It’s that time of the year…. Fukubukuro (Lucky Bags) 2022 – Lucky and Unlucky….

Right after New Year, Japan’s version of Black Friday kicks in as it becomes “Fukubukuro” (Lucky Bag) Time!  But where “Black Friday”, people buy the things they want to get at a low price.  In Japan, you pay a certain amount for a bag, which you don’t know what contents you are going to get.  It could be good, or it could be bad.

Fortunately, most bags are lucky, some bags are unlucky (Village Vanguard).

Of course, while Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been slowly been integrated to Japanese shopping (thanks Amazon!), the tradition of Fukubukuro continues after the New Year.

Each year in Japan, on New Year’s Day (and sometimes a few days before), many partake in Fukubukuro.

Fukubukuro is a New Year’s custom in which merchants bundle items and put them in mystery lucky bags (or boxes if purchased online) in which people spend money on a bag, not knowing its contents.

Typically you will see lines at electronics and department stores but for men and women’s fashion, there are a good number of stores to partake in fukubukuro. Here is the 2022 news reports of people shopping for fukubukuro in 2022:

So, let’s check out and see what some people have received this year.

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