If you’re into Japanese subculture or just pure kitsch, odds are you’ve been to this chain somewhere in Japan. The store shocked fans recently, however, when it announced that it was closing almost a third of its existing stores. What happened, exactly, to Village Vanguard?
81 stores closing nationwide
Village Vanguard in Shimokitazawa. (Picture: Unseen Japan)
Village Vanguard is, technically, a bookstore. Also known as “Vill-Van,” its slogan is “a bookstore for play” (遊べる本屋; asoberu honya). cro
Indeed, it does have books. Each location features a carefully curated selection of offbeat manga designed to adhere to counterculture tastes. It also sells physical books on religion and spirituality, Japanese nightlife, art, and a host of other subjects, along with t-shirts, knick-knacks, and an “American” section of select goods from the US. (If you’ve ever been to Archie McPhee in Seattle, that’s kind of the vibe.)
A display of manga at the store’s Kōenji location. The current featured manga when I last went was Usagi’s Jimoto Saikō!, the tale of two drug-addled hangure girls and the local crime bosses they serve. (Picture: Unseen Japan)
And to answer your question: No, the store is unrelated to the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. The store’s founder, Kikuchi Keiichi, is a big jazz fan and named his store after the club.
The store started with a single shop in Nagoya in 1996. It premiered in Tokyo in 1998 with its shop in the subculture mecca of Shimokitazawa. Its “second home” store in Tokyo’s Shibuya is more than just a store: it features a stage that’s host to idol performances as well as exhibitions by various artists and creators.
At its height, Village Vanguard had 400 stores. Today, it still has at least one store in all 47 prefectures of Japan. Most of its stores in local areas are located in larger shopping malls and department stores, such as Aeon.
Who’s eating Village Vanguard’s lunch?
A set of metal drinking cups with the words “Alcoholism” and “Drinking Alone” is one of the…interesting products you can pick up at Village Vanguard. (Picture: Unseen Japan)
However, that number’s been dwindling. The chain recently announced it had finished its second consecutive quarter in the red. As a result, it’s closing 81 locations across the country. That will take it down to a mere 200 locations.
The problem is that the market is changing underneath Village Vanguard – particularly regionally.
At one point, Vanguard was the only chain selling “Vill-Van-like” goods. However, that’s changed thanks to three other chains: Don Quixote, Animate, and Kaldi.
Both chaotic department store Don Quixote and manga shop Animate have expanded nationwide since 2015. That’s cut into Vanguard’s monopoly on kitsch and pop culture goods, particularly manga. Meanwhile, coffee and import food store Kaldi has cut into the chain’s reputation as the go-to location for foreign sweets.
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On forums such as Yahoo! News JP, some shoppers wonder if Vill-Van has simply overextended itself. “There’s a fixed demand for underground goods, but not enough to support stores in shopping centers like Aeon,” one wrote.
Analysts seem to agree. One expert quoted by Nikkei says that Vanguard has thrived because its stores served an audience well-versed in the subcultures to which it catered. Each store was also run by a manager with a deep knowledge of Japanese subculture. As the store rapidly expanded, however, it couldn’t capture enough of this audience. (Or it simply doesn’t exist outside of major cities.)
Village Vanguard is hoping to use a combination of pop-up shops and online sales to bring it back to black by 2026. Here’s hoping they can pull it off. If you’re visiting Japan, you can help out by shopping there (it’s tax-free for foreign travelers) or attending an event.
Sources
【大量閉店】81店舗閉店発表、全店舗3割に当たる…「かつては唯一無二」. Goo JP
ヴィレッジヴァンガード (書籍・雑貨店). Wikipedia JP
「ヴィレヴァン」ファン離れで大量閉店 独自色支える人材追いつかず. NIKKEI
AloJapan.com