Anime Stores in Osaka: 13 Den Den Town (Nipponbashi) Shops for Anime Goods, Figures and Cards, with Opening Hours (Checked 2026-10-03)

Osaka's anime stores are concentrated in Den Den Town, the Nipponbashi district just south-east of Nankai Namba Station: Animate and Gamers for new anime goods, Mandarake Grand Chaos, Surugaya and K-BOOKS for used and rare finds, Volks and Joshin for figures and model kits, and Card Labo, Hareruya and Yellow Submarine for trading cards. Most of these shops open between 10:00 and 12:00 and close at 20:00; the late ones are Surugaya and Hareruya2 (21:00) and Hareruya (23:00).

Every opening time, address and service in the table below was read on the store's own official page on 2026-10-03 (hours as of 2026-10-03). Holiday hours can differ and shops change hours at short notice, so open the store's page (listed under Sources at the end) on the day you go. If you know Tokyo, Den Den Town is Osaka's counterpart to Akihabara, and for second-hand hunting it does the job Nakano Broadway does in Tokyo.

The main anime stores in Den Den Town, with opening hours

All addresses are in Naniwa-ku, Osaka, except Hareruya2 Namba, which is in Chuo-ku. There are no district-wide opening hours: each shop sets its own, which is why "what time does Den Den Town close?" has no single answer. Among these 13 stores, 20:00 is the most common closing time.

Which store for what

• New anime goods and this season's merch. Animate Osaka Nipponbashi stocks manga and light novels, character goods, figures, trading cards, games and discs, and its store page also lists an Animate Cafe Gratte with its own hours. Gamers Namba and Sofmap Namba's 6th floor (anime goods, figures and books) are the other two new-goods stops.
• Used, rare and vintage. Mandarake Grand Chaos fills six floors: vintage and designer toys on 1F, dolls and robot toys on 2F, comics on 3F, discs, idol goods and board games on 4F, women's doujinshi and cosplay on 5F, and men's doujinshi and cards on 6F. Surugaya's main store lists figures, plastic models, games, doujin software, CDs and video. K-BOOKS Namba Ichibankan buys and sells character goods for shonen manga, anime, games and VTubers.
• Figures and model kits. At Volks Osaka Showroom, rental showcases span 1F and 2F; 2F also has anime and game goods and PVC figures, 3F character plastic kits and tools, 4F scale models and model trains, 5F Doll Point Osaka for Dollfie Dream, and 6F an event floor. Joshin Super Kids Land Honten is the stop for Gunpla, plastic models, model trains and radio control.
• Trading cards. Hareruya2 Namba is a Pokémon card specialist with 80 play seats and staff-led beginner sessions (ask at the counter). Card Labo Ota Road Main Store covers many games, from Pokémon and One Piece to Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Masters and Weiss Schwarz. Hareruya Nipponbashi is Magic: The Gathering only and runs a beginner workshop every day. Yellow Submarine Namba Main Store mixes card games with figures, plastic models and Ichiban Kuji.
• Retro games. Super Potato Ota Road lists software and hardware from the Famicom and Mega Drive through the PlayStation 2, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, plus Neo Geo and PC Engine.
• Maid café. Maidreamin Osaka Nipponbashi Otaroad opens weekdays 11:30–23:00 and Saturdays, Sundays and holidays 10:30–23:00, every day. Its price list reads "1 hour ¥880 / 1 order" (as of 2026-10-03). Read our maid-café etiquette first.

Outside Den Den Town: Pokémon Center Osaka DX

If you want official Pokémon goods rather than cards, Pokémon Center Osaka DX is not in Nipponbashi but on the 9th floor of the Daimaru Shinsaibashi main building, with a direct underground connection from Exit 4 of Shinsaibashi Station (Midosuji Line). It is open Monday to Sunday, 10:00–20:00 (as of 2026-10-03).

Getting there: stations and the two streets

Den Den Town runs south along Sakaisuji, and the area to its west is Ota Road — the Den Den Town official site names it alongside the Nipponbashisuji Nishi-dori shopping association. Walking times below are each store's own figure:

• From Namba (most stores measure from Nankai Namba Station): Hareruya 1 minute, Hareruya2 2 minutes, Sofmap about 3 minutes, K-BOOKS 5 minutes, Surugaya 7 minutes, Card Labo Ota Road and Animate 10 minutes, Mandarake Grand Chaos 12 minutes.
• From Nipponbashi Station: Surugaya 10 minutes; from Exit 5, Mandarake Grand Chaos 12 minutes and Volks about 15 minutes walking south along Sakaisuji.
• From Ebisucho Station, Exit 1-B (Sakaisuji Line): Mandarake Grand Chaos 6 minutes. Use it for the southern shops in Nipponbashi 4-chome (Mandarake, Joshin, Surugaya, Volks).

