Telegraphic transfers through the banks are still our preferred method of receiving payments, however we will be just as happy to receive payment through Western Union should this be the only option open to you.

In the case of Western Union, please send the payment in favour of James Anthony Hanna, C/- 3-11-33 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Pref. Japan. Telephone number: 052-238-7501.

Don’t forget to send a copy of the transfer receipt and confirm the following by e-mail:

1. name of the sender (you)
2. address of the sender
3. name of country where funds were sent from
4. money transfer control number (MTCN)

These four details above are very important in order to receive the money. Please ensure the spelling of receiver’s name and sender’s name are without errors.

Contact us should you have any queries. Hoping to receive many payments for top quality used Japanese vehicles direct from Nichibocars, Japan.

James Hanna,
Nichibocars, Japan

The fact is, by the time we receive your payment, we need to arrange inspection of vehicles prior to shipment for countries such as Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya. This can take a few days. Once the vessel has passed inspection we can make a booking with the shipping company. This booking needs to be submitted at least one week prior to the vessel’s departure. We need one week prior to the vessel’s departure to arrange customs’ clearance in Japan. Then the vessel departs for African ports. It takes approximately 4 weeks sailing once the vessel departs.

All in all, it can take from 5 to 8 weeks after receipt of your payment for the vehicle to arrive at the local port in Africa. Any exporter who guarantees delivery of your vehicle within 4 weeks is a liar and a cheat. It just can’t be done. What the cheating exporters gain out of telling you lies is a sale of their vehicle. Once they have your money they can then tell all the excuses in the world why it takes longer to deliver your vehicle, which is usually the same time frame as explained above (or longer).

You can learn more about import procedures by visiting our homepage: www.nichibocars.com.

Contact us should you have any queries about purchasing/importing a new or second hand Japanese vehicle.

It is true that some affected vehicles are finding their way to overseas destinations without detection prior to shipment. This can happen when some exporters choose to pack vehicles into containers at their own yards to escape the mandatory radiation inspection tests at the main ports in Japan, but this is not true for every container packing situation. There are some places where the radiation inspection is still carried out despite used vehicles being shipped inside containers.

In the case of Nichibocars’ vehicles, inspection for radiation contamination is carried out on every vehicle as soon as it is brought to our stockyard from the auction houses. Our stockyard is inside Nagoya port, and as is with Yokohama port and Osaka port, all vehicles going in and/or out of the port region, radiation tests must be carried out and a notice of inspection passed left inside the vehicle. This is the regulations as required by the Port Authorities for each port to protect the people working there.

Not one of our vehicles exported will have any trace of radiation found since we do our best to source vehicles in areas away from the disaster-effected region. We care too much about our clients to allow even one of our vehicles to be shipped with radiation contamination. No amount of profit that can be made from such sales can be justified when we jeopardize the health of other people.

This is just another reason for dealing with genuine, reliable exporters. No use trying to enjoy a cheap vehicle when your health is suffering.

James Hanna
Nichibocars, Japan

Dear Sir

I write to inform you that it a requirement to have all motor vehicles you are selling for Zambia to be inspected by Jevic prior to shipment to avoid penalties. In future we will no accept any motor vehicle without a Jevic certificate.

You can get in touch with our Jevic office on: E-mail info@jevic.co.jp or tel:+ 81 45 521 8527.

Thanking you for your cooperation.

Fredrick Hamutunda
INSPECTIONS MANAGER
Zambia Bureau of Standards

Firstly, the bank in your country will charge you for sending money overseas. You expect that and are happy to pay those charges. What you don’t expect is that the beneficiary’s bankers will also charge for processing the payment. The beneficiary’s bankers are not a charity organization and so they too have to re-coup the cost of processing inward payments as they have staff’s salaries to pay as well.

Every exporter requests and hopes that all clients remit the full amount and instruct their bankers to pay the full amount to their account. To do this, you need to instruct your bankers that All Bank Charges are for Sender’s account. Once this is established, all the banks (that is, the sending bank, the receiving bank, and any intermediary banks) will ensure that the full amount is paid to the beneficiary (exporter) without charges deducted. These charges will be collected from you instead.

One word of advice, some bankers will remit your payment through New York if the payment amount is in U.S. dollar currency. You should insist that the payment is remitted direct to the exporter’s bankers, and not to be re-routed through a New York bank. This will save you on bank charges as there will be no intermediary bank charges to pay on top of the receiving bank’s charges. Intermediary payments are usually automatic, so there is no need for a bank to send your payment to New York first, then on to the beneficiary’s bankers. So insist payments are sent direct to the beneficiary’s bankers. It will save time and money.

