If I wanted someone in the US to mail me a document urgently, and want to make it as convenient and inexpensive for him as possible, what’s the best method? I would send a SASE but I don’t know where to buy US stamps. Do any of the major carriers (FedEx, UPS or USPS Express) allow international mail to be paid on delivery? If so, is it usually easy to arrange in a typical office environment? Is there any way I can fill out a shipping label and send it to him?
My mom sends me things (to England) occasionally by Global Priority via the USPS. It still takes a few days, though.
I’m not sure if FedEx or UPS offers anything quicker though.
Do the various post offices still sell International Reply Coupons? The idea is, or was, that you would buy the coupons at your post office and include them in international correspondance, and then the person at the other end would use them to buy stamps at his/her post office.
Failing that, if you have a credit or charge card, you can find out if it’s possible for one of the big companies to accept a charge on your card for a package/letter sent from your contact to you. Unfortunately I don’t think they do C.O.D. internationally.
I would check into DHL, which does international express shipping to and from lots of places, including, I believe, Japan. I am pretty sure you can bill the receiver if they have an account number, but you would have to do some checking to see if that’s feasible without one. Good luck.