September 2026 Updates

I had been really proud of myself for keeping up with the monthly updates up until now, when I realized it was the last day of August and I hadn't posted one yet. The issue was that lately I haven't been able to muster the give-a-damn to do it... and here's why.

The Trump Tariffs

I've talked numerous times about the Trump Tariffs that are levied against virtually every shipment to the United States, be it from Redpants or any other company, or even private shipments. These tariffs are typically 10-40% of the shipment value, on top of whatever extra charges there are for processing the tariffs, customs clearance, and the cost of shipping itself. Sometimes, more than one tariff rate can be stacked to to make an even higher effective tariff rate. Again, this isn't just on shipments from Redpants, it's practically every shipment going into the US.

There are companies out there that have margins fat enough to absorb those tariffs so the customer doesn't have to pay more. That just means they've probably been making so much money already that they can afford to lose a huge chunk of their revenue and still come out okay.

Redpants is not one of those companies. I won't go into my margins, how I compute them, or anything else like that. But let's put it this way: I do almost everything at Redpants myself. I have someone that occasionally does photos and videos for me, my wife helps me with things that require better Japanese than my barely-passable level, and I have an accountant that shows me how little money I'm making.

Other than that, I do it all: I manage inventory; I process, package, and ship orders; I handle customers, helping with orders, and giving technical assistance and modification advice; I film and edit videos, make do-it-yourself guides, write articles, and create other content for my website and YouTube channel; I manage my social media (what little I do on Instagram, anyway); I build and maintain my website and Online Store; and I even manufacture some of my own products.

I do all of that and much more and the only payment I get is a very, very thin margin on the products I sell when a customer places an order. The US Government then slaps a tariff on that shipment and makes far more than I do - usually 2 or 3 times as much - even though I've done a god-awful amount of work to earn that sale and all they did was tax it. In some cases, even UPS makes more than I do just by charging a processing fee for that tariff payment. Yes, many of my margins are that thin.

At this point I need to remind everyone to save your receipts when you pay tariffs. The first round of Trump Tariffs were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court and refunds were given to whomever paid them. It's possible that'll happen again. Plus, TARIFFS ARE TAXES THAT CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS PAY. At the least, it should be entirely legal and rightful to write them off on your annual taxes (this is not financial advice, please consult your tax agent and/or accountant).

I haven't lived in the US for a while but I keep hearing about how expensive everything is getting. According to the US Government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics, $100 in July 2020 had the same buying power as $128.88 in July 2026. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis's website also corroborates that there has been 29% inflation over the last six years alone. When you're getting taxed through tariffs at rates upwards of 40% on top of what you were already paying, well, that's gonna cause a big price hike.

Just to recap what I've said previously in Blog posts, videos, and everywhere else already: the tariffs Americans are paying are imposed by the US Government on virtually all shipments going into the US. I don't include the tariffs in my prices because my customers in other countries aren't subject to them. I don't absorb the tariffs because the US Government is taxing its citizens at far higher rates than I earn in my profit margins.

I'm sure those of you outside of the US are sick of hearing this, but it needs to be said because it's still an ongoing complaint from Americans that don't realize how much the Trump Tariffs are affecting them and it's been an ongoing challenge for me to keep Redpants alive given most of my customers are in the United States.

We just finished our annual tax filings and got our final profitability results back for Redpants Godo-Kaisha which has made all my barely-concealed frustrations surface yet again, thus my venting here. I haven't made any videos, posted on Instagram, or made any new content for the Redpants website in the last month because the accounting took every spare moment I had the last few weeks, keeping me way too busy on top of everything else I have on my plate any given day. Japanese accounting is no joke and really reinforces Japan's reputation for paperwork and bureaucracy.

Order Confirmations Not Working

On top of all that, Order Confirmations and the automated emails associated with orders have not been working properly for about a week now. When a customer places an order, they should get an order confirmation and an automated email with that confirmation, I get an email for the order, and my Online Store's backend system registers the order, shows the payment has been received, and marks the order as being processed. About a week ago, this all stopped.

