Last updated: March 2026. Covers all floors, Mandarake locations, Daily Chico soft serve, opening hours, and a practical comparison with Akihabara.
Everybody knows Akihabara. It’s loud, it’s neon, and every travel guide on the internet will send you there for anime shopping. But the people who actually collect — the ones hunting first-edition manga, vintage Gundam kits, and figures that haven’t been in production for 20 years — they go to Nakano Broadway.
Nakano Broadway is a multi-story shopping complex five minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line. From the outside, it looks like a regular neighborhood building. Inside, it’s a vertical maze of over 300 shops across four floors, with the highest concentration of rare anime and manga goods anywhere in Tokyo. It’s where Mandarake — the world’s largest secondhand anime retailer — was born in 1980, and where they still operate over 30 individual specialty stores under one roof.
This guide covers how to get there, what’s on each floor, which shops matter, and why serious collectors prefer it over Akihabara.
- How to Get to Nakano Broadway
- Floor-by-Floor Guide
- Mandarake: 30+ Stores in One Building
- Beyond Mandarake: Other Shops Worth Finding
- Daily Chico: The Eight-Flavor Soft Serve Tower
- Nakano Broadway vs. Akihabara: Which One Should You Visit?
- Price Guide: What Things Actually Cost
- Practical Tips for Your Visit
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Area Guides
How to Get to Nakano Broadway
Take the JR Chuo Line (orange, rapid service) from Shinjuku Station. Nakano is the first stop — five minutes, ¥200. Trains run every few minutes throughout the day.
At Nakano Station, take the North Exit. Walk straight ahead and you’ll enter Nakano Sun Mall, a covered shopping arcade that runs for about 225 meters. Follow it all the way to the end. The arcade deposits you directly at the entrance of Nakano Broadway. The whole walk from the station takes about five minutes.
Don’t skip Nakano Sun Mall. This covered arcade has been here since 1966 and has over 100 shops — ramen joints, izakayas, pharmacies, watch dealers. It’s worth a slow walk through, especially for lunch before or after you hit Broadway.
| Address | 5-52-15 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo |
| Station | JR Nakano Station (Chuo Line), North Exit — 5 min walk through Sun Mall |
| From Shinjuku | JR Chuo Line (rapid), 1 stop, 5 minutes, ¥200 |
| Building Hours | 10:00–20:00 daily |
| Most Shops | 12:00–20:00 (some close Wednesdays) |
| Closed | Third Wednesday of February (annual electrical inspection) |
Floor-by-Floor Guide
Nakano Broadway runs from basement level (B1) to the 4th floor. The layout is dense and maze-like — corridors branch off in every direction, and many shops are just a few square meters. Getting lost is part of the experience.
B1 — Food and Everyday Life
The basement is a local marketplace. You’ll find groceries, fishmongers, cheap lunch spots, and the famous Daily Chico soft serve stand (more on that below). There are also a few secondhand shops tucked in among the food stalls. The vibe here is completely different from the upper floors — it feels like your grandmother’s local shopping street, not an anime complex.
1F — The Ground Floor
The ground floor is the transition zone. You’ll see clothing shops, shoe stores, general retail, and the entrance to the building. There’s a VR arcade space and some regular convenience shopping. The first Mandarake shop you’ll encounter is on this floor — a good warm-up for what’s upstairs.
2F–3F — The Main Event
This is why you came. Floors 2 and 3 are packed with anime, manga, and collectible shops. Mandarake dominates both floors with separate stores for different categories — one shop just for manga, another for figures, another for doujinshi, another for vintage toys. Between the Mandarake stores, independent shops sell trading cards, idol goods, cosplay supplies, and things you didn’t know existed.
If you only have an hour, spend it on these two floors. If you have three hours, you’ll use all of them here and still miss things.
4F — Specialty and Niche
The top floor gets more specialized. You’ll find retro video game shops, musical instruments, idol merchandise deep cuts, and some of the more unusual Mandarake outlets. It’s quieter up here — fewer casual browsers, more serious hunters. Some of the best deals live on this floor because fewer people make it this far up.
