Where to buy anime figures in Japan: the best shops in Tokyo and Osaka, prices, tax-free rules and getting them home

Where to buy anime figures in Japan

The best place to buy anime figures in Japan is Akihabara in Tokyo, and within Akihabara it is one building: Akihabara Radio Kaikan, where ten shops on floors two to seven sell figures, new and second-hand. Collectors after older or rarer pieces should add Nakano Broadway, also in Tokyo. In Osaka, the place to go is Nipponbashi, around Ota Road and Den Den Town.

Tokyo's official travel guide puts collecting at the root of the district: "The subcultures obsessed with gaming, manga, figure collecting and anime that constitute otaku culture have their roots firmly planted in Akihabara."

This guide names only shops that appear on an official page this site has read: a building's own directory, a maker's own website or an official tourism guide. It does not rank shops by price, because no official source does.

Akihabara: the best place to buy anime figures in Tokyo

Akihabara Station is on the JR Yamanote, Keihin-Tohoku and Sobu Lines, the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line and the Tsukuba Express. Tokyo's official guide gives 18 minutes from Shinjuku Station on the JR Sobu Line and 4 minutes from Tokyo Station on the JR Yamanote Line. Leave by the Electric Town exit. Radio Kaikan and the Tamashii Nations store are each about a minute from it.

Akihabara Radio Kaikan, floor by floor

Tokyo's official guide describes the building this way: "Simply known as Radio Kaikan, this building with distinctive red and yellow neon signage is crammed with tiny shops devoted to hobbies." The same page says the first shops sold specialist parts for radios and computers, and that cosplay, games, comics, toys and figures have since taken over.

The building is at 1-15-16 Sotokanda, Chiyoda City. Its own website gives building hours of 10:00 to 20:00, and its floor guide runs to ten floors and a basement. These are the shops that matter for figures, with the details each one gives on the building's website:

Three things the table shows:

1. The building opens before most of its figure shops. At 10:00 on a weekday, only Akiba no X, Lashinbang and Yellow Submarine are open among the ten. By noon every one of them is, on any day of the week.
2. Uchusen closes first, at 19:30. The rest run until 20:00.
3. Second-hand stock is on several floors. Lashinbang deals in used goods, Akiba no X and AmiAmi sell second-hand next to new, and Havikoro Toy, K-Books and Jungle buy as well as sell.

Astop is the odd one out. It describes itself as a rental-showcase shop with some very rare items among the stock, and it is right beside the up escalator on the second floor. The eighth floor, Volks Hobby Square, is for scale models rather than character figures.

Tamashii Nations Store Tokyo

Tamashii Nations Store Tokyo is the brand's directly run flagship shop, operated by Bandai Spirits. It is at 1-1 Kanda Hanaokacho, Chiyoda City: one minute on foot from the Electric Town exit of JR Akihabara Station, two minutes from Akihabara Station on the Tsukuba Express and three minutes from Iwamotocho Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line.

• Hours: 10:00 to 20:00. The shop says these can change when it is crowded, and without notice.
• Layout: three zones, for the shop, for events and for new items.
• Shop-only items: its news page announces products sold only through Tamashii stores.
• Age limit: Tamashii Nations products are for ages 15 and over, and the shop says customers under 15 cannot buy them.
• Entry: nothing is needed in principle. When entry is restricted, a numbered ticket or an entry reservation may be required.
• Bags: there is no cloakroom and nowhere to leave luggage, and there are no toilets inside.
• Photos: in principle, everything on display may be photographed.

A second shop, Tamashii Nations Store Osaka, opens on Wednesday 2 December 2026. See the Osaka section below.

Chuo-dori and the back streets

Outside those two buildings, the shops spread along the main road. Tokyo's guide, on a page updated on 28 January 2026, says: "Chuo-dori Street is lined with shops selling computers, anime, manga, games, figures and more." It adds that the alley just off the main road is full of niche speciality shops selling retro games, computer parts and more.

