No trip to Japan is complete with looking around a 100 Yen store – if you are looking for fun souvenirs, cute stationery or even toys for your pets back home, 100 Yen stores in Japan are a treasure trove of gifts (plus to be honest, some terrible tat)!
This post may contain affiliate links to tours and hotels. These help us earn a small commission at no additional charge to you.
100 Yen shops in Japan are some of the best places to get cheap Kawaii gifts like Disney stickers in Daiso or Snoopy toys in Seria 100.
We love Japanese chain stores and there are three big brand 100 Yen stores in Japan you’ll see everywhere: Can Do, Seria 100 and perhaps the best known discount store Daiso.
From the best products to big brands, here is our ultimate guide to 100 Yen stores in Japan.
You might like – Our guide to Don Quijote, Japan’s most joyful discount store >
Japan checklist
We love using booking.com and agoda.com for researching and booking all our hotels, and Hostelworld for booking hostels.
For booking tours, transfers and SIM cards we recommend Get Your Guide, Viator or Klook.
What can you find in a 100 Yen shop in Japan?
To be honest, it should be more of a question of what can’t you find in 100 Yen stores in Japan?!
There are literally thousands of discount items in every shop – for instance, Daiso Japan is said to have over 100,000 products (although not all are 100 Yen).
Typical gifts and homeware to buy in 100 Yen stores in Japan include:
- Stationery (sushi rubbers are popular)
- Filing and storage systems
- Desktop toys like USB lights or fans shaped like vintage cameras or telephones
- Cute and kawaii stickers
- Ceramics, mugs and storage units
- Kitchen utensils including dinosaur training chopsticks for kids
- Toiletries, skincare and health products
- Winter accessories like scarves and gloves – so useful if you visit Japan in winter from a hot country.
You might like – Top 22 Japanese chain stores >
BRAND NEW FOR 2024
Join our Facebook Japan Travel Tips Group!
Need help with your Japan itinerary or have any questions?
Head on over to our Facebook group and ask the experts!
Click here to join our group >
100 Yen Shops in Japan – Traveller Tips
For travellers, 100 Yen shops are a bargain hunters paradise (although given the low price, some of the quality can be a little dubious).
With most (but not all) products costing 100 Yen plus tax – the Japanese consumption tax rate in Japan is 10% on most items but the 110 Yen shop doesn’t sound so catchy.
100 Yen for overseas visitors roughly converts to £0.50 in the UK, $0.85 SGD or $0.65 USD – Yen conversion rates are correct as of summer 2024.
Given all the bargains to be had in 100 Yen shops like Daiso and 100 Seria, it might even be worth buying a new suitcase in Japan and filling it full of souvenirs to take home. Many travelers go to Don Quijote to buy cheap suitcase and take them back home.
Try this – Top 10 shopping tours in Tokyo with Viator >
The big 3 100 Yen shops in Japan
There are over 10,000 100 Yen shops in Japan, although over half over those are managed by the big three 100 Yen shops and discount chains – Daiso, Seria 100 and Can Do.
Let’s take a look at each in more detail:
Daiso Japan
Daiso Japan is one of the best lifestyle and discount shop chains in Japan, with branches now popping up all over the world.
Of their 6,000 worldwide shops, there are 3,000 Daiso stores in Japan, with over 100,000 different products across their range.
With many Daiso products costing around 100 Yen (£0.50 / $0.65 USD equivalent) and upwards, Daiso Japan makes it easy to fill your home, garden or school-bag with affordable items and budget buys.
Daiso was founded in 1972 and basically sells nice household items at very low prices – at Daiso Japan you can buy everything from cute cat outfits to epic egg timers.
But what to buy? We’ve rounded up the most weird, wonderful and best products to buy in Daiso Japan here >
Can Do
Can Do is one of Japan’s biggest 100 Yen chain shops, with over 1,000 Can Do stores across Japan.
Selling everything from miniature furniture to super-cute stationery, Can Do has over 20,000 products all of which cost just 100 Yen (excluding tax).
