Insurance during shipping

Where possible J-Spec uses shipping lines which offer insurance while a vehicle is in transit. What this insurance covers changes over time and so the current situation may differ slightly, but in recent times insurance against fire and total loss (ie if the ship sinks) is the only insurance possible. Insurance against damage or theft of individual components is not readily available for cars in transit by ocean freight.

Damage or theft is relatively rare nowadays and is far less common than rumours would suggest. Many years ago this issue (particularly theft of aftermarket parts) used to be far more severe and so this is why these rumours persist, but nowadays it is not a common occurrence. In particular since less heavily modified vehicles are now typically imported, and steps at the port in Japan (with some pushing from J-Spec over the years) have been taken to reduce risk. The most common parts which do get stolen are anything easily removed (e.g. gear knobs, aftermarket gauges held on by tape) and anything which requires unbolting or a bit of work to remove is pretty unusual to go missing. The most common damage to occur is normally scrapes to bumpers, particularly of very low vehicles.