You've received a suspension notice asking for a plan of action, but you don't know where to begin. Or you've submitted one, it keeps getting rejected, and you can't tell what's missing. This article is for sellers in that situation. Following the order in which you'll actually do the work, we explain how to read the notice, how to build the three components, what supporting documents to include, and how to revise after a rejection.
The role of a plan of action (POA), and what to determine before you write
Amazon's Japanese Help refers to the document you submit to recover from actions such as the deactivation of seller-fulfilled listings as a "plan of action" (パフォーマンス改善計画, POA). The procedure for sending it is called an "appeal" (申し立て), which Help defines as the information you send in response to a Performance Notification. If you think of a plan of action not as a letter of apology but as a response to the issues raised in the notice, it becomes much easier to see what you need to write.
This article is based on Seller Central Help and other materials we were able to review as of September 2026. Policies and on-screen labels can change, so please also check the notice you received and the latest Help content.
The three components and how official materials treat them
A plan of action is generally built from three components: root cause, corrective steps, and preventive measures (as described in English-language Seller University materials, which were created in 2024 for sellers outside Japan and are not specific to the Japanese store). The current Japanese Help asks you to identify the root cause and to tell Amazon about the specific actions you took, along with details, the dates the changes were made, or related documents.
Cases that call for a plan of action, and cases that need a different submission
Depending on the type of notice, Amazon may ask for something other than a plan of action. Before you start writing, confirm which of the following your case falls under.
| Situation | Form of submission | What it centers on |
|---|---|---|
| You believe the violation finding itself is wrong | Dispute (異議申し立て) | Evidence that the violation was detected in error |
| You acknowledge that a violation occurred | Appeal (plan of action) | Root cause, corrective steps, preventive measures, and supporting documents |
| Product condition violations | Multiple-choice format; plans of action are not accepted | Identification of the cause and the fix, plus evidence of preventive measures |
| The cause appears to be your FBA inventory | Request a bin check (an inspection of the condition of your FBA inventory) before appealing | A resolved case ID |
| Food and product safety, or restricted products | Submit compliance information from the "Next steps" (次の手順) column in Product Policy Compliance (商品規約の遵守) (some violations, such as product safety, may appear on the Manage Your Compliance (コンプライアンスの管理) dashboard) | Genuine, unaltered documents, or an explanation of why the requirement does not apply |
| Intellectual property warnings and suspensions | A declaration that the item is not for sale, a request for retraction to the rights owner, or a dispute if the removal was in error. If your account is suspended, appeal from "Reactivate your account" (出品用アカウントの再開) on the Account Health page, or reply to the suspension notice (the format may follow that of a plan of action) | Invoices, order numbers, written authorization from the rights owner, etc. In a plan of action, your procedure for verifying rights before listing |
| Not yet suspended, but at risk of suspension due to declining metrics | A 5-question quiz shown to eligible sellers | Your quiz answers (according to the Help pages on Order Defect Rate and Cancellation Rate, passing within 72 hours means no plan of action is needed) |
To decide whether to request a retraction, file a dispute, or submit a plan of action in an IP case, see how to sort out IP warnings by type of right.
It's also important not to take a position that contradicts the facts. Even if your appeal is accepted and the violation disappears from the list, instances you did not dispute may still count toward repeat violations for 180 days. On the other hand, claiming that a genuine violation was an error can undermine the credibility of your entire explanation.
Gathering your material: break down the notice and build a response table
Don't jump straight into writing. First, write down "what was flagged," "which products are affected," and "what must be submitted, and by when."
STEP 1. Confirm what stage the notice represents
Older-format Help pages explain that when your Order Defect Rate or Late Shipment Rate is high, or when there is a policy violation, you receive one of three notices: a warning, a temporary suspension of selling privileges, or a removal of selling privileges. Notices about serious repeat violations, or about the risk of suspension from declining metrics, may instead appear as a banner at the top of the Account Health page. Because the required submission and deadline can differ by stage, start by confirming what your notice is asking for, and tailor what you write accordingly. The flow from suspension to appeal is laid out in an overview of the path from account suspension to a reinstatement request.
