How to Buy Big Shoes in Tokyo Japan

Probably my biggest struggle in Japan is finding shoes that are big enough to fit my feet.

My biggest regret when I came to Japan was not buying enough shoes in America.

If you are shoe size 10.5 (28.5 cm) or higher, you will struggle finding your shoe in Japan.

I am not that picky when it comes to the design of my shoes but over 70% of the time when I ask the staff if they have 30 cm, they say that they only have size 28.5 cm (10.5in) or 29 cm (11 in).

Why is it so hard to buy big shoes in Japan?

The main reason for this is that your average Japanese person is smaller and thinner compared to your average American.

Many Japanese males are only 5 feet tall and 7.2 in (170.8 cm) vs American males who average at 5 feet 9 in (175 cm). Your shoe size is usually proportional to you height so you can imagine that Japanese people tend to have smaller shoe sizes.

Recommendation

Recently I found this store just exploring Tokyo but it was located east of Hirai Station east of Tokyo. This store is called Tokyo Shoe Circulation Center (東京靴流通センター Toukyou kutsu ryuu senta-). It looks like they have multiple locations including Ueno, Koiwa, etc but mainly in east Tokyo.

They had had a section for big size business shoes up to size 30 cm. Unfortunately that is their biggest size and they don’t have sizes 31 or larger. However, they have business shoes about 5,000 yen or less. One of their shoes is even 3,179 yen! (27.5cm in the photo). Unfortunately, they only had a big size section for their business shoes and not for their regular shoes. You will need to check with their staff for what sizes they have in store for all of the other casual shoes.

City of Sumo

The one of the best places to buy big shoes is in Ryogoku located in east Tokyo kind of close to Sky Tree.