*This article is based on interviews conducted on December 28, 2024, and may differ from current information. *The shop in December 2024
COVER, which manages hololive production, one of the largest VTuber agencies in the world, opened the pop-up shop hololive production official shop in Tokyo Station in partnership with Kiddyland Co., Ltd., located in Tokyo Character Street, First Avenue Tokyo Station, on November 14, 2024, and has since announced that hololive production official shop in Osaka Umeda will also be opening in June 2025.
Promoting the global expansion of VTuber culture with the vision, “Together, Let’s Create Culture Loved by All,” COVER interviewed customers and the manager about creating the unique atmosphere of the newly established hololive production official shop in Tokyo Station, which aims to promote interaction with fans, and insights into what products are flying off the shelves.
An Atmosphere Built Upon a Station. A New Fan Experience Full of Original Illustrations and Unique Content.
The store, which will be available until spring 2026, is expected to be a new transmission hub for VTuber culture right on Tokyo’s doorstep, a destination for domestic and international tourists.
One of the unique features of this shop is the original merchandise that changes depending on the time of year. For example, in December 2024, a range of products featuring hololive production talents in hololive Station Costumes designed by illustrator Hiragi to look like station attendants were released, including acrylic stands and name tag-style acrylic badges, which received a lot of support from fans. Inside the shop, one can hear exclusive in-store announcements recorded by the talents, and find handwritten signatures and comments from talents scattered all over the shop, creating a station-like atmosphere and bringing together all sorts of people.
*Announcements will change at different times of the year.
Unique initiatives can also be taken on, as the store can be easily adapted to suit requests from talents. Special campaigns or projects are implemented to coincide with a talent’s live concert or an album release, which talents in turn have brought up during their livestreams. Fans can look forward to different projects and campaigns throughout the year, with new themed merchandise releases and announcements whenever they visit the store.
Best-Sellers and Creating Unique, Valued Experiences Through Offline Stores
When asked what products are the most prolific sellers, KIDDY LAND’s Kaneaki Kubushiro, the shop manager, said that the station attendant uniform series of original merchandise and confectionery has been particularly popular.
“We consistently sell 5-10 units of confectionery featuring the talents in their hololive Station Costumes every hour, with certain customers buying the maximum amount they can for restricted merchandise” he said, talking about the high demand for souvenirs taking full advantage of the prime location that is Tokyo Station.
hololive Station Costume acrylic stands are also strong sellers, with many fans coming to the store in search of their oshi’s design, a highly valued piece of memorabilia.
According to Kubushiro, other popular items besides the hololive Station Costumes series have been the hololive friends with u and the hololive friends to Go series of plushies and mascots.
He spoke about their popularity as these merchandise are easily portable for fans’ oshi-katsu: “The plushies and mascots have also been well-received because their design is perfect for daily use: they are a good size for fans to store in or decorate their bags with, so they can have one or more with them all the time. We get many customers who buy plushies of their oshi in bulk, so sales rival those of the hololive Station series.”
The shop offers different experience value for fans, who have mainly shopped online, in physically coming to the store and actually holding the products in their hands before choosing their purchases.
“I was thrilled to be able to see and choose my oshi’s plushies in person to see how big they were in actuality and how they felt,” said a male Sakura Miko fan hailing from Chiba Prefecture, who visited the store for the first time: a visit that coincided with a cheer screening in Shinagawa, Tokyo.
Another male customer, who had been to the shop about 3 or 4 times to support Kazama Iroha, places importance on the value of collector’s items, elaborating on his specific reason for being at the shop: “Because my oshi, Kazama Iroha, ends her sentences with “ござる” (gozaru), there is the wordplay “ござるの5” (gozaru no go), and so I want to collect 5 (“go” in Japanese) of her plushies. I already have one at home, so I bought four more.”
Kubushiro also talked about how popular the handwritten signature displays were, as fans can only see them because there is a physical store: “These are also extremely popular. Photos [of these displays] actively get circulated around social media because almost everyone who comes to the shop wants to take a picture of them, and we even get a lot of people asking us where their oshi’s signature is. These signature displays are valuable because the talents actually came to sign them in person, so you can only see them here, which has pleased a lot of customers over the first month since opening.”