STEP 2. Capture every issue and affected ASIN
Where to look and what to capture
- Performance Notifications (パフォーマンス通知; menu → "Performance" → "Performance Notifications"): the wording of the issue, the reason for the action, and the deadline
- The bottom of the first notice: a list of the products (ASINs) under review
- Account Health (アカウント健全性) → Product Policy Compliance → "View all" (すべて表示): the history of removed listings, their current status, and the guidance in the "Next steps" column
- Notes about documents: the submission deadline and the period the documents must cover (for some products, invoices covering the past 365 days)
STEP 3. Build a response table with one issue per row
Help asks you to identify the root cause that led to the violation even when there are multiple issues, and to provide evidence for every product under review. To avoid missing anything, it helps to build a response table that lists each issue (or affected ASIN) on its own row and then fill in the columns in order.
| Column | What to enter | If it's blank, suspect this |
|---|---|---|
| What the notice says | Wording of the issue, affected ASINs, notice date | You haven't read the notice all the way through |
| Facts confirmed | What you verified against your order, inventory, listing, and sourcing records | You're about to write based on guesswork |
| Root cause | The direct cause, and the gap in your processes that failed to prevent it | You stopped at "carelessness" |
| Corrective steps | Actions taken, dates, supporting documents | Your fixes aren't finished yet |
| Preventive measures | Owner, frequency, what's checked, how it's recorded | It's just a statement of good intentions |
| Attachments | Document number and highlighted sections | You have no documents to back up your claims |
If any column is empty, your plan of action isn't finished. Complete the investigation first and leave the writing for last.
Root cause: dig down to "why couldn't it be prevented?"
Help gives unverifiable suppliers, inventory management problems, and quality control problems as examples of root causes. It also lists examples like the following as "main reasons" for declining metrics or violations (these come from older-format Help pages, so check the current Help for the names of settings screens).
| Type of notice | Examples of main reasons Amazon cites | Suggested direction for review |
|---|---|---|
| Order Defect Rate | Listing parallel imports on the catalog page for the officially distributed product, incorrect condition settings, A-to-z Guarantee claims resulting from not authorizing returns in line with the return policy | Review the listing policies, relevant guidelines, and return policy |
| Late Shipment Rate | A surge in orders, dropshipping from overseas, forgetting to turn on holiday settings, weather | Set handling times, use FBA, adjust settings before holidays |
| Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate | Stockouts from a surge in orders driven by media exposure or similar (check whether you entered an inventory quantity that doesn't reflect reality, such as 9999), stockouts from sharing inventory with other sales channels, not setting a maximum quantity per order | Manage inventory in real time and enter only quantities you can actually secure |
| Prohibited products and other violations | A supplier included promotional CDs in a shipment | Remove the affected products, then check inventory regularly afterward |
Most of these are direct triggers. What you write as the root cause is the deeper answer to "why couldn't it be prevented?"—in other words, the gap in your business processes. Asking "why?" two or three times usually gets you there. The following is a hypothetical example, not an actual case.
Orders kept shipping after their expected ship dates
→ Why? Orders were still being accepted during a business closure
→ Why? Listing settings weren't switched before the closure
→ Why? No pre-closure checklist or owner had been set, and the process relied on one person's memory (write this as the root cause)
Once you've written all the way down to the last "why," your corrective steps and preventive measures follow naturally.
Points to keep in mind when writing the cause
- Focus on the facts and events that led to the problem, not on describing your products or business or on your opinions about buyers. Leave out emotional language and information about other cases (per the Help guidelines)
- Don't shift the blame to buyers, carriers, or suppliers. Even if external factors were involved, write about the fact that your business had no procedure to prevent them
- Separate causes you've confirmed from matters still under investigation, and for the latter, state what you'll verify and by when
- IP enforcement can happen even if you weren't aware of any infringement. Don't stop at "we didn't know"; write that you had no procedure for verifying rights before listing
Corrective steps and preventive measures: separate "what's done" from "what continues"
Write corrective steps as "one-time actions already taken" and preventive measures as "systems you'll keep running." In Help's example, removing a prohibited product from inventory is a corrective step, and continuing to check inventory regularly afterward is a preventive measure.
