All About Japan

¥100 Shop Stationery

Shopping Cheap Stationery ¥100

¥100 shops are great for solving most day-to-day needs, and are the default go-to for basic stationery in Japan. While there are quite a number of brands out there from Can☆Do to Seria, Daiso seems to be the chain that's become almost synonymous with the ¥100 concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckBmdHUueM

You can see a shop overview above, in this case using a Daiso branch in Harajuku, Tokyo, as an example.

Stores will range in size from a single floor to multi-story extravaganzas of cheap but decent-quality goods. Starting with baking goods, in the video above we can see candy, beauty products, character goods and novelty items interspersed with stationery mainstays from pens and stickers to notebooks and letter writing sets.

The specific product list will vary from store to store, and will often even change between visits. But even in the smallest store, you can expect to find a dedicated aisle of notebooks, folders and letter sets, as well as a large variety of writing tools and organizers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyzCAjeRyAI

The haul above is a simple example, with markers, pastels and craft paper...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1jedrRIjVs

...while if you want to get more detailed, this video offers a 10-minute outline of everything from stickers to bags, pens, pencil sharpeners, notebooks, erasers, lace paper and even a little garbage can. You can find dozens of similar Daiso haul videos all over YouTube.

If you like cute stationery, a ¥100 shop is a great stop, as each store will often offer a completely different selection. The examples above aren't even from different chains—they're just from different Daiso stores.

So what do you do if there isn't a ¥100 shop near you? Shop online, of course!