On Sundays Chuo-dori is opened to pedestrians, from 13:00 to 18:00 between April and September and from 13:00 to 17:00 between October and March. It may be cancelled when rain or strong wind is expected.

animate Akihabara

animate is a chain for character goods rather than a figure specialist, but its Akihabara shop is worth knowing for two reasons: it is a tax-free shop, and its Annex has two floors of capsule toys. The shop says it reopened in its complete form on Saturday 8 August 2026.

• Annex: capsule toys on the first basement floor and the first floor, character goods centred on game titles on the second and third, and official shops and events on the fourth to seventh.
• Building 1: character goods on the first to sixth floors.
• Hours: Buildings 1 and 2 open from 10:00 to 21:00 every day. The Annex opens from 10:00 to 21:00 on weekdays and from 10:00 to 20:00 at weekends and on holidays.
• Address: 4-3-1 Sotokanda, Chiyoda City.

For the rest of the district, including its arcades and its capsule-toy hall, see our guide to Japan for anime fans.

Nakano Broadway: second-hand and rare figures

Nakano Broadway is where to look for a figure that is no longer in the shops. Tokyo's official guide puts it plainly: "Find the rarest plastic figurine collectibles and trinkets alongside equally sought-after manga series and out-of-print books."

The mall opened in 1966. Its own website says it has five floors, from the first basement to the fourth floor, and on 12 October 2026 its shop directory listed 206 shops, 84 of them under subculture.

One shop dominates the directory: Mandarake. The mall's website tells the story: Mandarake began here in 1980 as a second-hand manga bookshop of only 2 tsubo, about 6.6 square metres, and it was after Japan's bubble economy collapsed in 1991 that the building came to be called a holy land of subculture. Today the subculture pages of the directory have close to thirty entries for Mandarake alone, on the second, third and fourth floors.

Tokyo's guide to the Nakano area sums up the two big names: "Stores like Mandarake and Lashinbang sell almost everything you can think of relating to manga and anime."

Other figure shops in the same directory:

• Lashinbang Figure and Hobby, on the second floor.
• Havikoro Toy, with one shop on the second floor and one on the third. This is the chain that also has a shop in Radio Kaikan.
• Robot Robot, on the second floor.
• A rental-showcase shop, on the first floor.

Do not count on every shop being open at 10:00. This site could not read the individual shops' own pages, so it gives no hours for them.

Ikebukuro: character goods rather than figures

Ikebukuro is a strong district for anime shopping, but it is not where to go for figures. Its landmark is the animate Ikebukuro Flagship Store, 5 minutes on foot from the east exit of Ikebukuro Station, at 1-20-7 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima City. It opens from 10:00 to 21:00 and offers tax-free shopping.

The shop's own floor guide shows what it is for:

No floor is given over to figures. Come here for goods of a current series, and go to Akihabara or Nakano for figures. From Shinjuku Station, the JR Yamanote Line reaches Ikebukuro in 8 minutes.

Osaka: Nipponbashi and Ota Road

In Osaka, figure shops gather in Nipponbashi, the district also known as Den Den Town. Osaka's official guide singles out one street: "Ota Road in particular is full of enthusiast shops, including anime and figure specialty shops and maid cafes."

The area is about 10 minutes on foot from Namba Station, which is on the Osaka Metro Midosuji, Sennichimae and Yotsubashi Lines and on the Nankai Electric Railway. The guide's route to Ota Road is through Nansan Street, south of the station.

Shops the official pages name:

• Kotobukiya Nipponbashi. Kotobukiya is a maker of plastic models and figures, and the guide says to look for its green sign. The first floor carries goods from Ghibli, Nintendo and Square Enix, and from overseas works such as Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics. Upstairs is the part for figure buyers: "The second floor is also filled with figures and goods of popular anime and game characters." It also stocks tools for plastic models. The shop is in the Kotobuki Building, 4-15-18 Nipponbashi, Naniwa Ward, and the guide lists hours of 11:00 to 20:00.
• animate Osaka Nipponbashi. On animate's list of tax-free shops, on the first and second floors of the animate Building at 1-1-3 Nipponbashi-Nishi, Naniwa Ward.
• The small shops. The guide's page on Den Den Town does not name them, but it tells you they are there: "For those with more eclectic tastes, there are a decent number of smaller stores selling collectible figurines as well as vintage video games and consoles." It adds that some tax-free shops have opened in recent years.

