Crimson Reflections

I just bought a Metamorphose JSK from their sale and got a text from DHL saying I owe a tariff that I must pay in 5 days or they will send my dress back. I ordered the [Plus Size] Priere Medium-length JSK in the wine colorway. I saw this dress in person at Otakon last year and I really liked it.

I already have the Double Sided Lace JSK in wine though, so I really was on the fence about buying this one as well.

However, it was on 20% sale. So instead of the normal ¥39,380, it was only ¥28,640, plus ¥6,500 for shipping. I also had some points, so I got an additional ¥1,351 off, making my grand total ¥33,789, which is ~$207.91. I’m old enough of a lolita that I still estimate prices by moving the decimal point, so ¥39,380 feels like $393.80 in my brain, so you know, $207.91 feels like a really good deal. Nevermind the fact that the Double Sided Lace JSK above which we already established is quite similar only cost ¥29,480 in 2022 (it was ¥31,680 in 2025). It’s fine. I got a deal.

Then came the text from DHL saying I owed a tariff on top of that.

It’s worth noting that DHL, like all other similar shipping companies doesn’t just collect the tariff. They also collect a processing fee.

I actually wrote this post up before I got the package, stopped because the math wasn’t mathing, and then once it cleared customs and I saw the actual math, I wrote to DHL because I was so confused.

The dress was valued at $181 for customs. And then I was charged a specific tariff on the item of $28.96 which is the base 16% tariff on most Japanese goods.

I was also charged a general 10% tariff which applies to all imports. So the tariff charge was 26%, which is $47.06.

I also got charged $1.34 for… something. Which doesn’t seem to be the $2.69 merchandise processing fee and DHL just explained as “Additional fees imposed by customs for processing the shipment.” (what does that mean DHL?)

And I got charged for them providing this service, which cost me $17.50 on top of the ¥6,500 in international shipping I already paid to DHL.

As of September 2025, the US supposedly has a 15% tariff on all imported goods from Japan, which should have translated to a fee of $26.43. But I guess it’s really 16%? It’s stupidly hard to find information about this. Before when I was being asked to pay without the paperwork in hand, I couldn’t say for sure what the dress was valued at, and there also isn’t any sort of easy government provided tariff calculator. So as a US citizen, I’m being taxed on goods I’m buying, but I’m not privy to how those taxes are calculated, and as the average person I can’t actually say for certain if I’m being taxed incorrectly because you have be an expert in import tax at this point to figure this all out and keep up with the rapid changes.

I initially wrote a very long explanation about tariffs and reasons for tariffs and why the tariffs we have right now don’t make sense, but I’m not a financial expert and I probably should leave it to experts to debate on why the US is so tariff happy right now and what benefit (if any) that has for the country. Suffice to say that I don’t think the whole tariff situation in the US is being handled well right now, and I’m incredibly frustrated that it’s being politicized in such a way that citizens also can’t make a logical argument to elected officials about how this is not something we want.

I’m not against paying taxes, and I do pay my share of income tax. I’m not even against tariffs as a concept when they are used logically. I’m also aware that I am very privileged to make enough money to support myself and have money left over to buy expensive dresses for fun. What I am unhappy about is how opaque the tariff system is, and the fact that we are presumably using tariffs to fund the US government while pretending that it’s not a new tax on the average American. If you told the average person they would have to start paying a 10% federal sales tax on every item they bought, there would be outrage. And yet, we are paying that at minimum on most items. Even items bought in person at stores have higher costs because of the tariffs the shops are paying to get those items. We are a service economy country, we don’t have vast manufacturing infrastructure to fall back on. There is no way to replace most items with American-made goods.

I’m also incredibly annoyed that DHL charged me an additional $17.50 to process this. Roll it into the cost of shipping. If every package from Japan to the US has to have customs paperwork done now, just roll the cost of doing business into the cost of the shipping. This is like airlines charging for checked bags and stuff so they look like they have lower airfare than the competition.

Anyways, the final cost to me was $273.81 which is still less than the $393.80 that ¥39,380 feels like to me, but I am annoyed. Not annoyed enough to start committing tax fraud, but annoyed.

So if you order from Meta or another Japanese brand, expect to pay 26% in tariffs + the brokerage fee, which came out to just under 9.7% for DHL this time.