Hi John,

First up: there are no new charges for Japan that we are aware of - importers have always had to pay VAT and import duty.

There are good and bad sides to it all. It's not so easy to get a proper service history of the car, for example, but generally the cars are of low mileage, in good condition and well-equipped. If you do go down that route, it's far easier to buy an already imported Japanese car (many companies are specialising in this). And one last word of advice: choose a car that is as identical as possible to an Irish-market car, as otherwise you could find it difficult to get parts and/or pay higher insurance costs.