How much anime figures cost in Japan

A new figure from a major maker costs anywhere from under 2,000 yen to more than 60,000 yen. That range comes from one page: the front page of the Good Smile Company Online Store, read from Japan on 12 October 2026. The store's guide says: "All prices displayed on this website include tax (product prices only)." Shipping is charged separately at checkout.

How to read it:

• The four Nendoroid figures in this sample ran from 6,800 to 8,000 yen, and the Nendoroid Doll was 10,000 yen.
• These are the maker's own prices, and most are for pre-orders. The store says: "The majority of products available for purchase on the Good Smile Company Online Store are preorder products." Do not expect to find these exact figures on a shelf in Akihabara this week.
• Second-hand prices depend on the item and its condition. No official page lists them, so this site does not quote one.
• Prize figures have no shelf price at all. You pay per play at an arcade.

Cheap and second-hand anime figures

The cheapest ways to get an anime figure in Japan are to buy it second-hand or to win it at an arcade. No official page lists second-hand prices, so this site does not quote one. What it can tell you is where the second-hand shelves are.

Second-hand shops

In Akihabara, six of the shops in Radio Kaikan deal in used stock:

• Lashinbang, 5F. A second-hand anime shop that buys and sells figures and character goods.
• Akiba no X, 5F. New and second-hand figures in the same shop.
• AmiAmi, 4F. Second-hand items among more than 100,000 products.
• Jungle, 7F. Buys and sells, with stock that runs from retro pieces to new ones.
• Havikoro Toy, 2F, and K-Books, 3F. Both buy as well as sell.

Astop, on the second floor, is a seventh place to look. It is a rental-showcase shop, and its own description promises figures, toys, miniature cars and trading cards, with some very rare items among them.

At Nakano Broadway, start with Mandarake on the second to fourth floors, then Lashinbang's figure shop and Havikoro Toy on the second floor.

With ten shops in one building, checking the same figure in two or three of them takes minutes. Do that before you pay, and read the section on bootlegs below before buying anything without a box.

Prize figures from arcades

Some figures are never sold in shops. They are made as prizes for arcade machines. Bandai Spirits runs a website for its Banpresto prize range, with a figure line, a schedule of when each prize appears and a search for arcades that carry it. The site is in Japanese. Three of the prizes on its front page on 12 October 2026:

Each date is marked as planned and as the start of a gradual roll-out, so one arcade may get a prize later than another.

Japan's national tourism organisation describes claw machines as holding nearly everything, from plush toys of every size to arcade-only goods tied to big anime series. Newer machines accept an IC card in place of coins, which means the Suica card in your pocket works, and it says a play needs only a couple of hundred yen.

A prize figure has no shelf price. What it costs you depends on how many plays it takes.

Is it cheaper to buy anime figures in Japan?

Often it is, but nobody official publishes the comparison, so this site does not quote one. No tourism body and no maker lists what the same figure costs in Japan and abroad. What the official pages do show is where the difference comes from.

In Japan's favour:

• The tax comes off. animate's own example gives the size of it: 5,000 yen before tax is 5,500 yen with tax. Reach that total in a single tax-free shop on the same day and the tax can come back to you.
• No shipping and no import charge between the shop and you. Order from the Good Smile Company Online Store instead and shipping is added at checkout. The store also warns: "When the product is shipped and received, customs duties may apply depending on your country or region of residence."
• Second-hand choice. Ten figure shops share one building in Akihabara, and Mandarake alone has close to thirty entries in Nakano Broadway's directory.
• Things sold only here. The Tamashii Nations store announces shop-only products, and AmiAmi's shop in Radio Kaikan lists event-only goods.

