Shopping in Japan: Tax-Free Rules, Best Districts and What to Buy

Any store displaying the red-and-white “Japan Tax-Free Shop” sign will exempt foreign visitors on a temporary-visitor stamp from the 10% consumption tax on purchases totalling 5,000 yen or more (before tax) in one shop on one day. You must show your physical passport with the entry stamp or sticker (not a photo of it), and the goods must leave Japan with you. Until 31 October 2026 the system works at the till: the shop deducts the tax, scans your passport, and classes the goods as “general” (clothes, electronics, bags, which you may use in Japan) or “consumables” (food, drink, cosmetics, medicines, capped at 500,000 yen per shop per day and sealed in a bag you must not open before departure).

From 1 November 2026 Japan switches to a refund system like Europe’s: you pay the full price including tax in the shop, the store records the purchase against your passport, and you claim the tax back at customs when you leave, after an officer confirms you still have the goods. The general/consumable split, the 500,000 yen cap and the sealed-bag rule are abolished, the 5,000 yen minimum stays, and goods must be exported within 90 days of purchase. Keep purchases unused and accessible in your hand luggage or an easily opened case, and allow an extra 30 minutes at the airport. Because this change is brand new, check the Japan National Tourism Organization site for the exact refund counters at your departure airport before you go.

Ginza is the flagship district: Chuo-dori is pedestrianised on weekend afternoons (noon to 5pm, 6pm in summer) and lined with Mitsukoshi, Ginza Six, Wako, the 12-storey Uniqlo global flagship, Itoya stationery (12 floors of pens and paper) and every luxury house. Nearby Nihonbashi has the original Mitsukoshi and Takashimaya stores and Kiya, a knife shop trading since 1792. Shinjuku is the practical heavyweight, with Isetan (Japan’s best fashion department store and depachika), Takashimaya Times Square, Yodobashi Camera’s multi-building complex at the west exit, and a 24-hour Don Quijote in Kabukicho. Shibuya has Parco, Shibuya 109 for teen fashion and the Scramble Square tower above the station, while Harajuku is two streets: Takeshita-dori for 500-yen crepes, cheap accessories and kawaii fashion, and Omotesando for Prada, Dior, the Omotesando Hills mall and Kiddy Land toys. Cat Street, linking the two, is the place for Japanese streetwear brands and vintage.

Akihabara, north of Tokyo Station, is Electric Town: Yodobashi Akiba is the giant, while the back streets hold Super Potato (retro games), Mandarake (second-hand manga and figures), Radio Kaikan’s ten floors of collectibles and the duty-free electronics chains along Chuo-dori. Nakano Broadway in Nakano, four stops west of Shinjuku, is the serious collector’s alternative, with 30-odd Mandarake specialist shops plus vintage watches and toys from the 1970s. For kitchenware, Kappabashi-dori in Asakusa is a 800-metre street of restaurant suppliers selling knives (Kama-Asa, Tsubaya), lacquer bowls, plastic food models and ceramics at trade prices; most shops close by 5pm and on Sundays. Ikebukuro has Sunshine City and Animate’s flagship for anime goods aimed at a female fanbase, and Shimokitazawa and Koenji are the vintage-clothing capitals, with second-hand jackets from 3,000 yen.

Osaka’s spine is the 600-metre covered Shinsaibashi-suji arcade running north from Dotonbori to Daimaru and Parco: Uniqlo, GU, drugstores, ABC-Mart shoes and souvenir shops open until 9pm, with Amerikamura’s streetwear and vintage one block west. Den Den Town in Nipponbashi, ten minutes south-east of Namba, is Osaka’s Akihabara, smaller but cheaper, with Super Kids Land, Joshin and a strip of figure and retro-game shops; it is beside Kuromon Ichiba market, where you can buy knives and dried goods between the seafood stalls. Umeda has the Hankyu and Daimaru department stores (Hankyu’s depachika is the best in western Japan), the huge Yodobashi Umeda, and the Grand Front and Lucua malls over Osaka Station.