Describe corrective steps by scope, date, and documents
"We reviewed our listings" alone doesn't tell Amazon what you fixed or how far you went. Spell out the scope, the date, and the document number, for example: "On [date], we reconciled the inventory quantities for all listings, including the affected ASINs, against actual stock and corrected them (Document 3: inventory list before and after the correction)." Also check whether listings outside the scope of the notice have the same underlying problem, and include the results.
Write preventive measures as procedures you'll run after reinstatement
Preventive measures aren't text written for the review; they are your actual operating procedures after reinstatement. According to Help, if you repeatedly violate the same policy and reach the limit within 180 days, it is treated as a "Critical" (重大) violation, and if you don't take action within the 3-day response window, your account is suspended until you finish submitting an appeal. In 2025, Amazon announced an update expanding this treatment, which had applied to two areas (intellectual property infringement and restricted products), to all covered policies (with a preview period through July 23, 2025). The limit for each policy isn't disclosed, but for high-severity violations it may be as low as two. It's important that your preventive measures are something you can realistically keep up after reinstatement.
Five items to include in your preventive measures
- Owner: who does it (and who covers when they're out)
- Timing: daily, with each inbound shipment, before listing, before closures, and so on
- What's checked: what is checked, and against what
- Records: where results are kept, and who reviews them
- Oversight: who confirms that the procedure is being followed, and when
If the cause lies with a supplier, the points in the Help page "Use due diligence to select reliable suppliers" (デューディリジェンスで信頼できる仕入先を選択する) are useful material: for example, whether the supplier can provide authorization letters and invoices showing where the goods came from, whether your contract clearly makes the supplier responsible for inventory that receives legitimate complaints about quality or authenticity, and whether you monitor the supplier on an ongoing basis. The page includes content aimed at the US, so adapt it to Japanese equivalents, such as checking company registrations and permits.
Clearly label measures not yet in place as "planned"
Measures that aren't complete at the time of submission, such as introducing a new system, shouldn't be mixed in with completed ones; distinguish them with wording like "scheduled to start on [date]." Under the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, sellers represent that the information they provide to Amazon is accurate and complete at all times. Day-to-day management after reinstatement is covered in daily management to prevent another suspension.
Supporting documents: link them to your claims by number
Help advises that circling or highlighting the most important parts of a document (such as the ASIN, the supplier name, or the supplier clauses in the terms of the transaction) makes your response easier to understand. In your text, point to the number and location, such as "the area in the yellow box in Document 2," so that every claim has a corresponding document.
| Document | Key requirements | Not accepted |
|---|---|---|
| Invoices | Dated within the 365 days before you received the notice; quantities that cover your sales over the past 365 days plus inventory on hand for each ASIN; product codes that can be verified online; supplier contact information. The original, unaltered document (pricing may be removed), as a PDF or image | Quotes, pro forma invoices, invoices you issued yourself, invoices where the supplier and buyer appear to be the same entity, altered documents, and editable formats such as .xlsx or .docx |
| Authorization letters (license agreements) | The five elements "licensor," "licensee," "grant," "territory," and "term"; the rights-owning company's letterhead; the signature of an authorized signatory; etc. | Substituting invoices, distribution/reseller agreements, receipts, delivery slips, purchase orders, and the like |
| Bin check results | A resolved case ID (requesting the check for the same ASIN/SKU as the violation is recommended) | Cases whose review hasn't been completed |
| Evidence of measures to prevent condition violations | Updated training materials, product packaging, images of quality checks, etc. | Images of your inventory page or an order's product detail page |
Amazon may contact the supplier listed on an invoice or the rights owner named in an authorization letter to verify them. If you don't have documents that meet the requirements, ask your supplier for copies or reissues of invoices that match the actual transaction. Having an invoice issued with dates, quantities, items, or other details that differ from the actual transaction is the same as altering it, and it may amount to providing false information. If the authenticity of your invoices has been questioned, see what to do when your invoices are flagged as forged or altered.
