November 3, 2025

Japan, the Golden Land of Second-Hand Treasures

Japan is rapidly becoming a global treasure island for retro and second-hand goods, attracting a growing number of inbound tourists whose primary purpose of travel is shopping for used records, film cameras, and vintage game software. Amid the worldwide revival of interest in analog products, items once manufactured in large volumes during Japan’s economic peak of the 1980s and 1990s are now being rediscovered as rare collectibles.

At Tower Records Shibuya, foreign visitors account for around 30 percent of record sales in December and nearly 40 percent in January, sometimes filling almost the entire floor. Tourists are drawn not only by the weak yen but also by the exceptional condition and wide selection of Japanese stocks. Japan once hosted many concerts by overseas artists and imported large quantities of Western records, leaving behind a vast archive spanning genres and decades. The global popularity of Japanese city pop, spread through social media, has further boosted demand, with some visitors paying over 200,000 yen for premium titles.

A similar boom is unfolding in the film camera market. Stores in Shinjuku and Shibuya report that up to 70 percent of customers are now foreigners searching for Japanese-made models from the 1980s and 1990s. Influencers have popularized the soft texture of film photography, and prices of iconic models such as the Contax T series have surged to 100,000 to 200,000 yen.

Retro games have also become prized souvenirs. In Akihabara and Osaka, foreign visitors make up about half to 80 percent of customers at specialty shops, with cartridges for the Famicom, Game Boy, and Super Famicom selling at double or even ten times their original prices. Thanks to Japan’s culture of careful ownership and its reliable appraisal systems, the country has preserved a high-quality second-hand market that now functions as a powerful new driver of inbound tourism, revealing Japan once again as a modern Zipangu of hidden treasures.