Japan’s Ministry of Finance disclosed statistics showing that the number of cases suspending imports of goods infringing intellectual property at Customs marked 18,153 cases during the first half of 2024, a 16.2% increase from the previous year hitting a record high number. This spike reflected the stringent inspections under the revisions to the Customs Act in October 2022. The current revisions take on a new border control targeting counterfeit products imported from overseas’ merchants even if the products are for personal use.
The number of items of suspended imports rose to 729,579 with a 5.6% increase on a year-on-year basis. This figure exceeded 600,000 items in two consecutive years.
Among 95% of all the suspended imports, 17,334 cases were related to trademark infringing goods including fake brand products. The number of copyright infringing products, such as counterfeit character goods, was 685. Looking at the data categorized by item, 32% are clothes, followed by wallets and handbags at 20.1% and 11.1% for shoes. For the number of cases (number of products), tobacco and smoking pipes hit the highest number recorded at 176,825 cases. Products which are harmful to health have continuously been suspended at Customs.
The following images are some examples of infringing products that were suspended at Customs.
Car front grill (trademark right)
Earphones (design right)