Kyoto is the city for crafts. Nishiki Market, a 400-metre covered lane in downtown Kyoto open from about 10am to 5pm, sells Aritsugu knives (made since 1560; engraving included), pickles, tea, dried fish and matcha sweets; the Teramachi and Shinkyogoku arcades running north from its east end mix temples, antique dealers, Kyukyodo paper and incense (since 1663), used bookshops and 300-yen souvenir stalls. Around Shijo-dori, Daimaru and Takashimaya hold tax-free counters, and the lanes of Higashiyama below Kiyomizu-dera sell Kiyomizu-yaki ceramics, yatsuhashi cinnamon sweets, fans and yukata. For fabric, the Nishijin weaving district near the Imperial Palace has obi and kimono showrooms, and second-hand kimono shops near Nishiki sell wearable silk for 3,000 to 10,000 yen. In Fukuoka, Tenjin’s underground mall, Iwataya and Mitsukoshi department stores and the Canal City complex cover everything, with Hakata-ori textiles and Hakata dolls as the local crafts.

Department stores (depato) open at 10am and close at 8pm, with restaurant floors until 10pm, and they still deliver the most polished service in retail: gift-wrapping is free, staff walk you to the lift, and the tax-free counter processes everything you bought in the building in one go. The basement food hall (depachika) is the reason to visit even if you buy no clothes: Isetan Shinjuku, Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Hankyu Umeda and Daimaru Kyoto each pack 100-plus counters of wagashi, bento, pickles, tea, sake, wagyu and 3,000-yen melons under one roof. Prices are high but portions are small, and from about 7pm the prepared-food counters discount 20 to 50%, which is the cheapest gourmet dinner in Japan.

Drugstores are the other essential stop. Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sundrug, Welcia, Kokumin and Daikoku sell Japanese cosmetics and skincare (Shiseido, SK-II, Hada Labo, Biore sunscreen, Kao eye masks), over-the-counter medicines (Eve painkillers, Rohto eye drops, Salonpas patches) and regional KitKat flavours, all tax-free over 5,000 yen and usually open 10am to 10pm. Don Quijote (“Donki”) is the chaotic discount megastore chain found in every city, often 24 hours, selling the same plus costumes, snacks, electronics, luggage and tattoo cover stickers, with a mandatory earworm jingle. The 100-yen chains Daiso, Seria and Can Do (110 yen including tax, with 300 and 500 yen lines) are where to buy chopsticks, small ceramics, furoshiki cloths, stationery and bento accessories by the bagful; the Daiso at Harajuku’s Takeshita-dori and the giant Daiso in Ginza’s Marronnier Gate are the most convenient.

