If you're landing in Japan in July or August, here's the short answer: you haven't missed the summer sales. The Lumine and NEWoMan sale starts on Thursday, July 16. Mitsui Outlet Park's SUPER OUTLET SALE runs from Friday, July 17 through Sunday, August 16. And the Premium Outlets bargain event opens on Friday, August 21.
What you've largely missed is the department stores. Japan's summer clearance began on Friday, June 26 this year — the same day at Isetan Shinjuku, Daimaru Tokyo, and Marui. More than two weeks in, the racks are picked over. Expect to hunt for sizes and colors rather than browse.
Everything below reflects what each company had published as of July 14, 2026, and focuses on places you can reach from Tokyo in a day. Tax-free procedures differ from one place to the next, so I've written them into each section instead of lumping them together.
What's still running, and what's about to start
Where | Sale | Dates |
Lumine / NEWoMan | Lumine & NEWoMan SALE | From Thu, July 16 (end date not announced) |
Mitsui Outlet Park (14 locations nationwide) | SUPER OUTLET SALE | Fri, July 17 – Sun, August 16 |
Premium Outlets | PREMIUM OUTLETS BARGAIN | Fri, August 21 – Sun, August 30 (participating malls not yet announced) |
Department stores / Marui | Summer clearance / HAPPY SALE | From Fri, June 26 (no end dates announced) |
What actually goes on sale
Before you decide where to go, it helps to know what gets marked down.
Mitsui's press release lists summer apparel, sports and outdoor gear, travel goods, and household items. Outlets are where you replace the sandals you wore through or the daypack you should have brought. They are not where you buy souvenirs.
At the department stores, the markdowns center on Japanese domestic fashion labels. Stock is thin by now, so don't work the racks — decide on the one thing you want and ask a salesperson what's left in your size.
One note on fitting rooms. Japanese shoes are sized in centimeters of foot length — 23.5, 26.0 — not in US or EU numbers. Women's clothing often carries Japanese sizes such as 7, 9, and 11 (go, or 号). Conversions vary by brand and by country, so put the shoe on and pull the shirt over your head before you pay.
Lumine and NEWoMan: the sale starts July 16
The Lumine, Lumine EST, and NEWoMan buildings at Shinjuku Station begin their sale on Thursday, July 16. No end date has been announced. If you're arriving in August, check the official site to confirm the sale is still running before you make the trip.
What's discounted, and by how much, is up to each shop. Lumine's own announcement tells you to ask the shops for details, so don't walk in expecting the whole building to be marked down.
The appeal here is location: the buildings sit on top of Shinjuku Station, so the travel time is essentially zero. This is where you buy one dress or one shirt from a Japanese label while you happen to be in Japan. It isn't where you fill a suitcase.
Tax-free processing happens at each building's tax-free counter. The location and hours differ by building, so check the floor guide when you arrive. You have to finish the paperwork on the day you buy — no coming back tomorrow. You can combine purchases from the shops that use the counter to clear the minimum, and some shops handle tax-free at their own register.
Mitsui Outlet Park: July 17 to August 16
This is the one sale on the calendar with a confirmed end date. The SUPER OUTLET SALE runs for roughly a month, from Friday, July 17 to Sunday, August 16, at 14 Mitsui Outlet Park locations nationwide, including Kisarazu, Iruma, Makuhari, Tama Minami-Osawa, and Yokohama Bayside.
The press release advertises "up to 80% off." Read that as a ceiling, not a promise. Discounts vary by brand and by item, and no, not every store is selling at a fifth of the price.
