Kotobukiya Tachikawa head office

Store Directly Managed by a Hobby Maker of Tachikawa

Kotobukiya, a very famous hobby manufacturer, was born in Tachikawa. The head office is on Sunsun Road along with a monorail in the north exit of Tachikawa station. Today we visited a store directly managed by Kotobukiya. The store is lined with items filled with unique ideas by the staff. Let’s ask a staff member to show us around!

On the entrance on the second floor of the building, there is a photo spot with life-sized panels of many popular anime characters. Udora, who failed to become an official character of Tachikawa, welcomed us.

The floor is divided into several areas by category so that anyone from small children to adults can enjoy the area and easily find what they want to see. It is so exciting!

This is a photo space where anybody can freely set up figures and dolls to take pictures. Various kinds of photo settings were made by staff.

There is a “Communication Notebook” area where visitors can freely write down their comments in a notebook. Huge fans have written lovely messages to characters.

Mr. Yoshinori Yaguchi, the store manager, showed us around the inside. He moved to Tachikawa headquarters in 2013 after 10-year working for Kotobukiya in Akihabara.

Kotobukiya started as a store selling dolls and toys used for the celebration of seasonal events. After that, the company became a hobby manufacturer selling figures and plastic models. The company was established in 1953, shortly after the war. In 1967, Kotobukiya Tachikawa started the business in the Dai-ichi Department Store in the north exit of Tachikawa station but the department closed in 2012 due to the aging of the building. Many people felt sad but four years later, in 2016 the headquarters building was constructed and reopened.
Mr. Yaguchi said, “We are creating stores where our customers enjoy and want to come back again. We have many goods introduced by VTubers. We have prepared a communication notebook to communicate between the fans and also set up a booth to celebrate the birthday of the characters.” There are limited-edition items that were sold here only. Fans of anime and game contents can enjoy visiting the holy places that were written on the contents.
With an increase in demand for plastic models after the corona pandemic, the plastic models of beautiful girls produced by Kotobukiya are very popular and are selling well. Kotobukiya develops goods that match the era and pleases the fans. This is the reason why the store has been loved for a long time.

※The content of the article is as of the time of publication. (Posted in February 2024)