They are victims of transactions under which they place orders and commit their money for vehicles whose photo impressions they select on line, but which are never delivered.

Consequently, sweet dreams have turned into ‘financial funerals’ for local families most of whose lost money represented long-time, painstaking savings – while the crooks in the Pacific Ocean island nation laugh all the way to the bank.

The crooks are negative beneficiaries of the availability and relatively cheap prices of secondhand vehicles in poor, developing countries, including Tanzania.

An attendant factor is the spread of Information Technology, one of whose features is on-line trading, which crooks can, and are applying to con gullible, trusting potential customers.

The Citizen on Sunday has established that Tanzanians have lost an estimated Sh600 million to fake Japan motor vehicle dealers whose advertisements for relatively low-cost purchases for posh cars are most tempting, and virtually irresistible.

Deeply frustrated victims of the fraud have filed complaints to the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation, the International Police (Interpol) and Tanzania’s embassy in Japan.

They hope that their interventions would help to track down the culprits, and enable the victims to recover their money.

The foreign ministry’s senior Information Officer, Mr Assah Mwambene confirmed that they had received many such complaints.

“We are trying to see how to help but in the meantime we advise those wishing to buy cars online to first establish the existence and credibility of the companies before committing themselves to any financial transactions,” he said.

He said the ministry and its embassy in Japan would be ready to verify existence of such online companies. “For some of the cases it is now very difficult to trace the dealer companies as they no longer exist,” he explained.

Inquiries reveal that similar cases of online fraud have been reported in neighbouring Kenya and Uganda.

And because the theft was tarnishing the image of genuine Japanese dealers, one popular online car dealer, TradeCarview, has raised the red flag.

The company has issued on its website, a number of blacklisted companies it says should not use its platform to access prospective clients.

It says the blacklisting was based on different factors such as the nature, severity, and the number of complaints received from its users whom it had guaranteed a safe and trustworthy trading environment.

TradeCarview says the same blacklisted firms have been flagged at the Tanzanian embassy in Japan.

“It is the responsibility of the buyer and seller to take necessary precautions. We do not take responsibility in the event of such an occurrence,” it warned in a statement.

According to the company, they have received such fraud cases from Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, New Zealand, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The released names of companies it says it has blacklisted include, Fuji Global, Sunada Auto Sales, Seven Seas Motors, Bas Japan and Exco.

Others are F.A.R Trading, Dream Stock Trade, Happy Autotrade and Superior, all of Japan.

However, TradeCarview says there could me more companies still on a mission of coning prospective buyers.
Efforts by The Citizen on Sunday to get a reaction from the Japanese embassy in Dar es Salaam didn’t succeed.

The agony of Mr Isaac Elly, who is based in Arusha, mirrors that of other victims. In 2010, he placed an order for a 1994 make Toyota Land Cruiser Prado worth $8400 (over Sh13m), but hasn’t received it to date.

Mr Elly said his deal was through a company called CAT, which had been hosted on TradeCarview’s website.

“A person introducing himself as an official at CAT has taken me in circles for the last two years despite promises to ship in the car after 10 days of receiving full payment,” he narrated sorrowfully in a telephone interview.

Numerous communication involving Mr Elly and CAT show the official at the other end of Japan introducing himself variously as Maeda, Akihiko and Masa.

In an excerpt dated September 5 2011, Mr Masa writes to Mr Elly apologizing for the delay.

“We have been confirming about the documents to our shipping agent. According to the shipping agent, your car was carried on board by a wrong ship and, your car was shipped to the Caribbean. Therefore, our shipping agent receiving of the document seemed to be late. The shipping agent did a procedure to return your car to Japan. We experienced such situation for the first time.

We are very sorry for such a situation. We must apologize to you,” read part of the excerpt.

Mr Elly then sought assistance from Mr Patrick Makundi, the director of SimplyCar Trade, a local car agent and the two resorted to report the matter to Interpol and the Japanese embassy in Tanzania. Nothing much however has come out. “The two bodies have failed us in tracing the company,” said Mr Elly.

The victim has however not given up; he is determined to sue CAT once he manages to trace the whereabouts of the company.

According to Mr Makundi, the existence of TradeCarview has given a leeway to people masquerading as car sellers in Japan.