Can Do’s biggest selling items include Tenugui Hand towels (traditional Japanese patterned cloth), microwave cooking equipment and health and beauty products like stick-on nail art.
You might like – Top 20 Japanese chain restaurants >
100 Seria
When talking about Japan’s famous 100 Yen shops, most people think of Daiso but Seria is a serious contender to the best 100 Yen shop in Japan crown. There are over 1000 x 100 Seria shops across the Land of the Rising Sun.
Whilst the Seria stalls are usually much smaller, the quality of products seems to be a bit better and you’ll usually find them tucked away in Japanese shopping centers.
Bargains include dog hats, chair protector socks shaped like cats plus loads of useful household items like glasses repair kits or USB connectors – and yep, they also sell lots of sublime stationery and pretty pencil cases.
Love cute and ‘kawaii’ stores in Japan?
Check out our shopping guides!
• Tokyo Character Street stores
• Studio Ghibli stores
• Don Quijote stores
• Doraemon Future Department store
• B-Side Label stores
• Mandarake stores
• Best Gachapon Capsule toys
• Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo
Plus our guide to the best kawaii things to do in Tokyo >
Our favorite 100 Yen products in Japan
There are literally thousands of cheap household items in Japan to choose from but these are our best Japan 100 Yen store products, all of which are light and easy to take back home overseas:
100 Yen Erasers
All of the 100 Yen stores in Japan have lots of super stationery products but some of the best are the fun erasers.
From sushi erasers to animal character rubbers (easy), this is one of the cheapest gifts you can buy and a simple souvenir to take home from Japan.
With 6 pieces in each pack, just remember you can’t eat the sushi erasers no matter how good they look – stick to Kura Sushi instead.
You might like these Tokyo neighbourhood guides:
Akihabara
Asakusa
Ginza
Harajuku
Ikebukuro
Nakano
Odaiba
Ryogoku
Shibuya
Shimokitazawa
Shinjuku
Also check out our
Where to stay in Tokyo guide
Mini animal skewers and transport picks
Another cute but practical utensil is the sandwich skewers – they come in packs of 8 to 10 skewers and aim to make your lunch look pretty or differentiate similar looking food types.
Our favorites are the picks shaped like trains or the animal lunch series which includes a panda pick – it almost makes your lunch too pretty to eat.
You might like – Our guide to Japan’s biggest UNIQLO store in Ginza, Tokyo >
Toothpaste tube squeezer
Trying to squeeze that last bit of toothpaste out of the near empty toothpaste Tube has always been of our lives (well, that and pineapple pizza).
But now, thanks to the Daiso deities, you can now easily squeeze out the tiniest bit of toothpaste by using this 100 Yen toothpaste squeezer!
You might like – Plan My Japan’s guide to BIC Camera and its tax free shopping >
Children’s training chopsticks
Before kids in Japan can eat oodles of noodles or taste Tsukemen, they have to learn how to use chopsticks.
Daiso has animal themed training chopsticks for kids so they can learn to use them without constantly dropping the sticks on the floor.
You can get dinosaur training chopstick holders, pandas or even bears.
You might like – Tokyo’s best malls and shopping districts >
Chair leg covers / seat socks
How can 100 Yen buy you this much happiness?! We adore these charming chair leg covers (or as we like to call them, seat socks).
They come in packs of four (obviously) and are available in neutral / basic patterns as well as more awesome animal patterns like sloths, cats, shibas and pandas.
Protecting your floors from scratches and squeaks, these chair leg covers are cheap and an easy gift to take home.
You might like – Our guides to buying sumo wrestling tickets or buying baseball tickets in Tokyo
Animal storage bag clips
Snap to it with these awesome animal storage bag clips available in most Japanese Daiso stores (and a lot of the international Daiso branches too).
The packs consist of 8 character clips including cats, dogs and pandas.
You might like – Japan’s 35 tastiest foods and snacks >
Found this 100 Yen stores in Japan article helpful?
Did you enjoy our 100 Yen stores in Japan blog post? Let us know by sharing it on social media.
You can follow us on:
Instagram
Tik Tok
Facebook
Pinterest
YouTube