Featured

lucky bag

Seiji buys an Armani lucky bag worth almost US$300, models his clothing catch

What could a lucky bag featuring one of the world’s most luxury brands possibly contain?

Read More

Japanese internet and even television confused over use of “mystery gift” from lucky bag 【Video】

Is it a golden joystick? A cushion with a handle so you don’t fall over?

Read More

【Lucky Bag Roundup 2017】The Maasai Tribe fukubukuro now selling through RocketNews24

Tired of reading about lucky bags but not being able to own one? Well, courtesy of our Kenyan correspondent Luka Sunte some are up for grabs…but it won’t be easy to get one.

Read More

First group in line for lucky bags at a Tokyo Starbucks pulls a spectacularly jerk move

Because sometimes people suck.

Read More

Subway lucky bag doesn’t disappoint with food vouchers and even a blanket【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】

Even the world’s biggest sandwich chain is getting in on Japan’s lucky bag retail tradition.

Read More

We break out the toys with the Toys “R” Us lucky bags【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】

What did we find in our 2016 Toys “R” Us lucky bags? Join us as we open both a “boys’ version” and a “girls’ version” bag!

Read More


IKEA Japan lucky bags? We’ve got them covered!【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】

Yes, in Japan, even IKEA offers new year’s lucky bags — join us to find out what goodies were in their fukubukuro this year!

Read More

Sailor Moon fukubukuro includes accessories, stationery and figurines【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】

Popular anime shop Animega makes up their New Year lucky bag with all our favourite Sailor Moon characters, including Luna the cat.

Read More

Donguri Kyowakoku fukubukuro is filled with fantastic Studio Ghibli merch【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】

Donguri Kyowakoku, the chainstore that sells nothing but Studio Ghibli items, has delighted fans with the best offering of the year: a bag filled with amazing Ghibli merchandise.

Read More

【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】The contents of Muji’s menswear lucky bag could make any man hip

What’s simple, cheap, yet super fashionable? The loot from Muji’s lucky bag! The takeaway from this no-frills retailer was well worth the early wake up call.

Read More

【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】 Evangelion Lucky Bag’s in our office, all’s right with the world

The fukubukuro fun continues as we snag a lucky bag crammed full of merch, including limited edition items, from the Evangelion Store Tokyo-01.

Read More

【2016 Lucky Bag Roundup】 Lucky Bag favorite Starbucks is back in 2016, we see what’s inside

A new year means new lucky bags! So, how’s the haul from Starbucks? We find out after waiting in line all night!

Read More

Lucky Bag Roundup: Our reporters choose the best fukubukuro of 2015

Japan has many wonderful New Year’s traditions, including visiting the local shrine, eating auspicious food, and sending postcards to all your friends. But one of the most exciting and potentially disappointing activities that occur on the first day of January is the purchasing of fukubukuro. Commonly referred to as “Lucky Bags” in English, fukubukoro are specially priced parcels of surplus items from popular stores across Japan that are usually valued well over the purchase price.

This year, we sent 10 of our Japanese reporters out on the streets early New Year’s morning to gather up the best Lucky Bags they could find. Some came back with somewhat useless products even Mr. Sato wouldn’t want. Other’s were pleasantly surprised to find rare and valuable items nestled in their bags. But despite deep discounts, Lucky Bags aren’t always worth the wait and price, so in order to save you time on next year’s Japanese New Year’s shopping adventures, each of our writers has chosen the best Lucky Bags this side of the Pacific.

Read More

Help our writer figure out how to wear the mysterious clothing item in her Muji Lucky Bag

Remember the Muji Fortune Can that we featured a few days ago from our favorite minimalist home goods store, Muji? Following that welcome discovery, our Japanese reporter also managed to get her hands on both a Muji Women’s Clothing Lucky Bag and a Muji Health & Beauty Lucky Bag.

Although she was content with most of the surprises, there was one clothing item in particular that stumped her–can anyone give her a few tips on how best to wear it? Don’t miss her mini fashion show after the jump!

Read More

What wonders do a Super Potato Lucky Bag hold? Grab your retro gaming hat and let’s find out!

When you buy a fukubukuro (lucky bag) from a store in Japan, you can usually be sure that the value of their contents will surpass the amount you paid for the bag; it’s a guarantee, or else no one would ever buy them! But when you decide to buy a fukubukuro from a secondhand store, you certainly can’t feel 100% sure that you will get your money’s worth.

Are your secondhand items going to be in good condition? Are you going to be getting some good value? Or are you getting the games that even the secondhand store just wants to get rid of? Let Tokyo’s most famous used video game store Super Potato help you decide after the break.

Read More

Yoshio discovers that lucky bag loot from a UFO catcher is spectacularly underwhelming

While our RocketNews24 Japanese team of writers has been having fun snatching up a variety of lucky bags during this first week of the new year, the contents of those bags have ranged from exciting to just plain meh. But the two lucky bags our Japanese correspondent Yoshio grabbed from UFO catchers (aka claw machines) have hit a new all-time low. We don’t think he’ll be going back for more next year…

Read More

Mr. Sato divulges the contents of a 2015 Apple Store Lucky Bag–will he get a lame t-shirt again?

Following his tradition of the past few years, RocketNews24’s ace reporter and calendar model Mr. Sato dutifully lined up outside the Apple Store in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood to wait for the January 2 release of the its 2015 lucky bag (luckily, his experience waiting outside wasn’t nearly as traumatic as the poor folks’ up in Sapporo). Although he was hoping to score a MacBook Air for the second year running, this year our man had his eye on another item as well–the Apple Store lucky bag-exclusive t-shirt.

Will Mr. Sato find the coveted t-shirt in his bag again this year? See his haul after the jump!

Read More

Photos of people lining up outside of the Sapporo Apple Store make us feel positively frozen

We thought people were dedicated when they lined up in droves to wait for the release of the iPhone 6 earlier this year, but that’s nothing compared to what these people had to endure while waiting for New Year’s lucky bags outside of the Apple Store in Sapporo, Japan!

Would you wait outside in the freezing cold for over a day and risk catching pneumonia in order to score some spiffy Apple products?

Read More


Happy Kentucky Fried New Year! And this year’s KFC New Year Lucky Bag contains…?

Every New Year’s, people across Japan flock to stores for special bargains, and in particular, the “Lucky Bags” known as fukubukuro. From electronics and chocolate shops to up-scale department stores, Japanese shops and businesses of all kinds come up with original Lucky Bags at the beginning of each year to tempt those of us out for some new year’s shopping. Now, these bags are supposed to offer good value, containing products worth more than the price you pay for the bag. Well, the bags may be a good value, but the catch is that you can’t choose what you get in your bag, and each year there ends up being much online discussion on whether the Lucky Bags from different shops are a particularly good or bad deal.

Not to miss out on the action, the team at the Japanese RocketNews24 site has also joined the Lucky Bag rush, and as we’ve already started reporting, we’ve taken a look at the contents of quite a few of the bags being sold this year. And one of them happens to be a bag from none other than … Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan. Let’s see what “finger-lickin’ good” items were included in their Lucky Bag for 2015!

Read More

  2. 1
  3. 2