Yes. Please be assured that all items sold at Japan Centre are safe for consumption, items exported from Japan are heavily checked by both the Japanese & UK governments at both ports prior to clearance.

As of 28/03/11, there is an EU regulation in force (EU 297/2011 amended by EU 351/2011) controlling all food imports from Japan. All food products originating in or consigned from the 12 affected prefectures have to provide certification of traceability for each ingredient within the product, and the clear results from their contamination tests. As this is very costly many manufacturers due to the already high costs incurred from rebuilding after the earthquake and tsunami are not currently able to afford this, we therefore do not stock their products. This is why you may have seen our stock change considerably since March last year.

Any company wishing to export goods from the remaining 35 prefectures has to obtain a declaration of origin certificate per product. If any ingredient within the product is from an affected prefecture, further certification has to be provided to prove that the particular ingredient has cleared contamination tests (as above).

At both Japanese and UK ports this documentation must be provided and random testing is an ongoing measure in force. We are therefore confident the items sold at Japan Centre are safe to eat.

You can check the status of any orders that you have placed with us by going to your Order History page and selecting the relevant order. You should also check your email as any change to your order status will send an automated email notification.

Order Completed:
As soon as you have completed your order this status will display until we have started to process it.

Picking & Packing:
This means that we have started processing your order. It takes up to three working days for us to pick the items and pack them up in to a box ready for dispatch.

Ready for Dispatch:
When we have successfully completed the payment for your order, it will move to this status. We only take payment for your order once all the items have been packed and are ready to send.

Shipped/Invoiced:
This is the final status of an order which confirms that it has been picked up for delivery by Royal Mail or our courier services. Once your order has been moved to this status you can expect delivery either the following working days or within a few days depending on the delivery option that you have chosen.

Please first check what status your order is in by checking in Order History (see above). If your order has not yet been changed to 'Shipped/Invoiced', please wait until your order is ready to be dispatched.

If your order is in the 'Shipped/Invoiced' status but you haven’t yet received it, please check the courier service website using the tracking number provided to you via email (if you chose a courier service option).

If your order was dispatched with Royal Mail, your postman may have been unable to deliver the parcel and left it for collection at your local post office. In this situation, please check with your local post office and then contact us if it still cannot be located. Please also check with receptions or porters if you live in apartment blocks or halls of residence.

There are a number of reasons why a payment cannot be successfully processed. The most common reason is that the card details entered during the checkout process were incorrect. The best thing to do is to contact your bank first to make sure that there are no problems with your account. If your bank has no record of the transaction, it is most likely that the card details entered were incorrect. If so, please give us a call with your card details to hand and we can complete the payment manually over the phone. Please do not place a new order until you have spoken to us.
Check the Failed Payments page for more details

It is easy for you to reset your password. We do not store any passwords so are unable to send your original one, but you can reset your password online by clicking on the link to Reset My Password.

You are able to check previous orders back to March 2010. Everything from that time is saved in Order History and you can check the full order details from there.

You can log into your account page by visiting My Account. On this page, you are able to change your delivery, billing address and your registered email address.

If you want to contact Japan Centre Online about an order or general enquiries relating to the online shop, please check our Contact page.

For any enquiries relating to none Online department, please check our Store Finder page and choose the department that you wish to contact from there.

In the event that an item that you have ordered is out of stock, there are three options that can happen depending on the option that you chose during the checkout process. These are 1. Substitute for a similar item 2. Wait for stock, or 3. Remove item from order. You can find more information about this on our Out of Stock Items page.

You are able to cancel an order without penalty before it has been dispatched. If you would like to cancel an order that you have placed recently, please contact us as soon as possible.

If your order has already been dispatched, you can refuse the delivery when it arrives and it will get returned to us. Once it has been returned to us we can issue a refund for the order, minus any postage and packaging costs incurred. In this case you may also be charged for the return postage cost. If you have already taken delivery of the order and still wish to cancel and return it, please see our page on Refunds & Returns.

Yes, japancentre.com accepts orders from all over the world. However, there are some international restrictions about which items can be sent outside of the UK.

All items are available to European countries with the exception of electrical items such as rice cookers and fresh/chilled food items. Unfortunately, due to international regulations, we are unable to send food products outside of Europe. While you can still purchase books, magazines and homeware items, your order will not be processed if you have food items in your basket for delivery to an address outside of Europe. Please check the International Orders Page for more information.

Please accept our apologies if an item has been damaged during delivery. If you have received any damaged items, please contact us as soon as possible. It is also very helpful if you are able to take a photo of the box contents and send to us so that we can take the appropriate steps to replacing your order.

Please accept our apologies if you receive an order that is incorrect or missing an item. The first thing to do is to check to make sure that there are no items concealed in any additional packaging. Sometimes our staff will pack up delicate items in cardboard so they may be hidden with other packaging materials.

If you are sure an item is definitely missing, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can arrange to resend the item or organise a refund.

In the event you receive an item that you did not order, please check the delivery note to make sure that the ordered item was not out of stock and substituted with something similar. If not, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can arrange a replacement.

Japan Centre’s physical store is situated at 14-16 Regent Street. It has a huge range of Japanese food, drinks, books, magazines, homeware, gifts, sushi and hot deli food. You can find the full address, contact details and a map on the Store Finder page.

Absolutely. All our packaging boxes are manufactured using 80% recycled material and can easily be recycled after use. We also re-use some of the boxes our food comes in to help cut down on waste when packing your boxes.

The packaging charge covers the cost of the cardboard boxes we use to send out the items, as well as things like packing paper, bubble wrap and parcel tape.

All the information you enter on our website is stored in a secure server protected by SSL Web Certificates. Your card details are stored with SagePay, our payment service provider. None of your personal details will ever be used outside of Japan Centre.

It is not possible to make a purchase over the phone, we only accept orders that have been placed through our website.

You may find that the Japan Centre shop in Regent Street has items that are not currently available online. If there is something specific that you want to purchase that you cannot see online, please send us an email. Providing we have a suitable amount of stock and are able to sell the item online, we will be able to upload it for purchase

If you are receiving an error when you are trying to continue with your order, it is most likely that you have an item in your shopping basket that cannot be sent to your registered delivery address. Please note that fresh vegetables, chilled items, bakery items and electrical items cannot be sent outside of the UK. Similarly, any food and drink products cannot be sent outside of Europe.

Please try to remove any of these items from your shopping basket and see if you are able to continue with the transaction.