Stylish and highly practical, Japanese household goods are the kind of shopping item you don't want to overlook when you're in Japan. If you're planning a trip to Osaka, the central Umeda area, with its many shopping malls and a huge selection of products, is the perfect place to look for interior items and other knick knacks for the home! You can find everything from large stores to stylish select shops. In this article, we'll take a look at some of these home goods shops, each with their own character, and offer a carefully-curated selection of some Japanese-made items we recommend. If you like this kind of Japanese-style items for the home, be sure to bookmark this page and check them out!

MUJI

When it comes to high-quality, practical Japanese home goods, you can't leave MUJI off the list - it's hugely popular both in Japan and overseas! The MUJI store in GRAND FRONT OSAKA covers a whooping three floors of space, making it the largest flagship store in Western Japan.

The vast space from the second to the fourth floor features the entire lineup of MUJI products! The store offers not only clothing, food, household goods, and furniture, but also a wide range of housing-related services, like home purchases and renovations. It's a dream-like paradise for interior living!

There are a million items we could recommend from MUJI, but it's also fun to just spend a half day there looking at everything to pick out your favorites. Here are two especially popular items you might want to take a look at:

If you're worried about humidity in your room, you're going to want MUJI's Reusable dehumidifier with deodorizing function. Compact in size, it has a built-in hole so you can hang it on a hanger, or put it directly in your closet on in your shoes - how you use it is up to you! You can keep using it again and again after it dries things out, so it's a handy item that's not only good for the environment, but for your wallet, too.

MUJI also has fantastic storage items. If you're looking for a makeup bag you can take with you when you're out and about, check out their Nylon Makeup Pouch, which you store your brushes upright in; or their Mini Water Repellent Backpack, which has a really cute design. Both are extremely useful, practical, and well-designed.

Kitchen Kitchen

If you're a cost-conscious young person, you can still put together a stylish living space without spending too much money. Kitchen Kitchen is a variety homegoods store with a "home café" theme. It sells tableware, items for the kitchen, and small interior items so you, too, can create a café-like atmosphere at home without breaking the bank. Prices range from 100 yen to 1,500 yen (excluding tax), so you can shop with the same kind of bargain values you'd find at a 100 yen shop, but with a sophisticated sense of style.

Make sure you check out the Japanese-made najimi and TSUBAME series of products. The najimi series is made up of Mino-yaki pottery (originating in Gifu Prefecture and one of Japan's three major pottery styles), and is characterized by items with incredible color, design, and shape. Even with their unique Japanese texture, they work well for both Japanese and Western cuisine - sure to bring out the tastiness of the food even more.

The TSUBAME tableware series comes with a certificate of manufacture from Tsubame City, Niigata Prefecture. Each piece is crafted carefully by the ceramic artisans, and are remarkable for their high quality and ease of use. If you like items made in Japan, you won't want to miss these.

Détour à Bleuet

A combination sundry shop and café, Détour à Bleuet is a new concept store created by Blue Bleuet, a store for natural household goods

The warm-hued, wooden shop interior features a European-style café with coffee, tea, and other specialty drinks. There is also a corner of carefully selected “Blue Bleuet” sundries, with a lineup of cute and comforting household goods. If you get tired after a busy day of shopping around the Umeda area here in Osaka, this is a great little store to use as your secret base to take a break and enjoy looking at the charming knick knacks inside.

Détour à Bleuet is full of appealing little gifts, but be sure to check out their original Blue Bleuet hot eye mask. It's scented with soothing essential oils, and features cute animal designs like foxes and rabbits. Even as you're relaxing after a long day, with the fun designs, taking a break will feel much more fun: you'll feel almost as if you'd turned into a cute little animal yourself!

You'll also want to take a look at the towel handkerchiefs embroided with letters of the alphabet. Elegant in design and soft to the touch, these are made in Japan, you so can be sure of their quality. You'll delight any close friend you gift one of these.

daily CLIP

Cozy Japanese home goods and knick knacks can bring more color and happiness into your ordinary routine. daily CLIP is a store that offers exactly that. It's a new brand, launched in 2023 by the lifestyle brand studio CLIP, aiming to bring customers more comfort and individuality in their daily living, through products with natural, simple, and durable designs. A single plate or a bamboo storage basket from daily CLIP can instantly elevate and enrich your daily routine.

For example, these chopstick rests with an origami crane design are not only very cute, but bring a touch of Japan to your home, just by placing them on the table. If you're looking for a wedding gift for some friends who're about to start life as a married couple, it's a great idea to give them a set of auspicious red and white chopstick rests.

Other popular items include the Swirling Wine Glass ("yura yura glass"), with it's rounded bottom design, and the stylish Crystal Coaster, made from natural stone. If you enjoy having a drink, you'll definitely want to check these out.

Each of the four household good stores we introduced are very popular in Japan. They each have their own unique product designs and styles, so it's worth it to visit each and do a little treasure hunting. If you're looking for ideas for your home interior or want to buy some comforting knick-knacks, be sure to stop by next time you're in Umeda, Osaka!

For more details on how to get to Umeda, see here.

For more information on Umeda, check out some of our Trip Ideas.

*Information in this article is accurate as of the date of posting. There is a possibility that details regarding these products and services have changed, or that some shops have since closed.