Nintendo to Open New Official Store in Fukuoka, Japan — but Not Everyone Is Happy With This Choice

Nintendo has announced plans to unfastened a caller authoritative store successful Fukuoka, Japan astatine the extremity of 2025.

Nintendo Fukuoka volition beryllium the company’s 4th authoritative store successful Japan, joining Nintendo Tokyo, Nintendo Osaka, and Nintendo Kyoto. However, dissimilar the different stores, Nintendo Fukuoka is the archetypal not located connected Honshu (Japan’s biggest main island). Instead, it is successful Fukuoka City connected Japan’s southernmost main land of Kyushu.

Japanese reactions to the quality of Nintendo Fukuoka’s opening connected X included galore congratulatory messages arsenic good arsenic hopes that determination volition yet beryllium authoritative Nintendo stores located passim the country. Quite a fewer commenters added the sentiment that Sapporo (the biggest metropolis connected Japan’s northernmost land of Hokkaido) would beryllium the adjacent logical spot successful Japan for Nintendo to acceptable up shop.

However, not everyone was happy. Many commenters were disappointed that Nintendo has seemingly skipped implicit Nagoya. Located successful cardinal Japan, Nagoya is the superior of Aichi prefecture and a large manufacturing hub. Despite being the 4th biggest metropolis successful Japan, it suffers from a rumor that it is “boring." This cognition was driven into the spotlight successful 2016, successful a survey of Japan’s 8 biggest cities, successful which residents were asked to fertile the cities successful bid of however charismatic they were to travellers. In a amusement of section patriotism, astir citizens ranked their ain metropolis arsenic the best, but for residents of Nagoya who placed it 3rd aft Tokyo and Kyoto. Amusingly, the survey was conducted by Nagoya’s government.

Nagoya besides has the misfortune to beryllium located betwixt Tokyo and Osaka, meaning that galore events and tours skip close implicit it. The clip from the anime Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikke beneath explains this inclination successful much detail.

So, “Nagoya skipping” is simply a improvement that Nagoya natives and residents look to beryllium rather conscious of, which apt explains the sheer magnitude of comments voicing interest astir Nintendo not opening a store there. Incidentally, Nagoya has been successful the quality recently, arsenic a caller 17,000-person arena is acceptable to unfastened determination successful July. City officials and quality broadcasts person been voicing hopes that this caller attraction volition forestall the “Nagoya skipping” inclination (source: Chukyo TV).

As for Nintendo Fukuoka, the caller store volition beryllium located successful a buying promenade wrong Kyushu’s biggest large railway station, Hakata Station, which is connected by slug bid to Japan’s largest land of Honshu, and by level to Fukuoka Airport. With Nintendo Fukuoka being located successful specified a transport hub, this volition supply radical surviving successful the surrounding prefectures with a overmuch easier mode to get their Mario fix. Also, since pandemic restrictions lifted, the fig of inbound tourists visiting Fukuoka has been connected the summation (with visitors from adjacent South Korea making up the majority), and is predicted to emergence further (source: Fukuoka Prefectural Government).

Nintendo’s authoritative stores not lone merchantability Switch consoles, games, accessories and each mode of Nintendo merch, but they besides big events and hands-on previews with caller titles. It seems apt that Nintendo Fukuoka volition play a relation successful promoting the upcoming Switch 2 and getting it into the hands of much customers.

In the U.S., past week Nintendo opened its archetypal West Coast store, Nintendo San Francisco. IGN toured the store and adjacent interviewed Nintendo of America brag Doug Bowser to find retired more.

Photo by PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is simply a Japan-based freelance writer who antecedently served arsenic editor, contributor and translator for the crippled quality tract Automaton West. She has besides written astir Japanese civilization and movies for assorted publications.