Against it:

• Space. A figure box is bulky. If the boxes do not fit in your bags, posting them costs money: EMS rates start from 1,450 yen.
• Pre-orders. Most of what the maker's own store sells is on pre-order. A figure announced this month may not be on a shelf during your trip.
• Your own customs allowance. What you carry home still has to pass your own country's rules.
• The exchange rate, which this site cannot predict.

The fair summary: if you are coming anyway, buy here, above all second-hand pieces and shop-only items. Do not plan a trip around saving money on one new release.

Tax-free shopping for figures

Figures count as general goods, so the plain rule applies: a day's purchases in one tax-free shop must reach 5,000 yen before tax, and you show your passport. What changes on 1 November 2026 is when the tax comes back to you.

animate's English page states the threshold: "Your total purchase amount (after discounts) must be ¥5,000 (ex-tax) / ¥5,500 (inc-tax) or more to qualify for tax-free shopping." The page gives anime merchandise as its first example of general goods.

Until 31 October 2026

You never pay the tax: the shop deducts it at the counter. At animate the procedure takes about ten minutes, and it can only be done on the day you buy.

From 1 November 2026

The Japan Tourism Agency says that for purchases made from Sunday 1 November 2026, Japan moves to a refund system:

1. In the shop, pay the price with the tax in it.
2. On your way out of Japan, and no more than 90 days after buying, show your passport at one of the tax-free procedure terminals in the airport or seaport. These are kiosks or electronic terminals.
3. The screen gives a result. Green means you are finished. Red means you take the goods to the customs inspection point, where an officer checks them.
4. The tax is refunded once customs has confirmed that the goods are leaving Japan.

At seven busy airports, Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka, New Chitose and Naha, the step at the terminal can also be done online through Visit Japan Web, inside the international departures lobby and before the security check.

animate's page already describes the new system, without giving a date: "Due to Japan’s revised tax exemption system, tax-free stores now sell products at tax-included prices." It says travellers apply for the refund after buying. This site has not seen how each shop pays the refund, so ask at the till.

The agency's advice follows from that: buy only as many as you can carry out of Japan yourself, and get to the airport early.

animate lists three cases in which you cannot use the service: your passport has no stamp showing when you entered Japan, more than six months have passed since you entered, or you work in Japan. Goods bought for business or for resale do not qualify either.

animate's tax-free shops include the Ikebukuro Flagship Store, Akihabara (Buildings 1 and 2), Osaka Nipponbashi, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Kyoto and Fukuoka Parco. This site has not confirmed which shops in Radio Kaikan and Nakano Broadway are tax-free shops, so look for the sign or ask before you queue.

To see the saving on a given basket, use our tax-free calculator, which covers both the old system and the new one.

Getting figures home: luggage, EMS and airport shops

A boxed figure is bulky, and the box matters. It is one of the things that marks a figure as genuine, and a tax-free purchase has to be shown at the airport on the way out.

In your luggage

This is the only route that keeps a tax-free purchase tax-free. Show the figures at the terminal before you check in, then pack them however you like. If you run out of room, our luggage guide explains where to buy a second suitcase and how to send bags ahead to the airport. Collect a forwarded bag before you go to the tax-free terminal.

By post: EMS

Japan Post describes its express service this way: "EMS is the fastest international mail service for sending up to 30 kg of documents and merchandise simply and conveniently to over 120 countries and territories worldwide."

• Tracking is available, and there is a compensation system.
• Price: Japan Post says rates start from 1,450 yen. This site does not quote a rate for a particular country.
• Limits vary by country. These are the ones Japan Post lists for ten destinations:

Remember the tax rule. A figure you post yourself does not leave Japan in your hands, so it does not qualify for the refund. Post the ones you paid tax on and carry the tax-free ones. Your own country may also charge duty or tax when a parcel arrives.

