Our Editorial Team — Japan-based experts since 1982

All JP Sheet content is written collectively by one of our four editorial teams. The team attribution at the top of each article tells you whose expertise was primary — Editorial Team for buyer guides and country-level content, Japan Auction Desk for auction house operations and inspector methodology, Verification Team for damage codes and grade interpretation, Research Team for archive search and record reconstruction.

Many of our Japan-based contributors are working professionals at auction houses who share insider expertise on condition of anonymity. Publishing names or faces would jeopardize their continued employment in the Japanese auction industry. We protect their identity so they can continue to inform our content with current, accurate, on-ground knowledge.

Every article goes through a 4-step process: brief, draft, review, publish. The review step is the critical one — Japan-based verification experts cross-check damage codes, grade definitions, auction house operations, and procedural details against industry standards and our internal verification archive. Articles are also updated whenever industry standards change.

Articles are reviewed and updated when industry standards change (e.g. revised auction grading), when new procedures are introduced (e.g. Deeper Scan launch in 2026), or when buyer questions reveal a knowledge gap. Date of last update is shown on each article.

If you have direct, professional experience in the Japanese auction industry, automotive importing, or inspection, we'd love to hear from you. See our write for us page for submission details. Note: we attribute by team for consistency, so individual bylines are not used.