Mr Makundi, whose company acts as a link between online car buyers in the country and approved sellers in Japan confided to The Citizen on Sunday, that the existence of such crooked dealers is always short-lived in TradeCarview’s website.

He said that prospective buyers from Tanzania and other parts of the world would engage in business with such unscrupulous dealers, unaware of the origins and the existence of such dealers.

“Once they have managed to get money from such ignorant customers they disappear without trace,” he said.

“When it reaches that stage, it is tricky to trace the real locations of the ghost dealers as even their physical addresses no longer exists online,” he noted.

Mr Makundi also told The Citizen on Sunday that customers who have fallen prey to such dealers are those who have bumped into them.

“It is becoming a worrying trend and it could affect business ties between Tanzania and Japan,” he said.

Corroborating, an officer with Dar-es-Salaam- based Car Junction Limited, a customer bonded warehouse, who sought anonymity, said their firm discouraged doing online transactions.

“Car dealers are mushrooming nowadays, it is advisable to purchase vehicles from warehouses or showrooms,” she said.

Reposted from Billions lost to ghost Japanese car dealers – The Citizen
Edward Qorro The Citizen Reporter
Saturday, 18 February 2012 at 20:38

Firstly, we genuine exporters, understand the desire to buy a cheap used vehicle from Japan. There are so many people who can’t wait till the have the right amount of money saved to get their first car. There are also those who see a business opportunity to buy a very cheap vehicle, which is displayed for half the price of other exporters, and sell for double the price to get rich quick. Whatever the reason, be it lack of patience or greed, we tend to miss the obvious signs that would otherwise make us very wary when buying a used Japanese vehicle, or any product for that matter, via the internet. This sudden urge to have a vehicle now before you can afford the genuine vehicles at genuine prices is creating an image of easy targets for the fraudsters. The more you fall for cheap, cheap vehicles, the more the image spreads to other countries where con-men find new ways to take your money. The solution is simple, if you can’t afford the genuine vehicles from genuine exporters, then don’t buy. Be patient, save more, and play it safe.

In the old days when volumes of import used Japanese vehicles from Japan were low, most buyers would ask several questions of the exporter to confirm if they were genuine or not. Many buyers would check with the local Embassy in Japan about the exporter before committing their hard-earned savings and taking the risk of buying a vehicle direct from Japan. The sad fact these days, is many of you don’t ask these questions anymore. Our judgements are clouded from the shadows of the Big Dollar Signs in front of our eyes. We beg you all, to take a deep breath, think about the risk, and check with your local embassy in Japan about the exporter you wish to buy a vehicle from. It only takes one day to get a reply and your vehicle should still be safe for purchase. If you already know a list of genuine exporters then stick with them.

It’s not like the old days when you could trust 95% of the exporters advertising on the net. These days, it’s so simple to set up a website with a false name, copy photos and details of cars from the auction websites, and advertise cheaply to make a lot of money. There are quite a few people in Japan desperate to make money, and like every other country around the world, Japan has its share of con-men too. You can’t trust every Japanese person just because there was an image of Trust amongst all Japanese people in the past. With the crippling economy here in Japan, this trust factor has whittled away. We are not as bad as most other countries, but we do have our share of bad people here and you need to keep your wits about you when you surf the internet for the “best vehicle at the cheapest price” available (no such thing actually since the owners of such vehicles know they can get premium price).

You need to understand that genuine vehicles have genuine prices. Just because you can’t afford a good quality used Japanese vehicle from the genuine exporters doesn’t mean you have to buy the cheapest vehicle from an exporter you never heard of. You need to display better control and patience. You buy your vehicle when you can afford it, not when someone says they can sell you one now to suit your budget. It’s a classic con-man’s trick, working on your greed and zealous desire to own a car now.

Beware of unknown exporters. If they haven’t advertised in your local newspaper, or your local Embassy doesn’t know them or recommend them, then stay away from buying vehicles from them. It’s your hard-earned money that you risk, and you need to make sure for certain. You’ll only be branded the fool who wasn’t wise enough to take the simple precautions of checking the exporter before committing your money.

We genuine exporters worked hard to gain the trust of our clients, so why let these con-men take your money so easily. Before you dash to the banks to lose your money, take a breath, sit back, and ask yourself what you know about this exporter. Would you send me $5,000 so I can send you $42 million dollars? Of course not. Most of us know about the Nigerian scams now, and we know the money is not there. It’s the same with used car fraudsters advertising prices that are about half the price or less than genuine used car exporters’ prices. It’s a scam regardless how cheap the value of the car is, the con-men make 100% profit of whatever money you send.

