Official Shops Outside Japan: The US, UK and Europe
You do not need a Japan trip to start: official shops operate across 18 countries and regions. Here is how the overseas network works.
| Network size | 184 official shops across 18 countries and regions (Bandai announcement, October 2026); target 500 overseas shops |
|---|---|
| United States | US official site store locator listed 54 official-shop results (CA, NY, TX, FL, IL and more) at research time; Bandai Namco Cross Store with an official shop opened at Mall of America, Minnesota, in October 2026 |
| Europe | Official stores listed for the UK, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France on Bandai's WORLD STORE list |
How overseas official shops differ from Japan
Overseas official shops stock a selection of current Japanese series, often on a delay of weeks to months behind the Japanese release, at local prices set by the operator. The machine experience — card, capsule, leaflet — is the same, though leaflets may carry local-language safety stickers. Series choice skews to globally known characters more than Japan's long tail of domestic miniatures.
Finding your nearest official shop
Use the maker's official channels: the US official site's store locator for the United States, and Bandai's WORLD STORE list for other countries. This guide does not reproduce store lists because they change as the network expands toward its 500-shop target — the official locator is always the current version. In Asia-Pacific, official shops are densest in East and Southeast Asia; Australian visitors should note that, at research time, Australia's main connection was inbound travel (a record 1,058,300 Australians visited Japan in 2025) plus authorised import retail — see the buying-outside-Japan guide for both routes.
Sources: Bandai / Bandai Namco Gashapon official information and 50th-anniversary growth-strategy briefing (8 October 2026, reported by Mynavi News, Real Sound and Asahi Shimbun); Japan Capsule Toy Association (JCTA) market survey (figures cited via industry reporting — survey scope differs from Bandai's, so market size is given as a range); Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) visitor statistics 2025; official shop pages (Bandai official shops, Gashapon Department Store, #C-pla and other chains); Wikipedia 'Gashapon' (CC BY-SA 4.0, credited only, not a destination). Checked 5 November 2026.