How to Import a Drift Car from Japan to the US: Forms & Duty (2026)

To import a 25-year-old dorisha (drift car) from Japan into the United States you do four things, in this order: take the car off the Japanese register, ship it, clear it at the US port with NHTSA form HS-7 (Box 1), EPA Form 3520-1 (Code E) and a CBP entry carrying 2.5% duty on a passenger car, then register it in your state. Every form name, box and rate below was checked on the official NHTSA, EPA, CBP and MLIT pages on 4 September 2026. This is the procedure article; the 25-year rule guide covers which chassis are old enough to start it.

Step 0: the step that actually goes wrong

Nothing in the four government stages is hard; each is a form with a box. What goes wrong is the decision they all sit on: which car. From Ohio or Oregon you are judging a 30-year-old chassis from listing photos, and listing photos do not show rust in the frame rails behind the rear subframe, a strut tower pulled straight after a wall, or an SR20 that smokes for the first minute of a cold start. No form fixes that afterwards, and even a good auction sheet only partly covers it on a car that has lived sideways.

For the weak points of a specific chassis, grade by grade, start with the S14 buyer’s guide.

Step 1: what has to happen in Japan before the ship

A registered car has to come off the Japanese register before it can leave. The procedure is 輸出抹消仮登録 (yushutsu masshō kari-tōroku, provisional export deregistration), filed at a 運輸支局 (unyu shikyoku, transport branch office). MLIT’s document list asks for the owner’s seal certificate issued within the last 3 months, the 車検証 (shaken-shō, inspection certificate) and the number plates, and the application carries the planned export date; the Miyagi branch states the procedure can start 6 months before that date. What comes back is the 輸出抹消仮登録証明書, and Japanese customs will not clear the car for loading without it.

The seal certificate is a municipal document only a resident of Japan can obtain; the Japan-side paperwork guide covers that trap in full. What matters for the US side is one line on the Japanese paperwork: the month the car was first registered. NHTSA’s FAQ says the 25-year period runs from the date of manufacture, and where no manufacturer’s date label exists it accepts a registration document showing the vehicle was registered at least 25 years ago. Keep the Japanese registration record; it is your proof of age at the port.

Step 2: RoRo or container, and the soil rule

RoRo (roll-on/roll-off) means the car is driven onto a car-carrier deck in Japan and driven off at the US port; it has to run, and carriers commonly refuse loose parts inside it. A container lets spare wheels and an aero kit travel with the car, at the cost of loading and unloading at a depot on each end. Rates move with the season and the port, so get both quotes.

Two things around the sailing are easy to miss. CBP notes that the US Department of Agriculture requires the undercarriage of imported cars to be free of foreign soil and tells importers to have the car steam-sprayed or thoroughly cleaned before shipment; a car that last ran on a wet paddock at Ebisu Circuit (Fukushima) needs this done properly. And because the car arrives by vessel, CBP’s Importer Security Filing applies: it is made before the cargo arrives, normally by your customs broker, and CBP says failure to comply can mean monetary penalties, increased inspections and delay of cargo. Book the broker before the car sails.

Step 3: the US port — HS-7 Box 1, EPA 3520-1 Code E, the CBP entry

CBP’s page on importing a car lists what the entry needs: the shipper’s or carrier’s original bill of lading, the bill of sale and the foreign registration, plus EPA form 3520-1 and DOT form HS-7 declaring the emissions and safety provisions. CBP officers cannot act as your agent, but you may employ a commercial customs broker, and EPA’s forms can be filed electronically through CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE).

What the border charges, read off the official pages:

Every SR20, 1JZ, 2JZ and RB sits inside those two HTS lines, so for these chassis the answer is 2.5%; the 25% figure that circulates is the truck rate. Duty is charged on the price paid, so the bill of sale has to match what actually changed hands.

Step 4: state registration, the most local step of all

Federal clearance is not a title. Registration is done state by state, and the requirements differ enough that the honest instruction is to ask your own DMV before the car sails, with the year and chassis code in hand. NHTSA’s privacy notice on the HS-7 says the records may be routinely used by state divisions of motor vehicles — the polite way of saying the DMV will want the stamped federal forms and the entry paperwork. Some states add their own emissions or inspection rules on top; that is a DMV question, and we will not guess it for you.

Why the retail listing is the ceiling, not the floor

Everything above is identical for a car bought off a Japanese dealer’s website and one bought out of a paddock; the difference is the price the 2.5% is applied to. The listing prices we count in the August market check are Japanese retail, reconditioning, margin and warranty included, and that is the ceiling of the market. The same S13s, S14s and JZX100s change hands below it at the dealer auctions the retail stock comes from, and privately inside the drift community, where nobody has done the showroom prep and nobody walks you through the 運輸支局. That is the layer this procedure was written for, and the layer that needs eyes on the car before the paperwork starts. If you are coming over to see cars yourself, time the trip around a drift day; the Drift Japan Event & Track Calendar is the way to line that up.