Makuhari, Tama Minami-Osawa, and Yokohama Bayside are the closest to central Tokyo. If store count matters more to you than travel time, two are worth the longer trip:
Kisarazu (木更津, Chiba) is about 50 minutes by highway bus from Tokyo Station. The bus does not leave from the Yaesu exit at street level. It leaves from Bus Terminal Tokyo Yaesu, Basement B, bay B12. The fare is 1,500 yen for adults (750 yen for children), there are no reservations, and you pay on board in cash or with an IC card. From Busta Shinjuku it's bay 3 on the 4th floor, about 60 minutes, 1,600 yen for adults (800 yen for children). There are buses from Yokohama Station's east exit too. Traffic can add time to any of them. On Sunday, July 19, the gates open at 9:00 a.m. and the shops run 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Iruma (入間, Saitama) is about 15 minutes by Seibu bus from Iruma-shi Station (入間市駅) on the Seibu Ikebukuro line. On Sunday, July 19 and Sunday, August 9, the shops open early at 9:30 a.m. — but they still close at 8:00 p.m. Iruma does not get Kisarazu's late closing.
Kisarazu is large, and a big store count means a lot of walking, most of it outdoors. In a Japanese summer that adds up fast, so arrive in the morning and take an afternoon bus back while you still have legs. For what to wear in this heat, see Japan Summer Clothing Guide 2026: What to Pack for Heat, Humidity, and Sudden Rain.
Tax-free works differently at each mall. Kisarazu has a TOURIST INFORMATION & Tax-free Counter, where purchases from participating stores are processed through an app — participating stores only, not the whole mall (Kisarazu's English site). Iruma publishes a list of tax-free shops but announces no central counter, so ask at the individual store.
Official site: Mitsui Outlet Park
Premium Outlets: the bargain event starts August 21
The PREMIUM OUTLETS BARGAIN is scheduled for Friday, August 21 through Sunday, August 30 on the official calendar. Discount rates and the list of participating malls haven't been announced yet, so check the official page shortly before you go. That goes for Gotemba and Shisui below, too: whether they join is part of that same announcement.
Those two are the ones travelers usually end up at, and they serve very different purposes.
Shisui (酒々井) is the one you visit on your way home. It's about 15 minutes by direct bus from Narita Airport — bay 30 at Terminal 1, bay 3 at Terminal 2 — and the fare is 500 yen for adults (250 yen for children). There is no stop at Terminal 3, so if you're flying a budget carrier, walk over to Terminal 2. If your flight leaves in the evening, you can spend the morning there and still make check-in comfortably. From Tokyo Station it's Bus Terminal Tokyo Yaesu, Basement A, bay A02 — about 50 minutes, 1,300 yen for adults (650 yen for children). Neither route takes reservations; it's first come, first served.
Gotemba (御殿場) is the one you pair with Mount Fuji. From Tokyo, the fastest route is the highway bus — roughly 100 minutes either way, Shinjuku on the Odakyu Highway Bus, Tokyo Station on the JR Bus Kanto Tomei Highway Bus. Both drop you at the Tomei Gotemba interchange, where a free shuttle takes 5 to 10 minutes to the mall (departures at 10, 25, 40, and 55 minutes past the hour).
By train, the Odakyu Romancecar "Fuji-san" reaches Gotemba Station from Shinjuku in about 95 minutes. The free shuttle leaves from bus bay 2 at the Hakone Otome exit and takes 5 to 10 minutes (departures on the hour and at 15, 30, and 45 minutes past). Note that the mall's own site warns that departures run irregularly when it's busy — on a summer weekend, don't count on those minutes to the letter. Fares for the buses and the train aren't listed on the official access pages, so check with the operators.
Neither Gotemba nor Shisui publishes its tax-free procedure online. Tax-free shops will ask for your passport at the register, so carry it with you inside the mall and ask the shop itself how the paperwork is handled.
Official site: Premium Outlets
Shibuya PARCO, July 17–26: not a sale
Shibuya PARCO's "2026 A/W NEW LOOK" (July 17–26) lands in the same window, but it's an autumn/winter launch, not a markdown. Pay with Pocket Parco or a PARCO card during the period and you get a 1,000-yen shopping voucher for every 10,000 yen spent (tax included) — effectively 10% back, on up to 50,000 yen in purchases.
Read the fine print on that, though: the voucher goes to the first 500 customers. The campaign is billed as ten days long, but it ends the moment the quota fills. Showing up inside the dates guarantees you nothing.