Mandarake: 30+ Stores in One Building
Mandarake is the heart of Nakano Broadway. The company was founded here in 1980 and has since expanded into over 30 individual shops within the building, each focused on a specific category. For comparison, their Akihabara location is a single building. Here, they have an entire ecosystem.
| Mandarake Main Store | General manga, artbooks, and anime goods. Start here if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. |
| Mandarake Special (figures) | Action figures, model kits, vintage Gunpla. The selection of out-of-production figures is enormous. |
| Mandarake Cosplay | Secondhand costumes, wigs, and accessories. Prices are a fraction of buying new. |
| Mandarake Doujinshi | Fan-made comics. Massive inventory organized by fandom. A good chunk is rare out-of-print material. |
| Mandarake Vintage Toys | Sofubi, tin robots, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider — the retro stuff that serious collectors pay international shipping for. |
Every Mandarake shop has a showcase wall near the entrance with their most valuable items — rare cells, signed artwork, first editions. You can spend 30 minutes just looking at showcases without buying anything. Staff across all shops are knowledgeable and used to international visitors. Some speak basic English; most are patient enough to work through a transaction with gestures and a calculator.
Beyond Mandarake: Other Shops Worth Finding
Mandarake gets all the attention, but the independent shops are what make Nakano Broadway feel like a treasure hunt rather than a retail chain.
Robot Robot specializes in vintage toys — Ultraman, Mazinger Z, first-generation Transformers. The shop has a warm, almost museum-like atmosphere, and the owner curates the collection with obvious pride. Even if you don’t buy, it’s worth a browse.
Jungle carries limited-edition model kits and figures you won’t find in standard retail. They’re particularly good for hard-to-find Bandai releases and premium figure lines.
There are also multiple shops selling trading cards — Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece Card Game — with rare singles that card shops in Akihabara price higher. Prices here tend to be fair, though the most sought-after cards (vintage holographic Pokémon, tournament-legal Yu-Gi-Oh!) can still run into the tens of thousands of yen.
Daily Chico: The Eight-Flavor Soft Serve Tower
You will see people walking through Nakano Broadway holding enormous stacks of soft serve ice cream. This comes from Daily Chico, the legendary ice cream stand in the basement.
Their signature item is the Tokudai Soft Cream — an eight-flavor tower standing about 40 centimeters tall. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, black sesame, pistachio, café au lait, ramune, and yakiimo (sweet potato), stacked one on top of the other. (Note: flavors rotate seasonally, so the lineup may differ when you visit.) It costs ¥1,000 and is absurdly photogenic.
The tower melts fast. Tokyo humidity and eight layers of ice cream do not cooperate. Eat it immediately. Do not attempt to carry it upstairs for a photoshoot in front of the Mandarake showcase. (People try. It never ends well.)
Nakano Broadway vs. Akihabara: Which One Should You Visit?
Both. But if you’re forced to choose, here’s how to think about it:
| Nakano Broadway | Akihabara | |
| Best for | Vintage, rare, and secondhand items | New releases and current-season merchandise |
| Atmosphere | Quiet, maze-like, local neighborhood feel | Loud, neon, sensory overload (in a good way) |
| Tourist density | Low — mostly locals and serious collectors | Very high — major tourist destination |
| Mandarake presence | 30+ separate specialty stores | 1 multi-floor building |
| Prices | Generally better for secondhand goods | Competitive for new items, markup on rare goods |
| Getting there | 5 min from Shinjuku (JR Chuo Line) | 5 min from Tokyo Station (JR Yamanote Line) |
| Time needed | 2–4 hours | Half day to full day |
Akihabara is the better choice if you want current-season goods, maid cafes, arcades, and the full “Electric Town” experience. It’s a spectacle. Nakano Broadway is the better choice if you’re looking for specific items from older series, want to browse without fighting crowds, or if you’re the kind of person who finds more joy in digging through bins than walking into a flagship store.
A common pattern among repeat Tokyo visitors: first trip, Akihabara. Second trip, Nakano Broadway. Third trip, both — plus Ikebukuro.
