17th International Logistics Total Expo 2026 (LTT2026) exhibitor series, Part 13
Reading paper and typing it in again exists in every operation. Invoices, delivery notes, waybills. It stops when the person reading changes, and a mistyped figure shows up later.
This time it is about putting a machine into that step. But one thing does not move when you do. Responsibility for what was declared.
First, who declares
Article 7(1) of Japan's Customs Act puts it this way:
"A person who intends to import goods to which the self-assessment system applies shall make a declaration to the Director-General of Customs concerning payment of the customs duty on those goods."
The one who declares is the person intending to import. Having a machine do the reading does not move whose declaration it is.
And if it is wrong? Article 12-2(1) provides that where an amended declaration or a correction is made, an understatement penalty of ten per cent of the duty payable is imposed — five per cent where the amended declaration was not made in anticipation of a correction arising from an investigation.
If recognition is 99% accurate, the remaining 1% is a question of machine performance. What happens when that 1% reaches a declaration is a question of the rules.
The AI, OCR and field-DX exhibits at LTT2026 — three things taken off your hands
| What is taken off | What leaves the person | What the exhibits led with |
|---|---|---|
| ① Let the machine read the paper | Reading and re-keying | OCR and recognition accuracy |
| ② Enter it from the site itself | Going back and typing it up | Reporting from phone and app |
| ③ Connect to whatever comes next | Carrying data between systems | Integration with core and warehouse systems |
① Let the machine read the paper — after "AI," the most frequent word in the exhibit text was "OCR," then "forms." Scan an invoice or delivery note and break it into fields; take in whatever arrived by fax as it is; read handwriting too. Exhibits leading with "accuracy" stood out.
② Enter it from the site itself — "the site" appears almost as often as "OCR." Stop going back to the office to type it up; send it from where you are, by phone or app. Attaching a photo to the record came up repeatedly.
③ Connect to whatever comes next — reading alone does not finish the job, so "integration" becomes the question. Proposals extended to handing the data on to core systems and warehouse systems.
There are also exhibits concerning on-site measurement and vehicle management; this article does not cover them.
What all three had in common
All three reduce the step where a person reads and a person types. Reading becomes the machine's, entering happens on the spot, handing on becomes automatic.
What shrinks is the labour. What does not shrink is the position of the party who declares using the figures that come out.
But how you keep the records does have a legal effect
Here is the interesting part. Article 12-2(3) provides that where the keeping and preservation of electromagnetic records meets "the requirements specified by Ministry of Finance Ordinance as contributing to the proper performance of the duty to pay customs duty," then for amended declarations and corrections concerning matters recorded in those records, the understatement penalty is reduced by an amount calculated by multiplying by five per cent.
Two conditions come attached. One is that the keeping and preservation has continued to meet those requirements "from the date of import permission for the goods onward." Putting it in order later does not reach back to those goods.
The other is the proviso: "this shall not apply where any of the facts forming the basis of the calculation of the tax amount have been concealed or disguised." Where something was hidden or dressed up, this reduction does not operate.
In other words, the rules say nothing at all about recognition accuracy. What they speak to is how the records are kept.
So there are two separate things to compare
One is reading performance — what it can read, how often it is right, where it stops a mistake. That is a product comparison.
The other is how what was read ends up being kept — as the books and documents of Article 94, in a form meeting the requirements of Article 12-2(3), continuously from the date of import permission. That is an operational design.
Choose on the first alone and you can end up with less labour and none of the legal effect. This is a place to check one step further after being told "it reads it." Which requirements apply, and how, depends on the form of the transaction and on how the records are held, and any individual determination rests with the competent authority.
We will take the enquiries together, on your behalf
Companies exhibiting at a show are waiting for enquiries. But if you approach them one by one, sales contact keeps coming from the ones whose conditions do not fit. The more of them there are, the heavier that becomes, and comparing stops being possible.
We have organised the exhibit information for this show in full, and we handed our card to the exhibitors at the venue. Tell us which documents, roughly how many pages a month, and in which languages, and we will check with the ones that fit and come back with the answers collected in one place. We do not pass your contact details to them without your agreement.
What we hand over is information. We are not a distributor or licence holder for any one company; we set out several approaches to the same problem side by side. From our position importing and distributing pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food, we also tell you how these fit with the records that have to remain after the reading is done.
Primary sources
- e-Gov Law Search — Customs Act (Articles 7, 12-2 and 94)
- e-Gov Law Search — Customs Act Enforcement Order (Article 83)
- e-Gov Law Search — Act on Special Provisions concerning the Method of Preserving National Tax Related Books and Documents Prepared Using Computers (Article 7)
The descriptions of exhibits in this article organise trends from the exhibit information published by the organiser and from public information on each company's official website. No individual product or company names are given, and no comparison or evaluation of merit is made. Published content is as of August 2026. Which provisions apply and what measures are required depend on the form of the transaction, the product and how the records are held, and any individual determination rests with the competent authority.
