Guide - Anime and manga
Nakano Broadway and Mandarake: which shop on which floor
Mandarake spreads about 33 shops over floors 1 to 4 of Nakano Broadway, open noon to 20:00. Cards and games sit on 2F, books on 3F, cels and old toys on 4F.
Go after noon and plan on two floors: Mandarake in Nakano Broadway lists 12:00 to 20:00 every day of the year, and its shops spread over floors 1 to 4. Nakano Broadway is a building, not a street, about a 5-minute walk from Nakano Station’s north exit, with roughly 207 stores from the basement to the fourth floor, per its own site. Guides count about 33 of them as Mandarake.
This page sits in Anime and manga, and Nakano is one of the Tokyo stops in Destinations. For the electronics-and-arcade half of the day, pair it with Akihabara for first-timers. Dollar figures use about ¥155 to US$1 and are rounded; you pay in yen, so check the rate.
How many Mandarake shops are in Nakano Broadway?
Guides commonly count about 33 Mandarake shops on floors 1 to 4. Other guides print totals from the mid-20s to 30-plus, and several are years old, so the count is unconfirmed.
Use the directory at the entrance for today’s lineup, because shops move and close.
What are the opening hours?
Mandarake lists 12:00 to 20:00, open every day of the year, with the buyback counter taking items until 19:30. Some guides print a 10:00 start; the listing says noon, so plan for noon.
The building opens around 11:00, but other tenants set their own hours, and many of them close on Wednesdays. That is the other shops, not Mandarake. One guide mentions a closure on the third Wednesday of February, which is unconfirmed.
Which Mandarake shop is on which floor?
The unit counts, shop names and descriptions all come from visitor guides, some from 2017, and are not checked against Mandarake’s page. Treat them as a guide to each floor, not a stock list. One guide warns that the ground-floor escalator runs straight to the third floor, so take the stairs for the second.
| Floor | Units, per guides | What guides say you find |
|---|---|---|
| 1F | 1 | A display of anime goods, Ghibli items included. |
| 2F | 15 | Card-kan for trading cards. Galaxy for used consoles and game software. Cosplay-kan for costumes and wigs, which one guide says you cannot try on before buying. Special 4 for figures of bishojo characters. Micro-kan for Ghibli goods and wrestling masks. |
| 3F | 9, including the buyback counter | Honten and Honten 2 for manga, light novels and magazines. Special 2 for tokusatsu goods such as Kamen Rider. Specials 3, 8 and 9 for toys, figures and related goods; guides disagree on which carries what. |
| 4F | 10, including the service counter | Anime-kan for animation cels and original art. Mania-kan for vintage comics and magazines, early Osamu Tezuka editions among them. Henya for pre-war tin toys and nostalgic goods. Plastic for dolls and doll parts. |
| B1 | None | A supermarket and restaurants, per a 2017 guide. |
Cards, games and costumes cluster on 2F, books on 3F, cels and old toys on 4F. If you collect one thing, start on that floor and let the rest be a bonus.
Several units have no description in the guides, among them the numbered Specials not named above and the LIVE-kan, DEEP-kan and UFO units on 2F. The table leaves them out rather than guess. Check Mandarake’s Nakano page for the full list by floor and match names there.
Can you get tax-free at Mandarake?
Since 1 Nov 2026 you pay the price including 10% tax and claim it back at departure; shops took the tax off at the till until 31 Oct 2026. Guides list Mandarake as a tax-free shop. The full flow is in Japan tax-free shopping from 1 November 2026.
Three points for collectors:
- Spend $32 (¥5,000) or more before tax, which is $35 (¥5,500) with tax, in the same store on the same day, per Japan Customs. Bring your passport.
- Used goods are generally eligible under national rules, but each shop needs its own tax-free licence. It is store by store, so ask before you pay.
- Customs checks per receipt. If one item on a receipt is missing, none of that receipt’s goods qualify, so keep everything from one receipt together in your carry-on.
For high-value finds, the leaflet adds that goods of $6,450 (¥1,000,000) or more before tax may need authenticity certificates or warranties.
Can visitors sell to Mandarake?
The buyback counter is on 3F and takes items until 19:30. Whether visitors can sell there, and what ID the counter needs, is not verified, so do not pack items to sell.
Nakano Broadway or Akihabara?
Pick Nakano for depth in second-hand collectibles: one building, about 33 Mandarake shops by guides’ counts. Pick Akihabara for breadth: electronics, gachapon, retro games and maid cafes within walking distance, plus Mandarake Complex. Both Mandarake sites list 12:00 to 20:00 daily, with buyback to 19:30.
One difference: Mandarake Complex’s tax-free counter reportedly closes around 19:00, earlier than the shop. No counter time for Nakano is published, so ask on arrival. The route for the other district is in Akihabara for first-timers.
To verify The shop total, opening time and February closure differ between guides, and used-goods tax-free eligibility is store-specific. Figures with lithium batteries fall under airline rules, which are not covered here.
Quick answers
What time does Mandarake in Nakano Broadway open?
Its listing gives 12:00 to 20:00, open every day of the year, with the buyback counter taking items until 19:30. Some guides print a 10:00 start. The building itself opens around 11:00, and other tenants set their own hours.
How many Mandarake shops are in Nakano Broadway?
Guides commonly count about 33 Mandarake shops on floors 1 to 4. Printed totals run from the mid-20s to 30-plus, and several are years old, so the count is unconfirmed. Check the floor map at the entrance.
Can you get tax-free at Mandarake after 1 November 2026?
Yes, guides list Mandarake as a tax-free shop. Since 1 Nov 2026 you pay the price including 10% tax and claim it back at the airport, with $32 (¥5,000) before tax as the minimum per store per day. Used goods are store-specific, so confirm at the counter.
Is Nakano Broadway or Akihabara better for Mandarake?
Nakano is deeper on second-hand collectibles, with dozens of Mandarake shops in one building. Akihabara is broader, with electronics, gachapon and Mandarake Complex within walking distance. Both Mandarake sites list 12:00 to 20:00 daily.