SHOPPING GUIDE
What to Buy in Japan: Konbini, 100-Yen Shops and Drugstores
You do not need a special souvenir shop. Three ordinary stores cover almost everything worth bringing home, and locals use all three every week.
Konbini: the 15-minute stop
Convenience stores are not an emergency option here. They are where people buy lunch, socks, concert tickets and gifts.
- Regional KitKat and chocolate. Flavors change by season and by region, and the boxes are made to be handed out at an office.
- Senbei and rice crackers. Flat, light, and they survive a suitcase.
- Instant coffee and tea bags. A small jar of instant coffee is a normal gift here, and it is one of the few grocery items that travels safely.
- Sweets you cannot get abroad, like soft candy, mochi-style chews and seasonal puddings. Eat the fresh ones before you fly.
Skip the cup noodles, retort curry and anything with a meat broth. See the customs section below for why.
100-yen shops: the best value in the country
Daiso, Seria and Can Do sell most items for 110 yen including tax, which is roughly 70 US cents at recent rates. The quality surprises people.
- Kitchen tools: fine graters, sesame grinders, bento dividers, silicone lids.
- Stationery: sticky notes, pens, sticker sheets, folders.
- Chopsticks and small tableware, including the small dishes that cost ten times as much abroad.
- Beauty tools: blotting paper, brushes, eyelash curlers, nail files.
- Storage: flat, foldable boxes that fill the gaps in a suitcase.
Drugstores: cosmetics and skincare
Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sundrug and Welcia are on every shopping street. This is where most of the beauty items people ask about actually come from.
- Cleansing oil and balm, in sizes that make sense to carry.
- Sheet masks, sold in packs of five or thirty.
- Hand cream, lip balm and hair treatments.
- Sunscreen, which is the one category to read carefully. The US regulates sunscreen as a drug and has approved a different list of UV filters than Japan, so a Japanese sunscreen is not automatically a better or safer choice for you. FDA: Cosmetics importers
We do not cover Japanese medicines here. Painkillers, eye drops and stomach remedies sold in Japanese drugstores can contain ingredients that are not approved in the US, so this site does not recommend buying them to take or ship home.
What you cannot bring home
This is the part most shopping guides skip, and it is the part that gets suitcases opened at the airport.
- Anything with meat is generally not allowed into the US, and that includes things you would not think of as meat: instant noodles and curry with pork or beef, soup stock, bouillon cubes, and jerky. US CBP: Prohibited and Restricted Items
- Rice is restricted because of pests, so leave the bags of rice and fresh rice products behind. US CBP: Prohibited and Restricted Items
- Fresh fruit, vegetables, plants and seeds are restricted or prohibited. US CBP: Agricultural Items
- Usually fine: candy, chocolate, baked sweets, senbei, seasonings, honey, tea and coffee. USDA APHIS: Traveling with meats, poultry and seafood
Declare everything. If you declare food and it turns out you cannot bring it in, it is taken away and that is the end of it. If you do not declare it, you can be fined. Rules also change by country and by year, so check before you fly. US CBP: Agricultural Items
Practical notes
- Cash still matters in small shops, although cards and IC cards work almost everywhere in cities.
- Sizes run small. A Japanese L is often closer to a US small or medium, and shoes are sold in centimetres.
- Many larger stores offer tax-free shopping for visitors with a passport, with a minimum spend. The rules change, so ask at the register before you pay.
- Buy the flat things. Suitcase space runs out faster than money does.
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Already home and missing something? Read how to order the same items from the US.