Tips on Japanese 100 Yen shops (Top 3 Best Buy & Worst Buy)

100 yen shops are a type of store that sells a variety of products for 100 yen (100 yen plus 5 percent consumption tax). They sell processed foods, cosmetic accessories, tableware, cookware, commodities such as batteries and stationary.

My recommended Top 3 Best Buys are cosmetics, ceramic tableware and outlet cables for smart phones.
Top 3 Worst Buys are foods (same price as supermarkets, less amount), ballpoints pens (poor writing performance), batteries (do not last)

Many of the 100 yen shops are chain stores and here are TOP 3 shops for your reference. But honestly speaking, there is no big difference among them. So you might just want to check out your nearest shops.

The biggest 100 yen shop in Japan is Daiso in Funabashi city, Chiba prefecture (approx. 6650m2). They have 55,000 items! The biggest one in Tokyo area is Daiso in Kinshi-cho (6,600m2)

As 100 yen shops are almost everywhere in Japan and everybody knows them, if you get lost to locate one, you can ask anyone nearby on the street by saying “Hyaku yen shop DOKO? (where is a 100 yen shop?)”. If it does not work, please show them a coin of 100 yen and ask “shop DOKO?”.

They usually open around 10am and open until 8pm. Some shops such as the ones in Shinjuku (“Siruku”) and Ebisu (“Cando”) open until 11pm.

One note : Although we call it “100 yen shop”, it is actually 105 yen because of 5 % consumption tax. It will be 108 yen since April 2014 when a tax rate rises to 8 %.

When you buy stuff, they will give you a free shopping bag. However, it’s a plastic bag and not too strong, you might want to buy a strong bag at 100 yen when you buy many things or something heavy!

For your reference　Shops,
Daiso (overwhelmingly large selection of products!) : http://www.daiso-sangyo.co.jp/english/
Cando (novelty) : http://www.cando-web.co.jp/e/
Seria (pretty and stylish) : http://www.seria-group.com/ (Homepage available only in Japanese)