An interesting trait of Japan is that it has weaponized FOMO to the extent where everything is a limited time, limited offer engagement, every seasonal change is celebrated, every little town has a specialty item (Meibutsu 名物 "famous items" or meisan 名産 "specialty product") which became an object of constant yearning and desire. Japanese etiquette dictates that if you go on a trip (business, personal and otherwise) you were expected to bring back Omiyage お土産, or souvenir where you get to share in those experiences. Take for instance these stuffed animals from my 2024 trip to Japan - each one of them are limited time, limited availability items from various parts of Honshu (the main island of Japan).
(there's items from Disney Resorts Japan, JR West, JR Central, JR East and a certain popular instant noodles manufacturer here)
If you have been to a Japanese airport or train station there are shops (or food halls in department stores) that specialize in local specialty products (60% of them are made in the same factories in or near the Tokyo Bay area so they are not as local as portrayed) and you'll see salarymen or OLs (office ladies) buy bags of stuff before hopping on board so they can gift them to friends, family, coworkers, or in some cases, kiss up to the bosses.
In almost all cases the Omiyage is a meibutsu or Meisan which is only sold at that time in that location - if you don't have it now you would miss out on it seemingly forever.
For an example of that trait, me and the missus waited for nearly 30 minutes
at a locally famous bakery (Rikkuro) between Dotonbori and Namba station in the heart of Osaka specializing in cheesecake - fairly good oven fresh and on the spot. Then we realized the next day that the same cheesecake was available frozen at Shin-Osaka station’s omiyage shops (literally steps from the Sanyo Shinkansen platform). Yeah, it's a total hustle, but in a society like Japan where enforced courtesy is a thing, being an American visitor giving an overworked hostess at an onsen (hot springs resort) a box of momji pastry from Hiroshima (cost me all of 5 USD) did get me a free room upgrade with a sly wink and a thumbs up...which is much appreciated. Figuring how a given system works and how to best take advantage of it is the trait of a systems guy.
So, what does that have to do with the Gachapons? Well, Gachas are Japan's most direct way to monetize FOMO - the need for new-ness, uniqueness and timeliness meant that you are constantly bombarded by a desire to buy new ones (especially from the kids and the bored grannies out there). There are multiple gacha makers (
Bandai Namco,
Takara Tomy ARTS,
Ken Elephant,
Stand Stones,
Yell,
Toys Cabin and
others) with their
own dedicated gacha stores all over Japan (and sometimes seemingly at the middle of a train station ticket hall, like this one off the Yamanote line (the circular route that runs around the middle of Tokyo)). It's also big money - if you look at the pricing for most gachapon listed here, it's between 3-500 Yen (2.00 to 3.50 USD)...which doesn't seem like a lot in 2025, but an average Japanese breakfast (
both Japanese and
Western style from local quickserves) is between 450 to 700 Yen and people pull Gatchas several at a time - imagine someone dropping breakfast money on pieces of plastic. Yeah, it's fundamentally predatory, much like the
pachinko parlors found all over Japan, but in a way it's like those Lego minifigure collectible blind box sets sold at your local Target or
Walmart.
Ironically enough there are
gacha collections which also serves as Omiyage - for example, the 2 above...One is for Asakusa (an old school area in Northeastern Tokyo close to Tokyo Skytree) and one is for Osaka...and I ran across both at stores in Skytree Solamachi and Shinsekai (tourist spots in each city respectively).
The missus was actually comforted by the fact that Japanese Gacha machines are coin operated and not linked to the contactless farecards (Suica/Icoca/Pasmo) that we were using or I'll be tapping for Gatcha in every stop. Those Gacha machines were definitely linked to the Octopus contactless fare cards in Hong Kong's MTR (mass transit railways) and I caught some hell for it several years ago.
Most big vendors release new gatchas seemingly at a weekly cadence, and if response rates aren't good enough to justify repeats or continuation, well, that's it, nothing else new will come out. So this is slightly off scope from the mini-server set since it'll cover for any/all Gachas and Japanese merch that you'll want to get your hands on...
So, where do you go to score them? It depends on whether you are in Japan (visiting or living there) or not...
(to be continued...)