Finally, beware of cheap vehicles that don’t have gradings for condition. There are some companies selling accident-damaged vehicles and rust-corroded vehicles for very cheap prices. They make you sign a no-claim form at the time of purchase so that you can’t legally claim for a refund when you receive a vehicle that is broken down. Accident-damaged vehicles can be very dangerous and put you and your family’s life in danger. Are you willing to risk your life and your precious family’s life in danger? Is owning any vehicle, regardless of its safety, worth the risk of killing your family? These exporters are also setting up a scenario where your Government will put a ban on import Japanese used vehicles because your country is now becoming a dumping ground for non-roadworthy vehicles. You’ll be directly responsible for making it impossible for other countrymen to buy their good quality used vehicles from the internet in the future, you’ll be responsible for making your roads dangerous, you’ll be responsible for killing innocent people, all because you can’t wait to buy a genuine, good quality, used Japanese vehicle.

There were over 1,000 claims with the local Embassies in Japan last year. There were only 4 fraud companies caught last year. None of those con-men caught had any money saved to make a refund of stolen money.

This is what you face when you risk your money on the net, so you ought to take a breath, sit back, and consider who you are trusting your money with.

James Hanna
Nichibocars, Japan

With the sides goalless after extra time Zambia’s Stoppila Sunzu converted the magic spot kick after Arsenal striker Gervinho missed for the Elephants.

The result meant misery for hot favourites Ivory Coast, who failed to claim the title despite not conceding a goal throughout the entire competition until Sunday’s shootout.

It also revived memories for Didier Drogba, who missed a penalty in the second half of normal time, and company of their 2006 penalty shoot out final defeat to Egypt in Cairo.

Zambia, motivated by the memory of the 1993 national team wiped out in a plane crash off the Libreville coast, went into the 2012 climax as outsiders.

But they covered themselves with glory, hassling and harrowing their star-studded rivals all the way to the penalty shoot-out, and then holding their nerve to prevail in the dramatic, barely watchable denouement.

Ivory Coast coach Francois Zahoui fielded the same side that saw off Mali 1-0 in the semi-final.

His Zambian counterpart, Herve Renard, recalled striker Emmanuel Mayuka, after his starring role in getting the decisive goal in the 1-0 last four defeat over Ghana.

He joined captain Christopher Katongo in spearheading the Chipolopolo’s (Copper Bullets) attack.

Russian-based midfielder Chisamba Lungu came in for Francis Kasonde. A minute of silence was observed before kick-off in memory of the 74 people killed in the Port Said stadium slaughter in Egypt.

The game was only seconds old when Zambia almost took a shock lead, with keeper Boubacar Barry doing well to save Nathan Sinkala’s close range shot off Katongo’s quick pass from a Rainford Kalaba corner.

Renard was forced into an unscripted change when defender Joseph Musonda limped off in tears on 11 minutes – Nyambe Mulenga took his place.

A shaky start by Ivory Coast gave Zambia hope of an upset and Kalaba’s 30m freekick wasn’t far away after taking a deflection off Cheik Tiote’s leg.

The Elephants put together their best passage of play approaching the half hour mark, a neat Drogba backheel setting up Yaya Toure only for the Manchester City midfielder’s angled shot to go wide of the far post.

A hugely promising first half from Zambia had the Elephants’ defence, marshalled by Kolo Toure, under more pressure than they would have wanted, with Katongo leading from the front.

The second half began with a deathly hush descending on the stadium – the final in desperate need of the kiss of life in the guise of a goal.

And on 72 minutes one should have come after Ivory Coast were awarded a penalty when Issac Chansa and Mulenga barged into Gervinho.

Drogba stepped up but his woeful attempt went soaring into the night sky, even though he appeared to divert blame to the pitch, glaring at the spot.

This was his second miss from the spot after he had a penalty saved in the quarter-final win over Equatorial Guinea, where he went on to score twice.

One minute later Max Gradel’s shot from the box had Zambia keeper Kennedy Mweene beaten, but it rolled wide of the far post.

In the 95th minute, substitute Felix Katongo crossed from the right for his brother Christopher with only Barry’s toe diverting the goalbound ball off the near post.

There was high drama once the penalty shoot out got underway, with Kolo Toure missing the Ivorians seventh penalty, but Zambia’s Kalaba also missing his to leave the sides still inseparable.

