Ikea opening up new store in Japan

[dimwit]

Ikea plans to open up a Japanese based store in Funabashi next spring with a follow store in Yokohama in the fall.

Story via Japan Today here

Information from IKEA website here

IKEA acquires the site for the first store in Japan in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture – the Lalaport Ski Dome (Ssaws) Site

The IKEA Group, a Swedish home furnishing company, decided to enter the Japanese market in 2001 and established Ikea Japan K.K. in July 2002. IKEA Japan has been working towards selecting a site for the first store in Japan to sell furniture and home furnishings. IKEA Japan has decided to acquire a part of the Lalaport Ski Dome (Ssaws) site, which is approx. 42,500 m2, in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture. The seller is Mitsui Fudosan K.K.

My guess is that they will do well here. There is a huge thirty and forty something market that will love the place.

[IkemenTommy]

Sure why not. Can't go wrong with good cheap furniture.
I was looking for a new queen size bed actually..

[Sarutaro]

[gomichild]

well they may well succeed this time round...

[Sarutaro]

well they may well succeed this time round...

I hope so. I'm Swedish

[gomichild]

I hope so too. Not a lot of options for halfway decent cheap furniture here (that can be customized).

[IkemenTommy]

Has anyone ever shopped at Otsuka Interior Design Center? Never been there because I never had to but
they have a fancy showroom located at East Shinjuku. Is that more of fancy customized furniture rather than the cheap selection Ikea has?

[omae mona]

Has anyone ever shopped at Otsuka Interior Design Center? Never been there because I never had to but
they have a fancy showroom located at East Shinjuku. Is that more of fancy customized furniture rather than the cheap selection Ikea has?

Otsuka Kagu is the opposite of Ikea. Ikea is inexpensive, assembly-required furniture. Otsuka Kagu is fairly pricy, full-fledged furniture. Mostly imports. If I recall, you need an appointment, and a representative will accompany you through the store to answer questions and write up your shopping list. If you want an adventure, go to the one in Odaiba (kokusai-tenjijou station on the Rinkai line or Yurikamome monorail). It's gotta be the size of several U.S. football fields.

Maybe I go to the wrong stores, but I find most modern furniture in Tokyo is Ikea-quality (e.g. particle board, etc.) but priced like high quality furniture overseas. Otsuka Kagu is not too much more expensive than things I see in other Tokyo stores, but it tends to be much more solid quality stuff. On the other hand, Ikea will be similar quality to most furniture in the city, but presumably much cheaper. Both are good bets depending on the quality you're looking for (I have furniture from both!)

[Taro Toporific]

WOTS "FURNITURE"?

[American Oyaji]

I think IKEA will do well.

[dimwit]

Personally, I am just sick of paying 10 man for furniture that would get a C+ in a high school wood shop class - drawers where the face falls off because it was held tegether with pegs rather than nails, beds where the frame isn't entire square and the rest of the poorly designed faux western furniture.

[Mulboyne]

IKEA will open their new Funabashi store later this month. As part of their promotion, they have unveiled 14 showrooms along Icho Namiki Dori in Aoyama. Each one is 4.5 tatami mats in size and you can win one if you fill in an IKEA survey. It rained cats and dogs in Tokyo today so they might not be looking quite so stylish now.

[Currawong]

I just went window shopping at Nafuco, among other places. I don't know if they exist in Tokyo, but over here in the wild west, they are the only store I've been in that was actually interesting and has a range of decent cheap furniture.

[gamma-ro]

IKEA = good, as far as I am concerned. I like DIY stuff, and haven't found much that I like in JP, outside of the odd thing here and there at MUJI or so.

[omae mona]

The Ikea Japan web site is up and running now with online product catalog AND an English version too.

[Taro Toporific]

IKEA = good, as far as I am concerned. I like DIY stuff, and haven't found much that I like in JP, outside of the odd thing here and there at MUJI or so.

For furniture, MUJI is a real Japanese company with poor quality and high prices, and mind-numbing design. IKEA is 1000% better. That said, IKEA Japan is having a hell of hard time starting up with computer system foul-ups (evil 2-byte characters crashed their databases and inventory systems) and delays. The IKEA Funabashi just opened but the brand-new zillion square meter IKEA Kohoku facitity (now hiring FGs) is competely BUILT and standing empty until OCTOBER because management of "unique Japanese conditions".

[INDENT]
IKEA tries to furnish Japan, again
Associated Press, Sun, Apr. 23, 2006
STOCKHOLM, Sweden ---- IKEA is hoping to be big in Japan by thinking small.
When the Swedish furnishing giant opens up anew in Tokyo on Monday - 20 years after suffering a rare failure in the challenging market on its first try - the company hopes to show it has mastered the key to winning over Japanese customers: small-space living....
...Plans are already in the works for a second store in Tokyo*, and Kullberg said he hopes there will be eight to 12 IKEA outlets in Japan in five years.....more....
[/INDENT]
*Bonehead error by the reporter or IKEA is trying cover-up its massive mistakes at IKEA Kohoku (Yokohama) which I went through yesterday. Because it's done and all ready to go I went into the completed but unstaffed store through the wheelchair entrance and got a tour from a bored and lonely temp-for-the-day security guard who spilled the beans about the empty facility.

[Kuang_Grade]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the J consumer. I can see some J folks being really interested in the various designs (although it looks like they are starting with a fairly safe design and color pallet) and the prices look about the same or acutally a bit lower that what they charge for in the US. With Japan's well developed delivery services, they might be able to cheaply deliver over a much wider area than they do here in the US...In the US, they have fixed rates for deliveries based on 45 or 70 miles raidius from the store...beyond that distance, you're own your own and you need to make your own arrangements/rent a truck/pester your friend with a pickup truck....although I've heard they've recently opened a US online store that can deliver things via UPS

[Mulboyne]

A new IKEA store opened today in Tsuruhama, Osaka. It's the fourth to open after Funabashi, Kobe and Yokohama. A Saitama store will open in Winter.