excuse over and over and no actions. How you treat customers at the time of challenges show the true color of the company. They do not deserve even a star.

DON'T BUY FROM JAPANESE TASTE. My last expensive order was destroyed at custom due to Japanese Taste error on paperwork. UPS attempted to contact them. I emailed them to get a refund. They said they would get back with me but never did. They ignored my messages. I filed dispute with my credit card for package not received. After a month, I got all my money back.

If you have dispute with Japanese Taste, try contacting your credit card company. Don't wait for months for your package if you are not receiving, or destroyed at custom due to paperwork. You only have a limited time to file with your credit card company. Please do your research before filing.

I'm writing from Paris city France, i am very pleased to have stumbled upon Japan taste website.
There are lots of Japanese healthy foods to choose from, a huge variety.
So far I am happy with my purchases, and delivery was fast with FedEx .express.

Still waiting for my order paid for on sep 10. Not sure if some sort of scam or what. They do respond saying that they sent my parcel and its sitting in customs. But i order many things from world wide and have never had an issue before. Its very very strange thats all i can say. Will not order from here again. They do not send you a tracking link unless you ask for it. Really upset as my daughter cant have gluten she is a celiac and she spent hours excitedly finding gluten free sauces that she could cook authentic japanese food with and the disappointment is overwhelming seeing how excited she had been.

The products are good but their communications are terrible. The tracking for my order did not update for weeks until I checked with them. Then my order got lost in Australian customs and Japanese taste said it will come and denied any help or responsibility. Japanese taste sent me two identical template replies to my ask for help. It’s a gamble if you will receive your items.

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...

Update: they did respond in about 10 days, started investigation with UPS and finally refunded me in about 40 days after the alleged delivery date. Bad experience but at least it was sorted out.

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.

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.