Then after Gervinho failed in his attempt it was left to Sunzu, the defender who plays his club football in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to give Zambia a historic first title, and consign Ivory Coast to another wretched defeat.

Reposted from Zambia hold nerve to beat Ivory Coast, take title – Confederation of Africa Football

The Embassies, Japanese Police, and Interpol are doing their best to curb this rising problem, however most fraudsters tend to be satisfied with what they have and flee before getting caught. Remember, these scam work on your GREED. The fraudsters are not greedy and have no qualms about closing down one business and opening another later when it is safe for them to do so.

The major problem facing the authorities is that the addresses supplied are false and that makes it difficult to track these people down. In the past two years, I only know of three groups that have been arrested. The only problem is that the groups usually have spent all the money they received so there is no way to obtain a refund. We’ve checked quite a few places of some exporters that were listed on the notorious well-known website portal that claims it’s not their responsibility to compensate. Many of the addresses were falsified and don’t exist. Some addresses listed as sixth floor of a building that only has five floors, whilst other addresses listed building numbers that didn’t exist. We would look for a building with number 1-32-15 and only find 1-31-15 and 1-33-15, but the number in between hasn’t been built yet. Other addresses were just blatantly made up with a mix of phone numbers from Yokohama, address of Nagoya, and post code of Osaka.

What is incredible is how the local banks in Japan open up bank accounts for these fraudsters with supposed false addresses. By the time the banks find out the addresses are obsolete, the fraudsters have packed up, drain the bank accounts, and moved on to set up another business name and website.

It is a sad thought, but the ratio of fraudsters getting caught compared to escaping are going to always be slim. The onus is on you to be smart when buying your own vehicle from the internet. The best condition vehicle is never going to be sold for the cheapest price. Don’t expect it because it is not going to happen. No genuine exporter in their right mind will give away such good cars at cheap prices when they know they can get premium prices for the best cars.

Deal with well known exporters who offer genuine used vehicles. Forget about trying to get the cheapest car amongst your friends. If you value your money and your family’s lives, stick with the genuine exporters for a safe deal via the internet. If you’re not sure, ask your local Embassy in Tokyo.

James Hanna
Nichibocars, Japan

Japanese Vehicle Exports

The actual statistics for volumes of used car imports into Zambia is not so clear as certain records seemed to be designed to assist with whatever purpose the statistics are going to be used for. The following story can only give a rough estimate of actual volumes of used car imports flowing into Zambia.

Most used car vehicles are imported from Japan, however there are a small volume of used vehicles being imported from countries such as Singapore, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), England (U.K.), and U.S.A. All these vehicles are imported via Dar-Es-Salaam or Durban ports. The reason for uncertainty of actual volumes of import vehicles available is because many vehicles are custom cleared in Japan with final destination as Dar-Es-Salaam or Durban. The actual destination is only confirmed after the exporter sells the vehicles from the bonded yards at these ports however it is not necessary to advise Japanese Customs afterwards. We assume that 30% of the volumes of used vehicles destined for Durban port or Dar-Es-Salaam port are bound for Zambia. There is a very small volume of vehicles beig shipped via Maputo and Walvis Bay, but the figures are insignificant at this stage.

There is also a large volume of vehicles that are shipped direct to Zambia using shipping terms CIF Lusaka. These vehicles are either transported by container from Japan all the way into Zambia, or cleared at the port and either driven or carried on a truck to Zambia. This volume has been fast increasing and becoming a very convenient service for many Zambians. The figures for the last few years of the total number of used Japanese vehicles being imported into Zambia are as follows:

2009 – 14,441 per year (1,203/mth average)
2010 – 26,356 per year (2,196/mth average)
2011 – 32,519 per year (2,956/mth average) (to November only)

A very interesting statistic amongst the above figures is the rapid increase for used vehicles delivered direct to Zambia (CIF Lusaka). The actual figure has been increasing from 1,850 vehicles in 2009, to 3,861 vehicles in 2010, to 8,708 vehicles just up to Nov 2011. There is an obvious need for the clients to have their vehicles delivered all the way to Lusaka and avoid the hassle of arranging clearance in Dar-Es-Salaam ports themselves.The figure has more than quadrupled in just under 3 years.

Compared to other countries, Zambia’s volumes are very strong and shows that the economy is improving better as more affordable, good quality used Japanese vehicles make their way into this market.

Let’s keep the economy strong and make 2012 a bigger year for used car imports, both for personal and commercial use.

Click for more information of Japanese car export statistics.

James Hanna
Nichibocars, Japan