New Year Bag Japan

Lucky bag is a grab bag filled with random items and traditionally on sale for a substantially discounted price on new year s day in japan.

New year bag japan. Japanese new year celebrations are quite different from typical. The japanese term 福袋 fukuburo comes from the union of two kanji. Japan s department stores usually start selling fukubukuro or lucky bags in the first days of the new year.

They re closed grab bags randomly filled with a shop s products sold for a substantial discount usually 50 percent or more. Fuku 福 means luck and bukuro 袋 means bag so the literal translation is lucky bag. Many japanese would even spend a couple of hours or a day lining up to get their hands on them.

In japan after the 25th of december it s as if christmas never happened. Fukubukuro it can be translated as lucky bag in english is a value set filled with random goodies. One of the special and fun new year s activities in japan is the bargain sale called hatsuuri or the first sale.

This year to follow this japanese custom saketora has decided to release three types of lucky bags at the prices of 1 388 2 388 and 3 888. These lucky bags are sold at the beginning of the new year during the hatsu uri 初売り. That s because christmas here is like halloween just another fun holiday without much traditional or cultural let alone religious significance the traditional winter holiday for the japanese is oshogatsu literally first month or new year.

Fukubukuro typically appear in japanese shops on new year s day. Thousands of japanese shoppers would line up early morning on january 1st to hunt for the goodies at department stores and shopping outlets. Fuku or good fortune and fukuro meaning bag.

The low prices are usually done to attract customers to shop at that store during the new year. It s sold in many varieties at many stores offering goods such as food clothing and electronics. These lucky bags are essentially new year sales bags containing a bunch of items that you can snag for a price significantly lower than retail.