Jul 6, 2017
Places to donate items whem moving away from Japan
For most foreigners living in Japan, there will come a time when they need to pack up and move home. Not everyone can ship everything to their next destination. What are the best places that accept donations of household items, clothing, food etc?
I've been living in Japan for almost 2 decades, spanning everything from 2 years living in a tiny town of less than 7000 people to many year in Tokyo and Yokohama, and much traveling in between. I now work as a relocation consultant, helping people as they get started on their own journey in Japan.
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on Jul 6
You could sell your stuff to the big book off branches that sell household goods, electronics and clothes. Either they buy your stuff or they just dispose of it (at least, based on my experience, I collected all the clothes I didn't need anymore, then the staff took the time to check each one, told me which ones they can sell at the shop and then asked me if I would want to leave the rest). I also donated old clothes to a Catholic Church in Yotsuya. They accept donations during Christmas season.
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on Jul 6
I would recommend going onto facebook and put them up for free. There are groups such as "Chubu Area Treasure Trove - Online Garage Sale" (find one that is of your area) where you (and I often do) can put things up for a price or for free. Most buyers would go and pick the stuff up, and some people even make posts like "moving out, a lot of things to give away, come see if there's anything you want/need". Good way to deal with unwanted things without wasting them!
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on Jul 12
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on Jul 17
In my experience, the most convenient ones are the followign: Online, depending on where you live, there would be Facebook groups with the tag "Sayonara Sale" where people leaving would post furniture, appliances, gadgets and whatnots to be either for sale or given away. Regarding clothes, the easiest way would be to bring them to a Uniqlo or an H&M. There's usually a bin outside where you can leave old clothes for donation and recycling. A paying-it-forward way would be to offer your stuff at the closest University international dorm/residence. I'm sure a lot of ryuugakusei would be more than glad to take stuff off your hands :)
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on Jul 22
Our town office now accepts things like this... it didn't always. In my case we are passing on baby stuff that we no longer needed, but I know others would be grateful for. Its just not always easy to find somebody at the right time. I found the Internet far too time consuming and often complicated (people cancelling, changing their mind, don't want to pay for post even though the item is free etc etc). Being able to drop stuff off to the town office on a given day of the month has proved very helpful and efficient. They then give it to people / families in need. Might be worth checking if your city hall / town office has a similar service?
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on Aug 25
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on Feb 21
I've been both selling and giving away for free items on Facebook pages. There's Japan Garage Sale type pages where you can offer items for free or sell them, so depending on the items that could be an option for you. People are generally quite willing to pay the shipping for something that they're getting for free. Craigslist is another option that I used when I was living in Tokyo to get rid of stuff, I've just found that the most reach is with online sources of getting rid of things - but it may require postage/meeting up with people in person.
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on Jul 25
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on Oct 24
Book off stores are good but they pay so little. Facebook sale and giveaway groups have been pretty good but I think the best these days is Mercari as it has so many users, navigation/search function is so much better than the Facebook groups and it’s very well organized (eg ability to send/receive goods without the sender/receiver not knowing the address etc details of the other person as it’s all handled by the Mercari system.
9 Answers