New Year (oshōgatsu) is one of Japan’s most important festivals, and with it comes the sound of people ringing bells across the country as they mark the end of the old year and the beginning of the new with their first visit (hatsumōde) to a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.
With three days of public holidays, families and friends come together to enjoy special foods known as osechi ryōri and activities, such as flying kites (tako) and writing calligraphy (kakizome). As businesses begin to reopen, it is the tills that start ringing as shoppers embrace one of Japan’s quirkiest seasonal traditions, fukubukuro or ‘lucky bags’.
The New Year tradition of fukubukuro is to Japan what the January sales are to the UK. As retail outlets reopen on 2 or 3 January, shoppers – including many children armed with their festive gifts of otoshidama (New Year money) – head to their favourite shops and department stores to pick up fukubukuro containing an unseen assortment of heavily discounted goods. Lucky bags are keenly anticipated by young and old and there is lots of excitement, with stores opening early for shoppers who turn out in force to lay hands on a bag at their favourite retailers.
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Origins of fukubukuro
While its exact origins are unclear, the tradition of fukubukuro is known to have started in the early 1860s – the end of the Edo era – possibly in the area of Nihonbashi, in central Tokyo, which was a centre for kimono fabric merchants. One story tells how a drapery called Echigoya noticed that it always reached the end of the year having accumulated lots of offcuts of its celebrated fabrics. Its owners – spotting a sales opportunity but also the chance to clear out old stock – decided to bag up these appealing offcuts and sell them at substantial discounts. They named their bags Ebisubukuro (Ebisu bag) after Ebisu, one of Japan’s Seven Lucky Gods (Shichi Fukujin). In another story, Nagoya store Daimaruya similarly traded ‘lucky bags’ of cloth scraps in October sales, held during the Ebisu-ko fireworks festival, and at New Year.
Wherever the roots lie, the fact is that consumers loved lucky bags and their popularity grew as other shops took up the idea. Fukubukuro, as they became known, were soon a permanent feature of Japan’s New Year festivities. Meanwhile, kimono merchant Echigoya evolved into Mitsukoshi and Daimaruya became Daimaru, two of Japan’s best-known department stores – both of which are still renowned for their high-quality fukubukuro.
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Fukubukuro become firm favourites
Today lucky bags are everywhere in Japan (even Krispy Kreme has one), but it is the big department stores, including Mitsukoshi, Daimaru, Isetan and Takashimaya, that are synonymous with them. Stores go to great lengths to market their fukubukuro to customers, announcing them from as early as October. Every department – from cosmetics to women’s fashion, kids’ clothes to food hall – has its own unique fukubukuro. As the aim is to please the customer, nowadays most departments advertise examples of the bags’ typical contents so that buyers can make a more informed purchase and rely less on chance.
There’s no limit to the number of bags you can buy and it’s not unusual to see shoppers laden with multiple fukubukuro. However, contrary to the chaotic free-for-all you might find in the January Sales elsewhere, Japanese customers join orderly queues for each department, with savvy families splitting up to each queue up for the different fukubukuro. Others avoid the crowds altogether by reserving their bags online.
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Very lucky bags
Naturally, the finest fukubukuro sell out fast – usually in stores with the best reputations for exciting and great-value bundles. Department stores often add additional enticements to their bags, such as prize-draw tickets, offering the chance to win anything from a whole wagyu beef, to a stay in a luxury ryokan, or even a private geisha performance. During the 1990s ‘Bubble’ economy, estate agents offered lavish home renovations, while car dealers offered valuable customisations and upgrades.
For the customer, of course, it’s impossible to know exactly what’s inside a fukubukuro – and that’s part of the fun. Lucky bag lovers each have their own techniques for choosing a bag, be that giving it a shake, or a squeeze, or perhaps feeling its weight. All buyers adhere to the policy of no refunds and no exchanges, as well as the most important rule, that is: not to peek. To break the seal on a lucky bag before buying it is the ultimate taboo.
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New Year, New Beginnings
For all their apparent frivolity and fun, fukubukuro are an important part of the tradition of ōsōji – the annual Japanese custom of cleaning and tidying which takes place during December in order to start the new year afresh. Families clean their homes from top to bottom and will often also replace things like towels, toothbrushes and soap in order to start the new year symbolically ‘purified’. They may adorn their homes with kadomatsu decorations of pine and bamboo and or shimenawa (also known as shime-kazari) decorations made of rice straw, which are hung on gates and front doors. Families will invite the Shinto deity of New Year, Toshigami-sama, inside with an offering of two mochi rice cakes, a satsuma or mandarin and other ornaments (known as kagami mochi), into rooms where they would like the god to visit, such as the living room where the family gathers.
Meanwhile, New Year greeting cards, known as nengajō, are sent to friends, relatives and colleagues with best wishes for the year ahead. These are usually decorated with the Zodiac sign associated with the coming year – 2025 being the Year of the Snake.
Try your luck with our range of fukubukuro available in-store and online at The Shop at Japan House London. Available from 10:00 GMT on 2 January 2025, for a limited time only.