The shop is a new point of contact between fans and talents, offering special experiences that one cannot get online. It contributes to further stimulating the fan community, where there is tremendous value in “real” elements at a physical shop like this in a landscape where the digital medium is the main battleground for VTubers.
“What has particularly left an impression on me is seeing customers lining up patiently while holding a suitcase or a huge backpack. Despite having such heavy luggage with them, many customers come ‘only wanting to buy one item.’ The crowds get really lively when there’s an ongoing campaign or event,” said Kubushiro, also mentioning that there are often lines of up to 50 people outside the shop before and after live events.
The Global Expansion of VTuber Culture and hololive production from the Perspective of a Diverse Fanbase
When asked who makes up the main clientele at the shop, Kubushiro responded, “About 70-80% are male, with about 20-30% from overseas. In particular, we get more customers from Asia, but on holidays we get westerners coming in as well.” He also mentioned that tax-free purchases can be made as part of the shop’s efforts to appeal to incoming tourists.
We asked a female customer, who was visiting the store to get a Fuwawa Abyssgard random card and had visited about three times so far, about her impressions of the shop: “There are a lot of overseas visitors here early in the morning on weekdays.”
When looking at customer trends a little deeper, we can see that VTubers are supported by many age groups, with many families also visiting the shop. We spoke to a family who were at the shop with their 10-year-old son, a Sakura Miko fan, about how they became fans of hololive: “We originally started out watching game livestreams, which is how we first heard about VTubers. It was because there were some VTubers among these video game streamers that we started enjoying VTuber videos as a family.”
We also asked an elementary schoolgirl, a fan of Hoshimachi Suisei, making the most of her winter vacation and visiting the shop with her family from Kawasaki about how she came to know about hololive: “I became a fan after hearing her sing on YouTube, and now I support her wholeheartedly.”
A male fan in his 40s, visiting the shop to buy Tokoyami Towa merchandise for his colleague, talked about music content as the gateway for new fans: “I am stopping in on the way to a jazz concert. I am a big music lover, and first learned about VTubers through Hoshimachi Suisei’s appearance on THE FIRST TAKE, and from then on I was a fan. I am planning on getting Hoshimachi Suisei’s upcoming LP.”
A Hub for Fans Across the Globe. An Offline Store Opening Doors to New Possibilities.
Store manager Kubushiro, based on what he has witnessed in Tokyo, spoke about the shop’s prospects: “We will continue to manage this shop by prioritizing the special feelings people get when buying a particular product, or looking forward to seeing something at the shop. I hope to be able to continue developing this store, making full use of the space here at Tokyo Station for 1, 2, even 3 years to come, and based on the success we’ve had here at Tokyo Station, expand to have more locations all over Japan.”
For instance, he envisions a future with an Osaka store that fans can visit whenever a concert is held there.
COVER President Tanigo still has the vision he has had since the company’s inception of “wanting to create a company that breaks through onto the global stage with Japanese entertainment,” and continues to pour all of his effort into making people more aware of VTubers both within Japan and on a global scale. Establishing a hololive production Official Shop in such an international location like Tokyo Station, where an abundance of overseas tourists can also easily visit the store, is an excellent opportunity for, not only domestic fans, but fans and tourists from all over the world to experience VTuber culture, and a step towards being able to share VTuber culture with so many more people.
There will be a lot of interest in what sort of possibilities this new hub on Tokyo’s doorstep can bring to the future development of VTuber culture, as a space for experiencing the world of hololive production and a place where fans from all over the world can gather.
*This article is based on interviews conducted on December 28, 2024, and may differ from current information.
First Store in West Japan! hololive production official shop in Osaka Umeda Opening Soon!
Shop Details
Shop Name: hololive production official shop in Osaka Umeda
Location: B1F North Building, Hankyu Sanban Gai, 1-1-3 Shibata, Kita-ku, Osaka
Dates: June 27, 2025 – Spring 2026
Opening Hours: 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM (JST)
*Opening hours will follow HANKYU SANBAN GAI hours of business.
https://hololive.hololivepro.com/en/events/shopumeda/