• Kitchen knives: a hand-forged gyuto or santoku from Kappabashi, Aritsugu in Kyoto, or Sakai near Osaka costs 15,000 to 40,000 yen ($100 to $270) and will be engraved with your name while you wait. They must go in checked luggage.
• Ceramics: 100-yen shop rice bowls, Kiyomizu-yaki in Kyoto, Arita porcelain in Kyushu, Mashiko stoneware north of Tokyo; expect 1,500 to 8,000 yen for a good handmade piece, and ask for bubble wrap (shops do this well).
• Washi and stationery: Itoya in Ginza and Kyukyodo in Kyoto for paper, cards and brushes; Japanese pens (Pilot, Uni, Sailor) cost half the overseas price at Loft and Tokyu Hands.
• Yukata and kimono: a cotton yukata set with obi is 5,000 to 15,000 yen new at Uniqlo (summer only), Harajuku or Asakusa; a second-hand silk kimono is 3,000 to 10,000 yen in Kyoto’s recycle shops.
• Tea and matcha: ceremonial matcha from Ippodo (Kyoto, since 1717) or Marukyu Koyamaen in Uji runs 1,500 to 4,000 yen per 20 to 30g; matcha has been in short supply since 2024, so buy when you see it and expect per-customer limits.
• Sake and whisky: a 720ml junmai daiginjo is 2,000 to 5,000 yen at a department store, where staff speak English; Japanese whisky is now cheaper abroad than in Japan for the big names, but airport duty-free and Don Quijote still carry Nikka and Suntory bottles that never leave the country.
• KitKats and konbini snacks: regional flavours (matcha, sake, wasabi, sweet potato, Shinshu apple) at Don Quijote and airport shops, 400 to 1,000 yen a bag; the KitKat Chocolatory in Ginza sells premium bars.
• Cosmetics: drugstore skincare, Shu Uemura and Shiseido at department counters, and Fancl and DHC supplements; tax-free over 5,000 yen.
• Electronics: Japan-only cameras, lenses and Casio watches at Yodobashi or Bic Camera with a 10% tax-free discount plus a 5 to 7% coupon on top. Japan runs on 100V with type A plugs, so hairdryers and kitchen appliances will not work properly at 220 to 240V; cameras, laptops and phones charge fine anywhere.
• Anime and games: figures, gachapon capsule toys (300 to 500 yen a turn), Nintendo Tokyo in Shibuya Parco, the Pokemon Centers, and Mandarake for second-hand bargains.
• Second-hand luxury and vintage: Komehyo, Daikokuya and Brand Off sell authenticated Hermes, Chanel and Rolex for 30 to 50% below new, mostly in Ginza, Shinjuku and Shinsaibashi; condition grading is strict and honest.
• Chopsticks: lacquered pairs from Wakasa or Kyoto cost 1,000 to 5,000 yen; Ginza Natsuno has 2,000 designs in one shop.

Convenience stores (konbini) are part of shopping life: 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson are open 24 hours, accept every card and IC card, print documents, sell concert tickets, host the ATMs that take foreign cards, and stock onigiri, egg sandwiches, 150-yen coffee and the limited-edition snacks people fly home with. Most other shops open at 10 or 11am and close at 8 or 9pm, seven days a week; department stores close at 8pm, malls at 9pm, electronics stores at 10pm, markets wind down by 5pm, and small craft shops often close one weekday and on Sundays. New Year (1 to 3 January) is the only real closure, when depato run their fukubukuro lucky-bag sales from the 2nd. There is no bargaining anywhere except flea markets and some electronics stores, where asking for a coupon or a small discount on a big ticket is accepted.

Cash is no longer essential in shops: cards (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex less so), Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the Suica, Pasmo and ICOCA transit cards work at every chain, department store, konbini and most restaurants. Independent shops in markets, flea markets, temple stalls and rural craft towns still want yen, and some older tax-free counters refund only in cash. Keep 10,000 to 20,000 yen on you, top up at a 7-Eleven ATM, and let the shop pay in yen on your card rather than accepting dynamic currency conversion.

Knives must go in checked baggage, ideally in the shop’s box inside your suitcase. Alcohol limits on arrival home are usually around 1 litre duty-free for the US and Australia and 4 litres of wine plus 1 litre of spirits for the UK and EU, so a couple of bottles of sake and a whisky are fine, and anything over 100ml must be checked unless bought airside. Most countries ban fresh fruit, meat (including wagyu jerky) and some dairy, so stick to sealed, processed foods and declare them. Fake goods are genuinely rare in Japan; the only risk is grey-import luxury at too-good prices in Ginza side streets.

Shops wrap everything beautifully, often for free, and a furoshiki (wrapping cloth, 1,000 to 3,000 yen at Musubi in Tokyo or any department store) doubles as a reusable gift wrap and a souvenir. If you have bought too much, use luggage forwarding (takuhaibin): Yamato Transport and Sagawa counters at department stores, konbini and hotels send a suitcase to your next hotel or the airport overnight for 2,000 to 3,000 yen, and department stores will ship large purchases directly to the airport or abroad. Tax-free goods bought under the new system have to be shown to customs at departure, so keep those in a bag you carry rather than one you forward.

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