An even more convenient way to get ice cream. 

Whenever someone from overseas raves about Japanese convenience stores, they’re usually talking about the big three – 7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson.

▼ However, there’s another well-known chain that’s often overlooked: Ministop.

Despite being well-known, Ministop reported a net loss of 5.6 billion yen (US$35 million) for the fiscal year ending February 2026, its third consecutive year in the red. The news has sparked concern among longtime fans, with #SaveMinistop now appearing as a hashtag on social media. Support is so strong that some fans have been intentionally purchasing items with the best product margins, and one of those products is the soft serve, which the chain is famous for.

Given its financial background, you’d expect the chain to be tightening its purse-strings, cutting corners and doubling down on efforts to turn a profit at all costs. But instead, it’s doing something entirely different: giving away free soft serves.

The free offer is a very limited-time affair, and only available through the unique, eye-catching ad pictured below, which has just popped up at the Metro Promenade at Shinjuku Station.

▼ The sign here says: “I’ve found an outrageous ad“.

Our reporter Mr Sato stumbled upon the ad by accident as he was walking through the station, and as he walked towards it, he could see a row of people lined up beneath the words “必ず当たる” which means “guaranteed win”.

A guaranteed win is something Mr Sato can never pass up, so he joined the crowd at the poster and copied what they were doing by pressing his phone to the “Touch with your Smartphone” spot, circled below.

Although the system seemed to work for everyone else there, Mr Sato’s phone did nothing – his Motorola razr50 was unresponsive. Whipping out his backup phone, a Google Pixel 7a, this too did nothing so he asked the staff there for advice, and they told him that Android devices like these might be slow to respond. They suggested he try other touchpoints, but there was still no response, even when he tried them all.

So he took out his other backup, an iPhone SE2, and it worked immediately, lighting up his screen with a message saying he’d won a coupon.

▼ Mr Sato is a man of many phones.

The winning message had “Tokyo Asakusa Station North Exit Store” written at the top as the place to redeem the coupon, but it can be redeemed at any store in the country. If you do want to have the message show a different store, you can change it by spinning a roulette wheel, according to the steps below.

▼ Scroll down as instructed…

▼ …then tap the blue “spin the roulette wheel again” button.

This will switch to a random store every time you tap it, and you can spin it as many times as you like before hitting the yellow “Get Free Coupon” button.

It didn’t take long for Mr Sato to get a store nearby, so when “Shinjuku Hanazono Dori” popped up as an option, he hit the yellow button.

That took him to a new page with a barcode, which he was instructed to take a screenshot of for staff to scan when redeeming his free soft serve. The free offer is only available from 20-26 April, and limited to one per customer, with coupons needing to be redeemed from 20 April to 10 May.

Although Mr Sato’s screen said “Shinjuku Hanazono Dori”, he chose to use it at a different branch closer to his home. Sure enough, there were no hiccups as he was able to receive his free soft serve by simply presenting the coupon to staff at the register.

▼ The smile of a man who went through three smartphones to get a free ice cream.

As he licked his sweet reward, Mr Sato learned that Ministop’s soft serve underwent a revamp last April, changing from a “Vanilla Soft Serve” to a “Hokkaido Milk Soft Serve .” Earlier this month, the chain reportedly renewed the cone’s ingredients, replacing some of the wheat flour with whole wheat flour and adding calcium, so the free campaign looks to be a concerted effort by the chain to get everyone to try the new ice cream.

For Mr Sato, the soft serve tasted better than he’d remembered it, and not just because it was free. It was creamy and fresh, with a high-quality flavour you’d expect from milk sourced from Hokkaido, Japan’s premier milk-producing region. With summer just around the corner, the free campaign is a perfect way to remind everyone about the wonders of Ministop ice cream, and if you’re looking for a novel way to enjoy it, then this hack will help you view the humble ice cream in a whole new light, and hopefully keep Ministop in business.

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