Price Guide: What Things Actually Cost
Prices vary wildly depending on rarity and condition, but here’s a rough guide so you know what to expect:
| Used manga volumes | ¥100–300 per book. Discount bins often have 3-for-¥200 deals. |
| Standard figures (secondhand) | ¥500–3,000 depending on series and condition |
| Premium/rare figures | ¥5,000–50,000+. Discontinued lines and limited editions. |
| Vintage toys (Sentai, Kamen Rider) | ¥1,000–10,000 for common items. ¥10,000+ for robots and boxed sets. |
| Animation cels | ¥5,000–500,000. Popular series (Evangelion, Sailor Moon) command premium prices. |
| Trading cards (single rares) | ¥500–¥20,000+ for tournament-grade or vintage holographics |
| Doujinshi | ¥200–1,000 per book. Rare Comiket exclusives higher. |
Tax-free shopping is available. Mandarake and several other shops in Nakano Broadway offer tax-free purchases for foreign tourists on transactions over ¥5,000. Bring your passport. The 10% consumption tax savings adds up fast when you’re buying figures.
Ship Your Nakano Broadway Finds Home
Found rare figures at Mandarake but worried about luggage space? Amazon Japan and CDJapan ship internationally. Check if items are available online before paying full in-store price.
Practical Tips for Your Visit
Go on a weekday afternoon. Nakano Broadway is busiest on weekends. Weekday afternoons between 13:00 and 16:00 give you the best browsing experience — more room in the narrow corridors, less competition for the good stuff, and staff with more time to help you.
Bring cash. While larger Mandarake shops accept credit cards, many smaller independent stores are cash only. There are ATMs in the basement level and at the nearby Lawson and 7-Eleven convenience stores on Nakano Sun Mall.
Most shops open at 12:00, not 10:00. The building itself opens at 10:00, but most anime and collectible shops on the upper floors don’t open until noon. If you arrive at 10:00, you’ll be wandering empty corridors. Plan to arrive around 12:00–12:30 for the best experience.
Check Wednesday closures. Some shops close on Wednesdays. It’s not all of them, but enough that a Wednesday visit means you’ll miss certain stores. If you can, go on a different day.
Combine with Shinjuku. Since Nakano is one stop from Shinjuku, a natural itinerary is: morning in Shinjuku (Kabukicho Tower, Godzilla Head, Golden Gai for photos) → afternoon at Nakano Broadway → evening back in Shinjuku for dinner. The Chuo Line makes this effortless.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nakano Broadway worth visiting if I’m not a collector?
Yes. Even if you don’t plan to buy anything, the sheer density and variety of what’s on display makes it fascinating. The Daily Chico ice cream alone is worth the trip. And once you start browsing, you’ll probably find something — a ¥200 manga volume, a keychain of your favorite character, a weird vintage toy you can’t resist.
Can I find current-season anime merchandise here?
Some, but it’s not the focus. If you want the latest Jujutsu Kaisen or Spy×Family goods from this season, Akihabara or Ikebukuro’s Animate flagship will have better selection. Nakano Broadway’s strength is everything that came before — the back catalog, the out-of-print, the rare.
How long should I spend here?
Minimum two hours for a focused visit. Three to four hours if you want to browse properly. Some collectors spend an entire day.
Is it accessible for wheelchair users?
The building has elevators, but the corridors are narrow and some shops are very small. Wheelchair access is technically possible but practically challenging on the upper floors during busy times.
Should I go to Nakano Broadway or Akihabara first?
Akihabara first, if it’s your first time in Tokyo. It gives you the full anime district experience and a sense of what things cost. Then visit Nakano Broadway knowing what you’re looking for — and what a fair price looks like.
More Area Guides
Written by Takapon
Born and raised in Kyoto, currently in Tokyo. Former management consultant turned anime culture writer. Has visited countless collaboration cafes and pilgrimage spots across Japan. Also sharing tips on Instagram @pop_now_jp.
Follow @pop_now_jp on Instagram
Comments