Three Selected Japanese Regional Specialty Stores in Tokyo: Experience the Local Character of Every Corner of Japan

In recent years, more and more street-level shops and spaces specializing in a single Japanese prefecture or municipality have appeared. These spaces are called "antenna shops," and some are marketing and promotion stations for local governments, while others are testing grounds for local companies to gauge the market, adding the flavor of regional prefectures and municipalities to the streets of Tokyo. Unlike antenna shops thatfocus on a single prefecture or municipality, this article introduces three comprehensive specialty stores that gather the distinctive features of Japan's47prefectures.

Please set aside your old assumptions about specialty stores for a moment, because these three stores are all fun and interesting, and more importantly, all trendy and stylish!

[Shibuya] Select shop, exhibitions, dining hall, local design magazine: experience the regions with all five senses:D&Department

D&Department Project(hereafter abbreviated asD&D) was founded in2000by designer Nagaoka Kenmei, with "Long Life Design (Long Life Design）”[note1]as its concept, focusing on the unique character of Japan's47prefectures and the design born from them, and presenting the appearance and charm of each region of Japan through all five senses via a select shop, regional exhibitions, a dining hall, and a regional design magazine (d design travel).

2000After the Tokyo Setagaya store opened in12, as of now there are2013stores in Japan and overseas, spread across Tokyo, Hokkaido, Okinawa and other places within Japan, as well as the Seoul, South Korea store that opened in2018, and the Bishan, Anhui, China store that opened in9The Bishan store in Anhui, China, opened in month. Besides47. In addition to a select shop of designs fromcafeprefectures that fit "Long Life Design," some stores also include complex spaces such as exhibitions and2012. Among them, the most representative is the series gathered inShibuya Hikarieon the eighth floor of the "d47 museum、d47" department store in Shibuya:d47 design travel storedining hall,

, using regional exhibitions, a dining hall, and a select shop to let travelers deeply experience the unique character of Japan's regions in a corner of bustling Shibuya.D&DAfter fully showcasing Japan's regions in curation, product selection, editing, and cuisine, today's

[ d design travel store (Image source: D&Department Project) ]
Further reading+Museum+Dining hall47Select shop, experience Japan with all five senses
d47prefecturesMuseum past exhibition-related reports: d47 MUSEUMGood design that solves local problemsP to P STORE” 、 Exhibition "

D&D's own published regional design magazine: d design travel (Image source: D&Department Project)Marugoto Nippon

[Asakusa] Marketing the best of Japan's regions with an entire shopping mall:2015In the Asakusa area, where tourists gather,12In month, a new landmark that "fully presents Japan" appeared——Marugoto Nippona new landmark that "fully presents Japan" appeared

(Marugoto Nippon, literally meaning "complete Japan").