How to buy cheap furniture in Japan

We recently moved to a new place and moving usually means purchasing new furniture. Furniture can be quite expensive but if you don’t mind used or slightly flawed furniture there are a few places to find it cheaper in Japan.  

Used Shops

You can find cheap used furniture in Japan's used shops like Off House. I recently found a nice shelf for only 800 yen at Off House that had almost no signs of usage. The problem with many used shops in Japan is that they don’t ship and you will have to carry the item home in some way. If you live close enough you can probably rent a cart to carry items home. Some shops also have trucks for rent in case you have a driver’s license.

Jimoti

Jimoti is a Japanese website similar to Craigslist. You can find cheap furniture or even furniture for free there. The problem is that usually people that list items on Jimoti do not ship either and you have to go and pick up the item yourself. For bigger furniture items that might require some planning, but if you save a lot, it might be worth it to invest in a rental truck for transport. As communication on Jimoty is in Japanese you either need Japanese skills or someone with Japanese skills who can help you.

Nitori Outlet

Nitori is kind of the Japanese equivalent to IKEA. You can find all sorts of furniture in Nitori for relatively cheap prices. But if you want to buy your furniture items for even an cheaper price you can check their outlet sales. You can find the same items as in the regular sale but with slight flaws. Mostly it is items that were returned by the previous buyer. If you don’t mind that, you can save around 20-30% on furniture items from Nitori.

Items from Nitori Outlet are shipped like regular items. Huge items will be set up for you by Nitori construction workers.

*Note that most items in the outlet section of Nitori are one-offs and if someone else buys it the item will be gone. As new items are added regularly it is worth checking back later if you didn’t find anything.

We recently got our new sofa from the Nitori outlet and you can hardly see any of the flaws as most are on the backside.

Sayonara sales

If you are a member of foreigners-in-Japan groups on social media, you will come upon "sayonara sales" from time to time. If someone leaves Japan for good, they will usually try to get rid of most or all of their furniture. These are nice chances to find cheap furniture or even free furniture in Japan. Unlike the Japanese platform Jimoty where Japanese skills are required, you can usually communicate in English.

Where do you buy your furniture in Japan? Do you know other cheap options?