Airmail shipping can be insured. Actualy, all
packets sent from Switzerland are insured whatever
you want it or not.

As for EMS, Japan is a very special case : It's
the only country I know where express mail is
cheaper than airmail. Here, sending by EMS
would costs around $35-$45 per packet.
(On the other side, airmail isn't much slower
than EMS from Switzerland : perhaps 2 days or so
slower)

Cheers,
Yann Stettler