Record Stores Of Shibuya, Tokyo

It's been half a year since my Japanese trip. It was really a great one: we visited Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Yokohama; we saw beautiful nature, impressive monuments, and futuristic cityscapes, we met nice people and tasted delicious, and often strange, food. Of course I went record hunting, too, and let me tell you this country is a goldmine for record hunters: quality Japanese pressings, some peculiar Japan-only editions, decades-old used vinyl looking as good as new because it's been handled with care and respect, huge record stores full of rare albums, and all for great prices - often half of what you'd pay in Europe or the U.S. I've written previously about my record store mapping session in Kyoto; I got to see a fair amount of that city's record shops, but Tokyo... Tokyo is a lost cause, unless one can spend weeks there, and dedicate a big chunk of their time to record hunting. I mean Tokyo City alone has 14 million inhabitants - and the Tokyo metropolitan area has 37 million! Anyway, I could never surpass this guy's work, which you can download here - what I can do is present the shops I visited at the Shibuya area, where we stayed. It's one of the most famous neighborhoods, a real hub where all the transportation lines meet: apparently, Shibuya Station is visited by 3 million people daily; the second-busiest train station in the world after Shinjuku Station which is right around the corner (around 4km away). It's also famous for the Shibuya Scramble Crossing, the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world; 3000 pedestrians pass the crossing per green light, adding up to almost half a million people daily. So as you can imagine all of Tokyo plus legions of tourists end up here, which makes for an extremely lively area housing lots and lots of bars, restaurants, and shops. Before I start, some general rules about Japan record stores: firstly, many of them aren't front store businesses. You may find them inside shopping malls, or in residential buildings; some, like Disk Union, may even be scattered in different floors of different buildings a couple of blocks apart.

Secondly, buildings in Japan don't have a ground floor - or rather, the 1st floor is the ground floor. So when one tells you this record store is on the 2nd floor that means you go up one flight of stairs. Thirdly, unlike in the US, all prices are tax-inclusive BUT there's a neat little trick you may want to take advantage of: overseas travelers may have the tax deducted from their purchases provided they don't make use of them while they're on Japanese soil. This service will not be available in all shops, but some record stores provide it. Finally, the price of some records will be in the thousands, but don't let that scare you: as of 2025, ¥1000 is only worth roughly €6 or $7. Shibuya's Tower Records is the largest record store in the Asian continent - probably in the world, too. I mean there seem to be four contenders for this title, and one of them is Amoeba Records in L.A. which I've already visited; I can verify that it's freaking huge, but Tower Records Shibuya is even bigger (if not necessarily better). First of all, the building is literally tower-like in height. It's 8 floors high and 1 deep (so, 9 floors in total). Each one is dedicated to something else e.g. 3rd floor is Japanese music, 4th is anime and game soundtracks, 5th is K-pop, 6th is reserved exclusively for vinyl singles and LPs (jazz rock pop soul etc). New records cost around ¥5000, used ones ¥500-3000. Address is 1-22-14 Jinnan, a three-minute walk from Shibuya Station (Hachiko Exit). You know the story of Hachiko dog, right? Exactly opposite the train station, also accessible via the underground passage, you'll find the Magnet Department store (1-23-10 Jinnan). The rooftop lounge of the 8th floor offers one of the best views of Tokyo, including the Shibuya Scramble Crossing. One has to buy a ticket to get there, but the 7th floor is free, and one can get a good view of the crossing from there, too. 

Recofan, which is one of Tokyo's biggest, and more historic, record stores takes up most of the 6th floor.  Here, new LPs cost ¥4000+, used ones on average ¥2000, and used CDs ¥280-1000. Something I found very helpful was that records were arranged alphabetically; in Japanese of course, but next to the Japanese characters (each one is a syllable) there are the corresponding letters in the Latin alphabet. Still close to the station, on the 5th and 6th floor of the Shibuya Modi department store (1-21-3 Jinnan) one can visit HMV Music & Books. To be honest it didn't meet my expectations, as it seemed to focus on K- and J- Pop idols and boy/girl bands, and fan merchandise. There does seem to be an awful big market for those, judging from all the advertisements; these are all around Shibuya giving it that Blade Runner vibe. Huge screens with moving, and often talking, ads, not only on or above the towering buildings but also on street level as well as moving in the streets. I can't tell you how often I was surprised when I heard a voice seemingly addressed to me, and looked right to see the moving image of an androgynous Asian teen idol on a screen bolted on a moving vehicle's trailer. Thankfully, there's another HMV record store nearby (36-2 Udagawacho Noah Shibuya) this one focuses on international music (rock, indie, prog) as well as some J-rock. New LPs around ¥4000-5000, used ones mostly ¥3000 although there are also some for ¥1000. All the above shops (Tower, Recofan and both HMVs) allow for tax-free purchases, which isn't the case with the rest of the shops I visited. Still in the neighborhood, there's Manhattan Records which specializes in Hip Hop, R & B and classic soul. On the 1st Floor (ground floor to us Westerners) there are records in these genres as well as street fashion items, while the 2nd floor mostly has used records and CDs (mostly ¥770-2000) as well as some singles and cassettes. Another shop in similar music style is 2 Tight Music (35-4 Udagawacho, Oak Village Building). It's on the 5th floor, apartment 503. Small but packed with lots of hip hop CDs, as well as some singles and cassettes. On the 3rd floor (apt.305) there's another specialty record store: RnR Music Garden is dedicated to rockabilly. 

