Travel tips
Japan travel tips for card collectors
Guides for collectors visiting Japan to shop for cards: getting between cities, staying online, what card shops post for customers, tax-free shopping and what to declare when you fly home.
Getting around
Getting startedDoes a JR Pass pay off on a card shop trip to Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka?Only on a round trip, and only by a little. At JR's published smartEX prices, Tokyo to Shin-Osaka to Hakata and back to Tokyo on Hikari and Sakura…Read the guide →Getting startedWhat does a card shop trip to Japan need your phone online for, and which connection covers it?Tournament check-in, shop pages and maps, and the airport tax refund all assume a phone with data, and Pokémon's Players Club sends an SMS to a mobile…Read the guide →
In the shops
Getting startedWhat rules do Japanese card shops post for customers, and what do visitors need to know?Very few, and almost none about behavior. The store pages of Hareruya2, Hareruya, Card Labo, Dragon Star, Card Rush, Hobby Station and the Pokémon…Read the guide →Getting startedCan a visitor to Japan play in a card shop's play space or join a shop tournament, and what do they need?Open play at a shop's duel space has no stated requirement beyond your own cards, but entering a shop tournament usually means creating an app account…Read the guide →PokémonCan you walk into a Tokyo Pokémon Center on release day and buy new cards?Not always. For the 30th CELEBRATION expansion released September 16, 2026, Pokémon Center MEGA TOKYO sold packs only to people who won an advance…Read the guide →Getting startedCan you buy new Japanese card packs at Yodobashi, Bic Camera or Don Quijote, and what limits apply?Sometimes, but the chains' own pages show it happening mostly through online lotteries for members, not as walk-in release-day sales. Joshin's web…Read the guide →Getting startedCan you find trading cards at BOOKOFF, Mandarake and other secondhand chains in Japan?Yes, but mostly as places to browse. BOOKOFF lists trading cards (トレカ) as a product category and says stock differs by store, Mandarake runs card…Read the guide →
Tax-free and the flight home
Getting startedCan you buy trading cards tax-free in Japan, and how does the refund work now?Yes, at shops registered for tax-free sales, but since November 1, 2026 you pay the full price including consumption tax and get the tax back only…Read the guide →Getting startedCan you buy Pokémon cards at Narita or Haneda before your flight home?Don't count on it. Narita has a Pokémon Store in Terminal 1, South Wing 4F, open 9:00 to 20:00 before security, but its official pages do not say it…Read the guide →Getting startedDo you have to declare Japanese trading cards when you fly home, and will you pay duty?Declare them if they take you past your country's duty-free limit, and in the U.S. and Canada declare what you bring back either way. The limits are…Read the guide →
Card shops by city
All card shops →Buying from home instead
Buying from JapanWhat does a Japanese card cost by the time it reaches the U.S.?As of November 2, 2026, goods from Japan pay a combined U.S. duty of 12.5% under a Section 301 action in force since July 24, 2026, and Pokémon cards…Read the guide →Buying from JapanWhich Japanese card shops ship overseas themselves, and which don't?Of the ten chains behind the 32 shops in our guides, only two state on their own online-shop pages that they ship outside Japan: Hareruya (Magic: The…Read the guide →Buying from JapanWhich Japan proxy service costs the least for buying cards: ZenMarket, Buyee, Neokyo, Japan Rabbit or FROM JAPAN?There is no single cheapest service: on a Mercari card, Buyee charges ¥500 per order plus a plan fee, ZenMarket ¥800 per item, and Japan Rabbit $3.00…Read the guide →