A simple route: start at the Namba end (Hareruya, Hareruya2, Yellow Submarine, Sofmap), work south through the Ota Road area (Super Potato and Card Labo both carry its name), finish in Nipponbashi 4-chome at Mandarake, Joshin, Surugaya and Volks, and leave from Ebisucho. Mandarake and K-BOOKS open at 12:00 and most card shops open at 12:00 on weekdays, so a late-morning start loses nothing.

Tax-free, English and payment

• Tax-free. On 2026-10-03 these store pages state tax-free sales for visitors: Animate Osaka Nipponbashi, Joshin Super Kids Land Honten, Volks Osaka Showroom (on Volks' list of tax-free stores), Card Labo Ota Road Main Store and Hareruya Nipponbashi. The other stores in the table did not say so on the pages we read, so ask at the register. From purchases on 1 November 2026, the Japan Tourism Agency says tax-free shopping moves to a refund method: you pay the tax-included price, and the consumption tax is refunded after customs at your departure airport or seaport confirms you are taking the goods out of Japan. It applies to purchases of ¥5,000 or more (excluding tax) at one store on one day, and you must leave Japan within 90 days of purchase. More in our tax-free shopping guide.
• English. Hareruya publishes an English version of its Nipponbashi store page, and Card Labo Ota Road posts its tax-free notice in English, Korean and Chinese. We could not confirm English service at the other stores, so a translation app helps.
• Payment. Gamers lists credit cards and IC cards such as ICOCA and Suica; Joshin lists cash, credit cards, e-money and smartphone payments; Maidreamin lists Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, Diners, UnionPay and PayPay among others. Carry some cash for small independent stalls.

Nipponbashi Street Festa

The district's cosplay street festival, the 19th Nipponbashi Street Festa, was held on Sunday 17 May 2026, and the organisers report about 240,000 visitors. Admission was free, but taking part in cosplay or camera photography needed a separate paid pass, and Sakaisuji was opened to pedestrians from 12:00 to 15:00. The 2027 date was not on the official festa site as of 2026-10-03; our sister site Japan Event keeps a page for the Nipponbashi Street Festa 2027.

How Nipponbashi became Den Den Town

According to the history published on the Den Den Town official site, Nipponbashi was a street of second-hand book shops before the war, and shops selling radios and gramophones began to line the street in the late 1930s. After 1945, radio-parts shops multiplied, the appliance boom from the mid-1950s established it as an electric-goods town, and in 1978 it adopted the nickname "Den Den Town". PC, game and anime shops moved in during the decade from 1998, turning it into the otaku district it is today; with more visitors coming from abroad, the western Ota Road area has become newly busy.

What we could not confirm

• Tax-free status of Mandarake Grand Chaos, Surugaya, Sofmap Namba, Gamers Namba, K-BOOKS, Super Potato, Hareruya2 and Yellow Submarine (not stated on their store pages on 2026-10-03).
• English-language service at the stores other than those named above.
• Which card-game titles Yellow Submarine Namba Main Store sells (its page says "TCG" without listing titles).
• The date of Nipponbashi Street Festa 2027.

Sources

Checked on 2026-10-03: Animate Osaka Nipponbashi · Gamers Namba · K-BOOKS Namba Ichibankan · Sofmap Namba · Mandarake Grand Chaos · Surugaya Osaka Nipponbashi Main Store · Volks Osaka Showroom and its tax-free store list · Joshin Super Kids Land Honten · Super Potato Ota Road · Card Labo Ota Road · Hareruya Nipponbashi · Hareruya2 Namba · Yellow Submarine Namba Main Store · Maidreamin Otaroad · Pokémon Center Osaka DX · Den Den Town history · Nipponbashi Street Festa 2026 and event outline · Japan Tourism Agency: refund method

--- Update log: 2026-09-24 — rewritten as a list of Osaka's main anime stores in Den Den Town with opening hours checked on each store's official page; tax-free claims narrowed to stores whose pages state it; Street Festa 2026 facts and the 1 November 2026 tax-free refund method re-checked. 2026-10-03 — every opening time, address, walking time and tax-free statement re-checked on the official pages.