And it isn't where you go for cheap summer clothes. It's where you go if you want a first look at the autumn collections, or if you were heading to Shibuya for the culture-shop floors anyway and can schedule the trip inside those ten days. One caveat: PARCO doesn't say whether visitors from abroad can use Pocket Parco or a PARCO card, so ask in store before you count on the 10%.
Official site: 渋谷PARCOの期間限定のイベントやお得な情報など最新ニュースをお届けしています。
パルコニュース | 渋谷PARCO(パルコ)
The department store clearance began June 26
Mitsukoshi Isetan — Isetan Shinjuku, Nihombashi Mitsukoshi, and the rest — opened its summer clearance on Friday, June 26. Daimaru Tokyo started the same day, with individual brands joining on June 27, July 1, and July 3, and a few not starting until July 10 and July 16. Marui's HAPPY SALE also began June 26. None of them has announced an end date.
One thing to watch at department stores is the tax-free fee. Daimaru Tokyo processes refunds at the 12th-floor tax-free counter (10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.) and states plainly that it charges a fee of 1.55% of the price of the tax-free items. On a 10% consumption tax item, the store puts the refund at 8.45%, not the full 10%. Bring that day's register receipt — the printed slip from the till; the formal 領収書 (ryōshūsho) issued on request is not accepted — along with your original passport with the entry stamp, the card you paid with, and the merchandise itself. For how to pay in the first place, see How to Pay in Japan 2026: Cash, IC Cards, Contactless, and QR Codes.
If you're coming in August, assume the department store clearance is down to scraps and build your shopping day around an outlet instead.
Tax-free starts at 5,000 yen, and this summer still works the old way
Sale prices are still eligible for tax-free shopping at licensed stores. Here's where the rules stand as of July 2026.
Who qualifies | Non-residents (short-stay foreign visitors). Japanese nationals face separate requirements |
|---|---|
Amount | 5,000 yen or more (before tax) in one store, on one day, by one person |
General goods | Clothing, shoes, bags, etc. No upper limit |
Consumables | Cosmetics, food, etc. 5,000 to 500,000 yen. Sealed in the specified packaging |
Procedure | Show your original passport. Purchase records are transmitted electronically |
Tax rate | 10% standard; 8% on food and drink other than alcohol and restaurant meals |
The threshold is measured against what you actually pay before tax. If you're just short of 5,000 yen, adding one more item at the same store gets you there. For how tax-free counters work in practice and when to hand over your passport, The Complete Don Quijote (Donki) Tax-Free Shopping Guide 2026 walks through it.
Two warnings. First, the "separate shipping" option for tax-free goods was abolished on April 1, 2025. You now have to carry your tax-free purchases out yourself, in your carry-on or checked luggage, and present them at customs when you leave.
Second, the whole system changes on November 1, 2026. From that date, you pay the tax-included price in the store, customs confirms at departure that the goods are leaving the country, and the consumption tax is refunded to you afterward. That applies to purchases made on or after November 1 — anything you buy this July or August still works the old way, tax deducted at the register. The details are in Japan's Tax-Free System Changes in November 2026: A Traveler's Guide to the New Refund Method.
Official site : Japan Tourism Agency, tax-free shop portal
On the end of separate shipping : Japan Tourism Agency
When the suitcase won't close
Buy in bulk at an outlet and your suitcase won't shut on the way home. Ship the overflow to your hotel or the airport by courier, or leave it in a station locker or a luggage-holding service and travel light for the rest of the day. Tokyo Luggage Storage Guide 2026: Coin Lockers, Storage Apps, and Hands-Free Sightseeing covers the options.
The rest of the summer breaks into two windows: Mitsui Outlet Park's sale ends August 16, and the Premium Outlets bargain opens August 21. If your trip touches either one, give that day to shopping. If you land in the gap — August 17 to 20 — skip the outlets and pick through what's left at the department stores and Lumine in the city.
This article was translated from the original Japanese with AI assistance and reviewed by our editorial team. The Japanese version is authoritative.