At the airport

Tamashii Nations' page for overseas customers lists airport shops that carry its products. All eight are in the area beyond outbound passport control, so they are for a last purchase, not a first.

The brand is frank about stock: "We do not promise the stock availability of every TAMASHII NATIONS products in the above stores." Your checked bags are already gone by then, so whatever you buy here travels in the cabin with you. The hours are the ones on the brand's page, read on 12 October 2026.

How to spot a bootleg figure

Counterfeit figures exist, and the makers say so themselves. Good Smile Company, the maker of Nendoroid, opens its page on the subject like this: "In recent years, bootleg products making use of the Nendoroid name or imitating other products distributed by Good Smile Company have been increasing."

The company says these copies are usually sold through online shops, internet auction sites and private sales, and that it cannot give any support for them. So the risk is lowest in a shop you walk into and highest in a marketplace listing. Its checks work in both places:

1. Check the seller. The company's first rule: "We highly recommend that you only purchase Good Smile Company products from recognised shops." Large online stores often host other sellers, so read the seller's name before you pay.
2. Check the wording. Be wary of a figure labelled as an Asia version, or one shipped from a suspicious location. Apart from a few select products, the company does not sell international or Chinese versions.
3. Check the box. Almost all of its products carry the company logo and the brand logo on the packaging. It does not sell bulk products that come without a box and packaging.
4. Check the date. "No products will ever be released before their release dates, unless they have specifically been labelled for early sales at a specific event."
5. Check that the figure exists. Look it up on the official website before you buy.
6. Check the price. "Always be cautious of products that seem too cheap for no particular reason."

A logo alone proves nothing. The company's own example shows bootlegs that carry its official logos, used without permission.

These checks come from one maker, but they travel well. A second-hand figure sold loose has lost the box, which is the easiest thing to check, so look harder at the rest.

Buying anime figures from Japan online

You can order from a Japanese maker without coming to Japan, but the terms differ from buying in a shop. These are the rules of the Good Smile Company Online Store, from its own guide:

• Currency. "If the registered region of your account is set to a country or region other than Japan or Taiwan, payment will be processed in U.S. dollars." Purchases from those regions cannot be made in yen.
• What the price covers. The product only. Shipping is added at checkout, and customs duties may apply when the parcel arrives.
• When you pay. "The order amount is charged at the time the item is shipped." Most of the store's products are pre-orders, so that can be long after you order.
• How you pay. Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express or Diners Club cards, or PayPal.
• Returns. None for preference or convenience once a product has been delivered.
• Availability. Some products cannot be bought from some regions because of licensing restrictions.

If you would rather buy near home, the makers publish lists of sellers they recognise:

• Good Smile Company has a partner shop listing that covers 19 countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan have lists of their own.
• Tamashii Nations says it operates in sixteen nations and regions, and its page for overseas customers lists its branches and official distributors.

This site could not read the pages of the big Japanese online figure retailers, so it does not name them or describe their terms.

Wonder Festival: Japan's figure event

Wonder Festival is the event built around figures themselves. The next one is Wonder Festival 2027 Winter:

• Dates: Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 February 2027, 10:00 to 17:00 on both days.
• Place: Makuhari Messe, International Exhibition Halls 1 to 8, in Mihama Ward, Chiba City.
• Organisers: the Wonder Festival Executive Committee and Kaiyodo, the figure maker whose own shop is on the fifth floor of Radio Kaikan.

The dates were announced on 26 July 2026, the day of the 2026 summer event, which ran for a single day. The winter event is the first to run for two days in Japan. The organisers explain why: the festival is more than 40 years old, the figure world that grew out of garage kits has become an established culture, and the editions held in China, Thailand and South Korea, and in the United States in 2026, all run for more than one day. They expect two days to ease the crowding and to give visitors time to look at the work properly.

Exhibitors are called dealers, and they show and sell things they have sculpted themselves. That is the reason to go: much of what is on the tables is not in any shop.

This site has not read the ticket page for the 2027 event, so it does not quote a price. The event's website is in Japanese.

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