Putting it into words: a sample and tips for rephrasing
Once your response table is filled in, turn it into text that is clear and concise. The sample below assumes a hypothetical scenario in which seller-fulfilled listings were deactivated because orders placed during a business closure shipped late; it is not an actual case. Replace the details with your own facts.
[Root cause] One person at our store handles both order processing and shipping, and we had no procedure for switching listing settings before a closure. As a result, we continued accepting orders during our closure beginning on [date], and the affected orders shipped after their expected ship dates.
[Corrective steps] On [date], we shipped all unshipped orders and sent shipping confirmations for every one of them (Document 1: shipping records). We also revised the handling time on all listings to match our actual staffing (Document 2: settings screen after the change).
[Preventive measures] We created a checklist for reviewing listing settings, expected ship dates, and the order backlog one week before any closure or holiday period (Document 3). The check is carried out by two people, the order handler and the manager, who record the results and the date on the checklist (in effect from [date]). On days the order handler is out, the manager checks expected ship dates, and at the end of each month the manager reviews the records to confirm that the procedure is being followed.
On the appeal screen, you may also be asked to submit a questionnaire, confirm the violation, answer questions, or provide supporting documents. If you keep each component in its own labeled paragraph, you can split them up to fit each question. Ways to improve the Late Shipment Rate itself are explained in analyzing the causes of late shipments and reviewing your shipping operations.
Phrasing to avoid and how to reword it
| Phrasing to avoid | What's missing | How to reword it |
|---|---|---|
| We made a mistake out of carelessness | No gap in your processes is described | Explain which missing procedure led to what happened |
| We will be much more careful from now on | No who, when, or what | Specify the owner, frequency, what's checked, and where it's recorded |
| The buyer's misunderstanding caused this | Points to others instead of a gap in your own processes | Even if external factors were involved, write about the procedure your business lacked to prevent them |
| Amazon's decision is wrong | No evidence that it is wrong | If you believe the finding is wrong, submit a dispute with evidence that the violation was detected in error |
Submitting, and rebuilding after a rejection
How to submit (as labeled in Help)
For an account suspension, create and submit your appeal from "Reactivate your account" (出品用アカウントの再開) at the top of the Account Health page, and if Amazon asks for more information, provide it from "View Account Health requests" (アカウント健全性の要請を見る). If your seller-fulfilled listings were deactivated for failing to meet metric requirements such as Order Defect Rate, Help directs you to submit a plan of action from "Submit a reconsideration request" (再審議請求を送信) (the Late Shipment Rate Help page says "Submit an Account Health appeal" (アカウント健全性の申し立てを送信する)). The scope of the deactivation and the reinstatement requirements are covered in what to check when your seller-fulfilled listings are deactivated. Amazon says a response may take up to about two days, but this is not an indication of when you'll be reinstated.
For removed listings, first look for the relevant issue on the Product Policy Compliance tab. If it doesn't appear there, check the details under inactive listings in Manage Inventory (在庫管理) or in Performance Notifications, then follow the instructions on the page to either appeal or fix the listing. Pre-submission checks are summarized in checking where to submit, your documents, and your submission records.
Read a rejection as a "list of what's missing"
Rejection replies and Performance Notifications sometimes state why the action was upheld or what was missing. In one reply reposted on the US Seller Forums (a 2021 IP case), Amazon said the appeal did not sufficiently address the potential infringement and asked the seller either to provide proof of authenticity (invoices, authorization letters, etc.) or to resubmit a plan of action with a more detailed root cause. Replies in the Japanese store may not use the same wording. Help also directs you to Performance Notifications to find out why an invoice was not accepted. Work through the reply you received with the following steps.
