Why Japan's Department Stores and Malls Bet on Pop-Up Oshi-Katsu Events
In the West, department stores mean perfume counters and holiday windows. In Japan they also host anime exhibitions and pop-up shops for hit franchises. Fans come for exclusive goods and displays, and stores and shopping centers use these limited-run events to give them a reason to walk through the door.
For department stores and shopping centers, oshi-katsu, the practice of actively supporting a favorite person or character, has shifted from a way to fill empty floor space to the reason people visit at all. Companies keep giving their limited resources, floor area and event calendars, to time-limited collabs with franchises (the “IP” in industry shorthand). Here are the grounds for that bet and the practical work of running the events.
Two Kinds of Oshi-Katsu From the Facility’s Side
Oshi-katsu programs in commercial facilities fall into two broad kinds.
The first is the time-limited type that uses event floors and event spaces. Japanese department stores keep a dedicated floor for events, the saijijo, which rotates between regional food fairs, art shows and fan events. Original-art exhibitions, exhibition-style events and pop-up stores belong here. A run lasts from a few days to about three weeks, and when it ends the fixtures are swapped out with it.
Event floor type
- Exhibitions and pop-up stores
- A few days to three weeks
Existing sales season
- Osechi, Valentine's Day, big sales
- No event floor needed
One borrows floor space; the other borrows the calendar.
The second is folding a collab into a seasonal event or an existing sales season. Osechi (elaborate New Year’s food boxes that families order in advance), Valentine’s Day and big sales are the facility’s own sales seasons. Layer a character on top and you need no event floor at all.
The market backs this up. According to CDG’s second oshi-katsu survey (in Japanese), the oshi-katsu population is 13.84 million, up about 2.5 million from 11.36 million the previous year. The market is about ¥3.5 trillion (roughly $23 billion), and average annual oshi-katsu spending is about ¥255,035 per person. Growth is most visible among women in their early 30s, whose participation rate is 30.4%, up 8.2 points from the year before. The customers department stores have long treated as their core and the oshi-katsu population are starting to overlap.
- 13.84M
- People doing oshi-katsu
- ¥3.5T
- Estimated market size
- ¥255,035
- Average yearly spend per person
- 30.4%
- Participation among women in their early 30s
Fans are now a mainstream shopping group.
Cases: The Pop-Up as a Draw
The two kinds branch out in real programs according to what sits at the core of the draw.
Matsuzakaya Ueno x SAKAMOTO DAYS FES
The aim was to bring in new customers with a format billed as the first exhibition-style event for a TV anime. It ran on the 6th-floor event floor of Matsuzakaya Ueno from September 25 to October 7, 2025, then toured to Osaka (October 16 to November 3) and Fukuoka (November 7 to November 20). The show combined merchandise featuring newly drawn illustrations, photo spots and 3D displays (Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores press release, in Japanese). After the tour, most products went on sale through post-event mail order.
- Tokyo (Ueno)Matsuzakaya, 6th floor
- Osaka
- Fukuoka
- Mail orderMost products
A tour plus mail order reaches fans who cannot travel.
The Lab’s take: the point is that the organizers went after a hook that can be used only once, “the first exhibition-style event.” The same content, with or without a “first” attached, changes how media cover it and how far it spreads on social media. Getting hold early of an IP’s anniversaries and milestones is itself what makes an event competitive.
Mitsukoshi Isetan x THE IDOLM@STER Collab Osechi
This osechi box was sold by reservation on the Mitsukoshi Isetan Online Store from November 5 to December 2, 2025. It used newly drawn art of the character Chihaya in a furisode, the formal long-sleeved kimono, and cost ¥24,300 (tax included) (Famitsu.com report, in Japanese).
The aim was to add both spend per customer and buzz to an existing seasonal sales push. In our view, this is an important model of an oshi-katsu program that doesn’t use an event floor. Even a facility that can’t secure floor space can layer a collab onto an existing sales season, and selling by reservation keeps inventory risk down.
PARCO’s 15 Stores Nationwide x the 20th Anniversary of Paprika
Timed to PARCO Grand Bazaar, its big winter sale held January 2 to 12, 2026, PARCO ran a collab for the 20th anniversary of the film Paprika. It included a collab commercial, original goods such as bath towels, mugs and acrylic key holders, and a prize drawing, with pop-up stores at four locations: Sapporo, Shibuya, Nagoya and Shinsaibashi (PARCO press release, in Japanese).
Rather than a new release, PARCO layered a legacy IP onto a big winter sale, a time when people come anyway. In our view, the design raises the dwell time and spend of existing visitors rather than winning new customers.