My devs looked into it and found that my payment processor had updated their plugin, which had broken the aforementioned chain of events. Orders can still be placed and payments made, but I have to check each order and payment to link them, then manually update the orders to show that they're being processed, which then kicks off that series of automated emails. Sorry for any confusion for those of you that have placed orders during this time and gotten delayed emails for your orders, that's why it happened.

I relayed all the relevant info back to my payment processor and they confirmed my devs' findings, and said they would get everything fixed as soon as possible. It might be fixed by the time I've published this Blog post, so it may be a non-issue by the time you're reading this. As always, please email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Some Personal Stuff

And, just to add insult to injury, my office is shaking like crazy.

I've seen plenty of posts and videos over the years about how efficient Japan's road works are - a popular one being about a huge sinkhole appearing in a street and swollowing a car, and being completely filled in and repaired by the next morning. It's true - roadworks in Japan can get started in the morning and be cleared out by the end of the day. What they don't tell you is that also means projects that take more than a day lead to a lot of duplicated work when a filled-in area needs to be excavated the next day to continue the work. Or, in the case of the street out front, the next day over and over again for four months (and counting).

The entire stretch of road on the far side in the picture below where they’re working has been torn up and repaved since early May. It’s fucking September and they’re still working on it… and oh my god I just realized they might do the near side next….

Roadworks in Yokohama, replacing water and sewage pipes. These are the smallest of the vehicles and construction machinery they’ve used.

Not only do I feel some of the actual construction as heavy machinery is often used to break apart the pavement and then recompact it, but I also feel every large truck that hits the hard bumps created by the constant and inconsistent repaving. When a heavy truck hits those bumps, it shakes my office enough that my computer monitors shake so hard they rattle against each other. And this is going on all day. All. Fucking. Day.

But I'm trying to maintain a positive outlook on things despite all of it. I won't get into the darker side of things right now, but let's just say I'm doing [a lot better] on a personal level than I was the last couple years. A big part of it is that I've been eating better and started exercising again, dropping almost 12 kg (~26 lbs) since last year.

Being more active in general is also helping, with last weekend being quite busy. On Saturday, Luanna and I went to the Porsche showroom in Ginza (actually, it’s in Shimbashi… this is like Aston Martin saying “6.0L V12” when it’s actually a 5.9L lol). AO Racing has teamed up with Absolute Racing to run a 911 GT3 R at the 2026 Suzuka 1000km race.

This one will be Bushi Rex, the revived ancient samurai ancestor of Rexy. We saw the car at the showroom on Saturday and again at Daikokufuto Parking Area - along with Bushi Rex! - on Sunday morning.

After chatting with Bushi Rex about jazz hands for a bit, my buddy Simon and I headed out to Meguro, Tokyo, to take part in a matsuri! This was my second year helping carry this mikoshi (the portable shrine), but it came with a twist this year.

(c) 菅仁哉

There was a ton of rain and even some flood warnings. The storms didn’t affect Meguro as much as the warnings had suggested, so we came out okay and the event was all the more fun for it. This was my second year doing it and I'll definitely be back for it again next year.

And yes, I should have shaved before the event… I have the facial hair of a 15 year old. It isn’t pretty. It isn’t pretty at all.

I've also been helping out quite a bit with Lumar's Café, the pop-up restaurant that my wife and her mother started here in Tsurumi, Yokohama. I’m the unpaid bartender and also do a bit of cooking and baking on occasion. If you’re ever in the area, please come check it out! I won’t be there this weekend as I’ll be out at Suzuka for the race, but I’m there more often than not. You can keep up with the café by following their Instagram account.

I’m sure most people don’t care too much about the personal stuff, given that whenever I do anything non-DIY on my Redpants YouTube channel the majority of reactions are “stay in your lane.” But it’s important for me to share a bit about what’s going on, given it’s what little is helping me maintain my sanity these days.

When I say to not worry about getting spam or too many emails when you sign up for the Newsletter, I mean it. I haven’t yet sent out a single one since creating it!

I will, though. Eventually.