Ikebukuro Record Shops: 3 Stores, and One of Them Moved This Week

Other lists will hand you ten or twelve Ikebukuro record shops. Most of those are CD chains, one is a bookshop with a crate by the till, and several closed years ago. Ikebukuro has three record shops that justify the trip. That is not a criticism of the district — it is the useful fact, because it tells you the whole thing takes an afternoon and not a day.

It also matters this week specifically: Disk Union Ikebukuro closed its old shop on 24 August 2026 and reopens in a different building on 26 August. If you are reading this on 25 August, it is shut. Every English guide currently has the old address.

1. Disk Union Ikebukuro — new address from 26 August 2026

The serious one, and the one that just moved. The building it had occupied is being demolished and rebuilt, so the shop relocated about two minutes’ walk away.

The new address is 2-27-8 Minami-Ikebukuro, Dai-10 Nohagi Building 9F. Not the old Takamura Building on the east side — if your map app or a guide sends you to Higashi-Ikebukuro 1-1-2, that is the demolished one.

Stock is around 50,000 items, all genres, new and used, weighted toward rock. Disk Union’s own announcement said the new shop is strengthening three things in particular: vintage and band T-shirts, film soundtracks, and classical — which is a slightly unusual combination and worth knowing if you are choosing between this branch and Shinjuku. The reopening day itself put out a thousand freshly-priced used rock records and fifty band T-shirts.

Weekdays 12:00–20:00, weekends and holidays 11:00–20:00. Ninth floor, so it is a lift job, not a shopfront you will spot.

2. Coconuts Disk Ikebukuro — the independent, and the west side

Coconuts Disk is the shop to go to if Disk Union feels too organised. It is an independent used shop on the west side of the station — the only one of these three that is — about five minutes’ walk from the west exit, at 3-22-7 Nishi-Ikebukuro.

Used CDs and records across all genres, with a selected new-release section, and — the part that makes it worth the walk — cassettes, VHS, DVDs and music books alongside the vinyl. Japanese indie, city pop and the awkward corners of the 1980s and 90s are better represented here than at the chains, and the pricing is the shop’s own rather than a chain’s grading system.

Open every day, no closing day. It also buys over the counter.

3. Tower Records Ikebukuro — 6F of P’PARCO, open latest

Tower Records Ikebukuro is a new-release shop rather than a digging destination, and it is on this list for two practical reasons: it stocks analogue records alongside CDs, and it is open 11:00–21:00 — an hour later than the other two, and two hours earlier in the morning than Disk Union on a weekday.

It is a genuinely large shop — roughly 150 tsubo of floor and about 50,000 items — and it has been in Ikebukuro since March 1994. If you want current Japanese pressings, city pop reissues or anime soundtracks rather than second-hand depth, this is the right stop, and the anime section is substantial.

Ikebukuro P’PARCO 6F, 1-50-35 Higashi-Ikebukuro. From the JR east exit, walk left along PARCO and turn left at the first corner: about two minutes. Irregular closing days.

Why the list stops at three

Ikebukuro is a shopping district that happens to contain record shops, not a record district. Shimokitazawa, Shibuya, Koenji and Shinjuku each have more shops within a shorter walk, and their shops specialise — which is what makes a digging day work.

What Ikebukuro has instead is range within a single afternoon: one large used chain, one independent, one new-release shop, plus the second-hand book and media chains around Sunshine 60-dori that keep a vinyl rack. If you are already in Ikebukuro for something else, this is a good two hours. If records are the reason you are travelling across Tokyo, go to Shinjuku or Shimokitazawa instead — we cover both.

Also worth a rack, if you are passing

These are not record shops and we would not send you to Ikebukuro for them, but all sit on or just off Sunshine 60-dori between the station and Sunshine City, so they cost nothing if you are already walking that way:

• The large second-hand book and media chains around Sunshine 60-dori keep a vinyl rack near the CDs. Stock is whatever came over the counter that week and pricing is by condition rather than rarity, but the chains are usually registered for tax-free, which the independents are not. Worth five minutes, not thirty.
• The anime and character shops on the same stretch carry soundtrack and character-song vinyl that record shops do not bother with. If you are hunting a specific anime pressing rather than digging generally, that is a better use of an hour than any of the three shops above.
• Sunshine City itself has no record shop, despite appearing on several lists. Do not plan around it.

What the other lists get wrong

Two things, consistently.

The Disk Union address. Until this week the shop was in the Takamura Building at 1-1-2 Higashi-Ikebukuro, one minute from the JR east exit. That building is being demolished. Anything published before August 2026 — which is nearly everything in English — will send you to a construction site. The current address is 9F, Dai-10 Nohagi Building, 2-27-8 Minami-Ikebukuro.

The length of the list. Round-ups of “ten record shops in Ikebukuro” reach ten by counting CD chains, general recycle shops and places that shut years ago. Counting only shops that stock records in enough depth to justify a lift ride, the number is three. Knowing that in advance is what stops you spending a whole morning on it.

A route that works

The three shops sit on different sides of the station, so order matters:

• Start west at Coconuts Disk — it is the furthest and the least likely to be on your way back.
• Cross to the east side for Disk Union in Minami-Ikebukuro. Give it the most time; it has the most stock.
• Finish at Tower Records in P’PARCO, which stays open until 21:00 after the other two have shut.

On a weekday, do not start before 12:00 — Disk Union does not open until then. At weekends 11:00 works for all three.

You will be checking addresses on your phone throughout, and this week in particular you want the current one rather than a cached map pin. If you have not sorted data yet, a prepaid Japanese eSIM installs before you fly and connects on landing.

Tax-free, and what changes on 1 November 2026

Used records are eligible for tax-free purchase — second-hand goods are not excluded, whatever other guides say. The constraint is that the shop has to be a registered tax-free retailer, which the chains generally are and the independents generally are not. Assume you are paying tax at Coconuts Disk unless you see the sign.

From 1 November 2026 Japan switches to a refund system: you pay the tax-inclusive price in the shop and reclaim it at the airport after customs confirm the goods are leaving with you. They have to travel as carry-on — shipping tax-free purchases separately ended on 31 March 2025. For records that means hand luggage, which is fine, but weigh the bag. If the bag is already full — and in Ikebukuro it will be, because Disk Union’s new floor alone holds around 50,000 records — Buyee bids and buys on Yahoo! Auctions and Mercari on your behalf and forwards the parcel home, which is the only sane way to keep digging after you have hit your weight limit. Full detail in our guide to the November 2026 changes.

Nearby

For a proper digging day, our Shinjuku record shop guide covers Disk Union’s four buildings and eighteen shops, and our Shimokitazawa guide covers the four still open there. The Tokyo record shop guide explains how to read a Japanese price tag and what obi does to the price. Out west, the Kichijoji four include a Parco basement that holds Disk Union, its jazz annex and the audio shop on one floor. Ikebukuro is also the easiest district here to sleep in, including one hotel connected directly to Sunshine City — where to stay in Tokyo has four verified options and a warning about two hotels with almost the same name a minute apart.

If you are in Ikebukuro anyway, the district’s real specialities are elsewhere: see our Ikebukuro card shop guide and our Otome Road guide. If you were also planning to hunt vintage clothing here, our Ikebukuro vintage clothing guide lists the three shops that actually exist and names the six chains that do not have a branch in the district.