- List the reasons and gaps stated in the reply as bullet points
- Identify which row and column of your response table each gap corresponds to (digging into the cause, the documents, or the choice of submission type)
- If your fact-finding fell short, investigate again; if documents were lacking, prepare ones that meet the requirements
- Rewrite it so that what changed since last time is clear, and never resend the same text
We couldn't find any official rules on how many times or how often you can resubmit. Rather than the number of attempts, prioritize addressing each gap one by one. Why template-based text leaves explanations short is covered in explanations that fall short when you reuse a template.
What not to do
- Writing that measures you haven't taken are already in place: The agreement presumes that the information you provide to Amazon is accurate and complete.
- Altering documents or issuing invoices yourself: They won't be accepted, and this may be treated as false or misleading conduct.
- Opening a new account to keep selling: Under the Seller Code of Conduct, you may have only one account for each region where you sell, unless you have a legitimate business need and all of your accounts are in good standing. Creating another account while suspended violates Amazon's policies. Under the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement, Amazon may immediately suspend or terminate an account when certain grounds exist, such as suspected use of the account for fraudulent, deceptive, or illegal activity.
- Responding to only some of the issues or ASINs in the notice: Use your response table to confirm that no issue or affected product has been left out before you submit.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How long should a plan of action be?
A. We couldn't find any character limit or recommended length in the Japanese Help; what Amazon asks is that you write clearly and concisely. Rather than worrying about length, check that every issue has its cause, response, prevention, and documents in place.
Q. The reason given in the notice is vague, and I can't tell what was flagged.
A. Start by checking the affected products and the "Next steps" in Performance Notifications and under "View all" in Product Policy Compliance. Under Japan's Act on Improving Transparency and Fairness of Digital Platforms, the details of and reasons for actions such as account suspensions are subject to disclosure, and you can also seek advice from the Digital Platform Transaction Consultation Desk (デジタルプラットフォーム取引相談窓口), a program commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. For legal judgments about your specific situation, consult a lawyer.
Q. I have multiple issues or affected products. Can I combine them into one?
A. The basic rule is to follow the instructions on the screen. English-language Seller University materials (which are not specific to the Japanese store) explain that you submit a plan of action for each violation on the Product Policy Compliance page. For issues with the same cause, it's easier to keep things organized if you share a common explanation of the cause while presenting the response and documents separately for each product.
Q. Can I consult Amazon before submitting?
A. Sellers on the Professional selling plan can consult an Account Health Specialist through "Contact us" (お問い合わせ) ("Call me now" (今すぐ電話がほしい)) on the Account Health page, and this also covers sending the information needed to recover a suspended account. Sellers who aren't on the Professional plan are directed to use resources from Help, Seller University, and the Seller Forums.
Summary
Here's a recap of the key points for building your plan.
- Before you write, determine whether your case calls for a plan of action or a different form of submission
- Pull the issues and affected ASINs from the notice and Product Policy Compliance, and leave no blanks in your response table
- Dig into the root cause down to "why couldn't it be prevented?" and describe it as a gap in your processes
- Present corrective steps by scope, date, and documents, and preventive measures by owner, frequency, and records; label anything not yet done as "planned"
- Link your claims to documents by number, and if you're rejected, address each gap in the reply one by one
The fundamentals are to confirm the facts of what happened in your business and to communicate the procedures you actually changed, backed by supporting documents. If you're unsure how to proceed, consider consulting a specialist once you've organized your notice and documents.
Need help preparing a plan of action?
We'll assess your prospects for reinstatement at no cost. Consultations are free, as often as you need.
Free consultation, 24/7 *This article provides a general explanation. The appropriate response in individual cases depends on the circumstances.
Further reading
Before submitting an Amazon Plan of Action: destination, documents and submission records Read article → 
Tailoring an Amazon Plan of Action to your business: what copied templates leave out Read article → 
When Amazon's appeal submission button is missing: screen checks and support steps Read article →