AEON x Demon Slayer: “Gather at AEON! All-Out Concentration Summer Festival”
From July 18, 2025, the retail group AEON ran a group-wide campaign at AEON, AEON Style and AEON Mall locations nationwide. The scale was about 5,600 stores and facilities across 18 group companies. Its hallmark was a free original puzzle-solving event made by SCRAP, held at AEON Malls and some AEON Town locations (AEON Co., Ltd. press release, in Japanese).
In our view, the core of this program is the free experience content. A design that lets fans who don’t buy goods, children with no budget, and accompanying family all take part lowers the barrier to visiting. Fans are also likely to approve of it as oshi-katsu that doesn’t exclude anyone. Chase only merchandise sales and this effect never shows up in the books.
Mitsui Shopping Park x Jujutsu Kaisen’s 5th Anniversary
Mitsui Shopping Park’s “The Sorcerers’ Special-Leave Mission” is a campaign scheduled for September 29 to October 14, 2026, with pop-up stores, collab items and collab food at LaLaport locations nationwide and LAZONA Kawasaki Plaza (Nijimen article, in Japanese).
It is a simultaneous, many-site rollout across a national network, the same structure as the AEON case. In our view, the value of this model lies in concentrating buzz on the same day. Staggering the dates would make individual store operations easier, but social media talk would spread thin and get buried.
Seibu Shibuya x Nijisanji
In the VTuber world, ANYCOLOR’s Nijisanji has become a standard department store collaborator. From April 5 to May 11, 2025, it held “Nijisanji Department Store 2025 in Spring” in two phases, with merchandise sales, actual displays of “Nijisanji x NEW ERA®” collab items, a photo booth and panel displays (ANYCOLOR press release, in Japanese). From July 17 to August 3, 2025, on the 5th floor of the store’s A building, it held a 7th-anniversary pop-up for the unit ChroNoiR, combining novelties given by purchase amount, a venue-only Q&A corner and life-size panel displays (ANYCOLOR announcement, in Japanese).
What we find notable is that “Nijisanji Department Store” has been held multiple times as a series. It has a name as a regular event, not as a one-off invitation. For fans, that sets up the expectation that there will be a next one, and for the facility, it means not negotiating from zero each time.
The Template That Earlier Cases Built
These templates did not appear suddenly in the past few years. The standout long-established department store is Matsuya Ginza. It has kept holding anime original-art exhibitions and exhibition-style events in its Event Square, and it has been treated as a leading player in department store anime strategy, to the point that Nikkei Xtrend (in Japanese) ran a feature on it. It was an early case of redefining the event floor from a place for regional-products fairs to a place for winning younger customers.
Among the larger groups, Mitsukoshi Isetan said in 2021 that it would double its collab business with anime and manga content from the previous year, and invested in a new dedicated site and video streaming (Nikkei, in Japanese). It was the turning point at which anime collabs were upgraded from one-off events to a continuing business.
Patterns That Work and Patterns to Watch
Line up the cases and it becomes clear that results depend less on the size of the facility than on the design of who takes part, and how far.
| Type | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Works: same-day rollout across a national network | Move the whole affiliated network at once, maximizing total buzz and social spread | AEON “Summer Festival” (about 5,600 stores), Mitsui Shopping Park x Jujutsu Kaisen 5th anniversary |
| Works: clearly stating a “first” or an anniversary | Build a hook into the event name that sets it apart from an ordinary pop-up | Matsuzakaya Ueno x SAKAMOTO DAYS FES (first exhibition-style event for a TV anime), PARCO x Paprika (20th anniversary of the film) |
| Works: adding a free experience | Lower the barrier to visiting with something people can join before buying, and create a starting point for posts | AEON Mall and some AEON Town locations x Demon Slayer puzzle event (by SCRAP, free to join) |
| Works: layering onto an existing sales season | Even without an event floor, cross a collab with osechi or a sale | Mitsukoshi Isetan x THE IDOLM@STER collab osechi |
| Works: naming a series and making it regular | Fix the program’s name, as in “XX Department Store,” to leave anticipation for the next one | Seibu Shibuya “Nijisanji Department Store” |
| Watch: undisclosed results make next year’s budget harder | Visitor numbers and sales aren’t published, so internal explanations tend to rely on the volume of social buzz | Pop-up programs in general |
| Watch: concentration in cities narrows chances for fans in the regions | Events cluster in major facilities, so the farther away a fan lives, the harder it is to take part | Single-store events with no tour or nationwide rollout |
Practical Steps to Get a Plan Approved and Running
Put in working order, these patterns become seven stages.
