ReqHatter charges a single flat shipping rate across all of Japan.

In Japanese e-commerce, regional shipping pricing is the norm. The further from the dispatch point, the more you pay — and for remote areas, the gap can be significant.

Since we ship from Fukuoka, the actual cost of getting a package to Hokkaido, Okinawa, or the islands is genuinely higher for us. The regional pricing model makes complete sense from a business perspective.

But we don't use it. And the reason is personal.

Growing up on an island

I grew up on a remote island. And shopping online always came with the same small sting.

"Additional shipping charges apply for Hokkaido, Okinawa, and remote islands."

I understood it logically. Delivery costs more. That's just how it works.

But it still felt like something every time. Same country. Different rules, just because of where you happen to live.

It's probably inevitable. But it was quietly discouraging in a way that's hard to fully explain.

If I ever ran an online store...

So when I started thinking about doing this myself, the decision was already made.

If I'm going to sell online, I want location to matter as little as possible.

Yes — shipping to Hokkaido, Okinawa, and the islands costs us more. We absorb that difference.

But we didn't want to build a store where where you live affects how easy it is to buy from us.

The same conditions, wherever you are

ReqHatter wants to be a store you can shop from comfortably — whether you're in a major city or a small island community.

Hokkaido. Okinawa. Remote islands.

We want you to be able to enjoy a hat without the shipping rate being part of the calculation.

Simple and fair

Online shopping is convenient, but it doesn't always treat everyone equally. Location still creates friction in ways that feel unnecessary.

So we try to keep things as simple and as fair as we can.

And we try to keep asking ourselves the same question as we build this:

If I were the customer, how would this feel?

That question is one we don't want to lose sight of — in the products we make and the store we're building.