Which brings us to a back alley behind a very central street, while there are also a few night clubs in the area. Here there are two record stores opposite each other, Face Records (soul, jazz, funk - according to Google this is now "temporarily closed") and Next Records (2F Ryuko Building, 11-11 Udagawacho) (hip hop, R&B, disco etc). One floor above you'll find another record store called Mother's Record (jazz, rock, bootlegs). You can see it from the street but the entrance is somewhat hidden. I could hear some great rock music coming from a bar here (I think it was this one) - it sounded like The Clash with Japanese lyrics. Me and my girlfriend thought about going in for a drink but there were some very drunk customers at the staircase, singing the chorus of the song at the top of their lungs. They didn't look dangerous or something, they were just loudly enjoying themselves, but we weren't in a similar mood so we left. At the corner there was another bar; a young girl with a short skirt -as is the fashion there- at the door was inviting people to come in, but that's something you get used to in Tokyo, restaurants and retail shops have them too. What did catch my attention was a sign at the front with prices per 45 or 60 minutes. My first thought was they were renting karaoke booths or something similar, the second one was something less innocent. It turns out that this was a 'girls' bar', a popular kind of diversion for middle-aged Japanese men. Contrary to what happens in the West, this is about company, not sex: there's no touching, the girls don't dance for the men or take their clothes off, they're only there for conversation - on any subject except sex. Anyway, let's get back to the record stores, because I've kept the best for last, and that's Disk Union, the motherlode of all record stores anywhere in the world! The various departments of this shop are a bit scattered, yet close to each other. If they were gathered in one place, they'd probably surpass Tower Records. The extremely detailed guide I recommended earlier mentions that Disk Union takes up 5 floors of the Antena 21 building (30-7 Udagawachō), but that wasn't the case when I visited last April: only two floors were occupied by Disk Union at that time: 4F (Club Music) featuring techno, dance, hip hop as well as DJ equipment and 5F (Jazz & Rare Groove) that had jazz, reggae, and world music (prices starting at ¥380, mostly over ¥2000). 

Another shop is at the basement of the Parco department store (15-1 Udagawachō): a lot of jazz, indie, rock, metal, and J-rock. Good variety and prices, even though I couldn't understand the idea behind the pricing: I found two seemingly identical used copies of The Beatles' Blue album, in the exact same condition: one had a yellow label and cost  ¥4650, the other one had a blue label and cost ¥480 - less than €3 for a Beatles' double LP in VG+ condition - only in Japan, man! I could have filled suitcases full of vinyl - hell, I almost did when I visited Disk Union on the first day of the trip, buying all kinds of good-ish records that I nevertheless didn't need, just because they cost less than one third of their usual price. Then I imagined myself dragging those suitcases with me for the rest of the journey, on the shinkansen and in those subterranean cities that pass for metro stations in Japan. From then on, I only bought records from Japanese bands that I knew I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. By far the most purchases were made at Disk Union Rock (at the basement of 32-7 Udagawa-cho). Huge huge variety in all rock subgenres (classic rock, J-rock, punk, metal etc.) both in vinyl and CD. There were some new LPs (around ¥5000) but crucially lots and lots of used LPs starting from ¥380, and mostly under ¥2000. Here too they have the system with different color labels corresponding to different price ranges. During my visit I also happened to catch an in-store gig, which I loved. I wouldn't know if it happens frequently, though. There are many more Disk Union branches in Tokyo, most notably in Shinjuku, where the various by-genre shops are also scattered among different apartment buildings in the same area. I'll stop at saying that these are also must-visit for collectors, and limit this post to the Shibuya region, with which I'm relatively more familiar; after all there's a lot of information online about record shopping in Tokyo, I'm only scratching the surface here.