- Track the IP’s anniversary and new-release calendar from a year ahead. A “first-ever” or “Nth anniversary” belongs to whoever secures it first. Reserving event-floor slots takes roughly several months to half a year.
- Separate the headquarters program from single-store invitation at the start. Nationwide rollouts are built on a blanket contract between group headquarters and the IP holder. Managers of single stores should first check the route of applying to join the headquarters’ program.
- Build the venue schedule assuming a tour. An exhibition-style event that travels through Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka needs a long lead time to adjust each venue’s event calendar.
- Don’t build on merchandise alone. Puzzle games, stamp rallies, photo spots, displays: include at least one element that is free or low-cost to join. Working with an outside experience-production company is also an option.
- Decide purchase limits and post-event mail order first. Mail order after the run gives distant fans, and people who couldn’t buy, somewhere to go. If you handle random goods, design ways to trade and choose as well.
- Set KPIs on several axes. Track not only visitor count but also goods sell-through rate, spend per customer, circulation to other stores in the building, social mentions and new member registrations. Even if you don’t publish them, keep them internally.
- Decide where fixtures, inventory and data go after the run. Will it tour, go to post-event mail order, will fixtures be reused? Without a decision, the load piles up after the run ends.
- 01Track the calendarA year ahead
- 02Split the routeHeadquarters or single store
- 03Plan the tourVenue schedules
- 04Add a free elementPuzzle, photo spot, display
- 05Set limitsPurchases and mail order
- 06Choose KPIsSeveral axes
- 07Plan the close-outFixtures, stock, data
The steps after the run matter as much as the run itself.
Here is a pre-planning checklist.
- You have matched the IP’s anniversary and new-release schedule against the event calendar
- You have confirmed whether it is a headquarters blanket contract or a single-store invitation
- You have put into words a differentiating hook such as “first” or an anniversary
- You have prepared an experience that is free or low-cost to join
- You have decided purchase limits, post-event mail order and reprint policy
- There is a path for fans living in the regions to take part (tour, mail order, online)
- You have defined KPIs other than visitor count in advance
- You have assigned who handles fixtures, inventory and the review after the run
For a broader view of planning, see How to Plan an Oshi-Katsu Event, and where food is involved, How to Plan a Collab Cafe, With Success Stories.
Notes From The Oshi Lab: They’re Selling a Reason to Go, Not Floor Space
What department stores and commercial facilities are betting on with pop-ups is not sales per tsubo (about 3.3 square meters). It is a reason to go to that facility on that day. The more that can be bought online, the more a physical store’s value shifts toward experiences that don’t work unless you show up. Exhibition-style events, free puzzle games, life-size panels, photo spots: none of them can be reproduced by mail order.
This field also has a shared weakness: results are almost never published. Few facilities disclose visitor numbers or sales. Choosing not to publish can be a sound management decision, but if the numbers aren’t kept internally either, the program depends on individual enthusiasm and becomes a matter of whoever happens to own it.
There is also the question of how to treat fans in the regions. The concentration of events in major urban facilities makes sense from the facility’s point of view. That is exactly why we see building in outlets such as tours, post-event mail order and online programs from the start as a condition for lasting support. A pop-up can be designed not as a one-off sales device but as a mechanism that renews the relationship between facility and fans every year.
Related articles: What Is Oshi-Katsu Marketing? / What Is Fan Marketing? / How to Plan a Collab Cafe, With Success Stories / The Oshi-Katsu Market Size, 2026 Edition
FAQ
Why do department stores use their event floors for anime and character projects?
Anime draws younger visitors who don't overlap with a store's traditional customers. As of 2021, Mitsukoshi Isetan said it would upgrade anime collabs from one-off events to a continuing business.
What is the difference between a pop-up store and an exhibition-style event?
A pop-up centers on merchandise and turns over fast. An exhibition-style event puts original artwork and 3D displays up front and keeps visitors longer. Matsuzakaya Ueno's SAKAMOTO DAYS FES is the latter.
Can a manager at a single store bring in an IP collab?
Nationwide rollouts are generally built on a blanket contract between group headquarters and the IP holder. For a single store, applying to join the headquarters' program is the realistic route.
Should there be anything besides merchandise?
Yes: free experiences such as puzzle games and stamp rallies. Fans who aren't buying can still join, which lowers the barrier to visiting and gives people something to post about.
How many people do oshi-katsu in Japan?
CDG's second oshi-katsu survey reports 13.84 million people, a market of about ¥3.5 trillion, and average annual spending of about ¥255,035 per person.
