Which Japanese trade shows accept foreign exhibitors?

Most of the major ones. Tokyo International Gift Show, Interior Lifestyle Tokyo and Lifestyle Week all run English-language application processes and international exhibitor sections. Design Festa is open-submission with no selection committee at all, accepting any creator regardless of nationality.

Which Japanese trade show is best for craft?

Interior Lifestyle Tokyo. It covers interiors, homeware and design products, is run by Messe Frankfurt so the process is familiar to European exhibitors, and the attending buyers are specifically looking for design-led products where imported work is expected rather than exceptional.

How far ahead do I need to apply?

Four to five months for most Japanese trade shows, and the better stand positions are allocated well before the formal deadline. Applying late is the single most common reason foreign makers lose a season in Japan.

Can I sell directly at a Japanese trade show?

Usually not. Shows such as the Tokyo International Gift Show are business-to-business and are about taking orders rather than retail sales. Consumer-facing events such as Design Festa do allow direct sales, but that changes your customs position: selling requires permanent import with duty and 10% consumption tax, rather than temporary import under an ATA Carnet.

Do I have to attend the show in person?

Effectively yes. An unattended stand performs very poorly because Japanese buyers expect to meet the maker, and much of the value is in conversations that cannot happen through a representative. Budget the trip as part of the stand cost rather than as an optional extra.

Japanese Trade Shows Open to Foreign Exhibitors

The shows worth knowing

Interior Lifestyle Tokyo — the best fit for craft

Interiors, homeware and design products, roughly 400 exhibitors from Japan and overseas, run by Messe Frankfurt. Because the organiser is European, the process is familiar and entirely in English.

For British ceramics, glass, textiles, homeware and lighting this is the single best-matched Japanese trade show. Buyers attending are specifically looking for design-led products, and imported work is expected rather than exceptional. Held in June; apply four to five months ahead. Official site

Tokyo International Gift Show — the biggest

Japan's largest lifestyle and gift trade show: roughly 3,000 exhibitors across about 100,000 square metres, twice yearly. Full English application process and overseas exhibitor sections.

The scale is both the advantage and the problem. Buyer footfall is enormous, but so is the noise, and a small stand in a hall of thousands needs a clear reason to be visited. Best suited to makers with a distinctive, immediately legible product. Official site

Design Festa — the open door

Twice yearly at Tokyo Big Sight, and structurally different from the others: open submission, no selection committee, any nationality. Booths are inexpensive and the audience is enormous.

It is not a trade show — buyers are not the primary audience and you sell direct to consumers. But as a first physical presence in Japan and a way to test how your work and pricing are received, nothing else comes close for the money. The photographs you leave with also make your next trade show application considerably stronger. Official site

Lifestyle Week — the alternative dates

A cluster of co-located trade shows covering gift, homeware, tableware, beauty and stationery, running several times a year in Tokyo and Osaka. English application. Useful when the Gift Show dates do not suit your production cycle. Official site

Which one, in what order

If you have never shown in Japan, the sequence that works is:

Design Festa. Low cost, no gatekeeping, and within two days you know how Japanese visitors respond to your work and your pricing. That answer is what you need before spending on a trade show stand.
Interior Lifestyle Tokyo (or the Gift Show, if your product is gift-led). Now you have Japanese photographs, Japanese pricing evidence and a Japanese show on your CV.
Department store exhibitions and stockists, using the contacts made at the trade show.

Decisions you must make before booking

Customs: samples or stock?

These are completely different customs positions. An ATA Carnet covers temporary import and avoids duty and consumption tax — but the goods must leave Japan again, and you cannot sell them. Selling means permanent import, with duty and 10% consumption tax payable, and you need an importer of record.

Trade shows are business-to-business: you take orders, you do not retail, so a Carnet usually fits. Design Festa is consumer-facing and you sell on the spot, so it does not. Decide before you book anything.

Pricing

Quote in yen, and quote a price that survives the whole chain. Shipping, duty, consumption tax and a retailer margin will land your work at a multiple of your UK retail price. Japanese buyers are not price-averse, but they are very sensitive to a price with no visible justification.

Lead times

Say what you mean and then meet it. In Japanese trade practice a stated delivery date is a commitment rather than an estimate, and a first missed date is extremely difficult to recover from. Quote conservatively, deliver early.

Attend in person

An unattended stand at a Japanese trade show performs very poorly. Buyers expect to meet the maker, and much of the value of the show is in conversations that cannot happen through a representative. Budget for the trip as part of the stand cost, not as an optional extra.

Bring: a price list in yen, a one-page company profile in Japanese, business cards (they are used seriously — receive them with both hands and do not write on them), and samples buyers can handle.

Applications and stands

We handle application, stand design, shipping and customs, interpretation on the day and the follow-up afterwards. We can also simply advise on which show to target and leave you to run it — that conversation is free.

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Japanese trade shows that actually accept foreign exhibitors