Vintage Shopping in Tokyo Requires an Adventurous Spirit and Plenty of Patience

It just takes a quick Google search or browsing your favourite social media platform to get inundated with recommendations and pointers about shopping for vintage clothing and goods in Tokyo. It is, after all, the heart of Japan’s second-hand shopping area, and there is no shortage of places to check out.

A recent trip offered some eye-opening perspectives into how to tackle the overwhelming amount of stores and inventory. It’s not really helpful to offer a list of what “the best” stores are because that entirely depends on when you’re visiting, what you’re looking for, and what stock is like at the time. More applicable is that if vintage shopping is on your list, it’s worthwhile to venture outside of the main tourist areas. Areas like Koenji and Nakameguro will likely give you a better chance of scoring a great find at a better price, at least for now.

Travel bloggers and TikTokers will wax enthusiastic about a one-off Miu Miu or Chloe bag they found at some unbeatable price, but what they likely won’t tell you is how many Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and other brands they sifted through to find something special. If you’re looking for an Hermès Birkin or Kelly, most stores will have a dedicated section for those bags, so it’s easy to walk right in and start looking at inventory. Most everything else is mixed together, loosely sorted by brand, and you’ll need to be prepared to look, look some more, and potentially walk away.

This is especially so when it comes to clothing. Some stores are dedicated to streetwear (usually in the highest-traffic tourist areas), and others cater to more subdued tastes such as for Burberry trenches, while other stores mix them together in no particular order. Expect to see rare 1990s Air Jordans near vintage Patagonia puffers.

What’s striking is the good-to-great condition of almost every product. Most of the popular stores rank condition from A to D, with A being mint/unworn and D showing lots of wear. Even bags and shirts at the lower end of the scale are still in relatively good shape. Japan’s anticounterfeit laws are strict, so it’s a good bet that any product in a vintage store is the real deal. Japanese culture tends to value the new and current, so there is plenty of turnover in the luxury goods market.

The most expensive vintage shopping is in Ginza, Tokyo’s highest-end shopping area. Even midrange goods seem pricier here, but it would be the place to find the exact Rolex Daytona you want or a contemporary Dior dress. Other tourist areas have a broader range, with Shibuya feeling the most approachable and varied. Although we didn’t plan it as such, it was immensely helpful to stay at a centrally located hotel like the Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho, a Luxury Collection Hotel. While the Prince itself is not in a shopping neighbourhood, it is perched between Ginza, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. That made a world of difference when planning our days around which areas we wanted to explore.

You could easily spend an entire Tokyo trip vintage shopping, and having proximity to the highest number of stores means you can see more and hopefully find that exciting piece you’ve been eyeing.

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