TOKYO - Hands Shibuya, one of Tokyo's best-known variety stores, will close on November 15 after 48 years in business, bringing an end to a shopping destination famous for its enormous selection of innovative household goods, stationery and unusual gadgets, with around 100,000 products still filling its shelves in the final weeks before closure.
The store opened in 1978, the same year Narita Airport began operations and the popular Japanese pop group Candies disbanded. Since then, it has built its reputation on an extraordinary range of products that reflect changing lifestyles and consumer tastes.
From traditional charcoal grills and the health sandals that became fashionable decades ago to modern kitchen appliances and smartphone-controlled stationery, the store has continually adapted its merchandise to suit the times. Advertising flyers from its opening year reveal the emphasis placed on offering unusual and practical products, a philosophy that has remained central to its identity.
As the closing date approaches, customers have been leaving messages expressing their affection for the store and their disappointment at its departure.
One of the Shibuya branch's most distinctive features is its unusual architecture. The building extends from two basement levels to seven floors above ground, with 24 separate shopping sections connected in a spiral arrangement. Visitors wind their way through the building, discovering different categories of merchandise as they climb.
The kitchenware section remains one of its main attractions, offering an extensive selection of products designed to make everyday cooking easier.
Among its biggest sellers is the Leye Yubisaki Tongs, manufactured by AUX and priced at 1,650 yen. More than 1.7 million units have been sold since the product was introduced.
Unlike conventional kitchen tongs, the tips fit precisely together like a pair of fingertips, allowing users to grip delicate or slippery ingredients with greater control. The design makes it easier to peel hot vegetables without burning fingers, separate thin slices of meat that stick together and handle ingredients requiring delicate movements.
Another popular product is the Range Mate Pro, manufactured by MUK and sold at Hands for 9,900 yen. The microwave cooking device performs eight different functions, including grilling, steaming and boiling.
Its ability to grill fish has attracted particular attention. By placing a piece of fish skin-side down in the device and heating it in a 600-watt microwave for three minutes, then turning it over and cooking it for another minute, users can achieve a browned, crispy finish in just four minutes.
The stationery department is another area where the store's tradition of finding solutions to everyday inconveniences is evident.
Zebra's Wetnie pen, priced at 660 yen, allows users to write clearly on wet paper without the ink fading or skipping, making it useful outdoors or in kitchens where documents may become damp.
The company's Lightwrite Alpha pen, priced at 825 yen, incorporates a light near its tip, allowing users to write in dark surroundings, including during power outages and emergencies.
Another inventive product is the Ring Notebook Remover, manufactured by Lihit Lab and priced at just 220 yen.
The simple tool allows users to open the metal double rings of spiral-bound notebooks without applying significant force. By hooking the remover onto the binding and pulling it along, the rings separate cleanly, allowing pages to be removed without tearing.
The device is useful for reorganizing notebooks, scanning documents or separating paper from metal bindings for recycling. The rings can also be pressed back together by hand, making it possible to customize notebooks without permanently damaging them.
Among the store's more playful stationery products are decorative stickers designed to mark important dates in planners and notebooks.
Epoch Chemical's Sheet no Peritte Sumi ni Iru Ko stickers, priced at 693 yen, feature small animals lying flat in relaxed poses. When attached to the corners of planner pages, they highlight dates with scheduled activities without covering the space needed for writing.
Sticky notes have also become increasingly specialized, with an entire wall of the stationery department devoted to different shapes, colors and functions.
One particularly successful product is Kokuyo's Campus Yama o Haru Fusen, priced at 550 yen, which helps students organize their revision before examinations.
The sticky notes use a playful system based on predicting which topics are most likely to appear on a test. Larger notes labeled "Boss Mountain" identify especially important subjects, allowing students to recognize their revision priorities at a glance.
Eiko Taguchi of Hands' public relations department said the product had become a major seller, with approximately 1,500 packs purchased at Hands stores in a single month.
Alongside these newer inventions, Hands Shibuya continues to sell updated versions of products that first became popular during the Showa era.
One example is the Tepra label maker, introduced in 1988 by King Jim. The original machine allowed users to enter text and print it onto adhesive labels, making it popular for organizing offices, homes and personal belongings.
The earliest Tepra models used a rotary dial instead of a conventional keyboard. In a television demonstration broadcast in 1989, a Hands salesperson explained that the dial arranged Japanese characters in their traditional phonetic order so that even people unfamiliar with keyboards could operate the device.
Nearly four decades later, the product has undergone a dramatic transformation.
The modern Tepra PRO SR-R2500P, sold at Hands for 11,080 yen, has neither a dial nor a keyboard. Instead, users can enter text, create label designs and control printing directly from a smartphone.
The evolution from a manually operated rotary dial to smartphone-controlled printing reflects the technological changes that Hands Shibuya has witnessed during its nearly half-century of operation.
The store's extensive selection, unusual layout and emphasis on practical discoveries have made it a familiar destination for generations of Tokyo shoppers, many of whom remember exploring its floors in search of products they could not easily find elsewhere.
With its November 15 closure approaching, the store is preparing to conclude its operations while continuing to showcase the products that helped establish its reputation.
Taguchi said staff would continue working to make the final days enjoyable for visitors, adding, "We will do everything we can to keep the excitement going until the very end and ensure our customers enjoy their experience."
Source: TBS
