--- title: "Xiaomi's Japan stores: why the first one was in Saitama" description: Apple has 11 stores in Japan, all downtown. Xiaomi opened its first in a suburban Saitama mall and had ten by July 2026, nine in malls. Who you sell to decides. image: https://nobusato.jp/hubfs/covers-2026-11/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama-cover-en-2026-10-m.png --- [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en) [Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) [Method](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/method?hsLang=en) [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) [Glossary](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/glossary?hsLang=en) [Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en) [日本語](https://nobusato.jp/ja/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama)[English](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama)[中文](https://nobusato.jp/zh/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama) Launching in Japan In this article 1. [Before where, who](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s1) 2. [The order of expansion](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s2) 3. [From phones to appliances: what changed is the channel](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s3) 4. [What a company entering Japan can borrow](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s4) 1. [Home](https://nobusato.jp/en?hsLang=en) 2. [Articles](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog?hsLang=en) 3. [Launching in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/tag/launching-in-japan) # Xiaomi's Japan stores are catching up with Apple's. Why the first one was in Saitama It tested the store template in suburban malls, then copied it to ten stores [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)5 min read Contents4 1. [Before where, who](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s1) 2. [The order of expansion](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s2) 3. [From phones to appliances: what changed is the channel](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s3) 4. [What a company entering Japan can borrow](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-xiaomi-opened-its-first-japan-store-in-saitama#s4) **Chinese companies in Japan** · Seven public cases, taken apart for the moves, not to grade the companies. 1. [BYD built a car only for Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/byd-built-a-car-only-for-japan?hsLang=en) 2. [The subsidy wall: the rules are not written for you](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/the-subsidy-wall-rules-are-not-written-for-you?hsLang=en) 3. [BYD's mini stores: another way to build a sales network in Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/byd-mini-stores-another-way-to-build-a-sales-network?hsLang=en) 4. Xiaomi's Japan stores are catching up with Apple's. Why the first one was in Saitama 5. [Open the repair center before you scale](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/open-the-repair-center-before-you-scale?hsLang=en) 6. [Chagee isn't in Japan yet. Osaka already has a shop that looks a lot like it](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/chagee-lookalike-in-osaka-trademark-first?hsLang=en) 7. [Why Chinese tea brands crowd into Korea and not Japan](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/why-chinese-tea-brands-crowd-korea-not-japan?hsLang=en) Who you sell to should decide where your first store goes in Japan, and Xiaomi is the clearest recent example. It entered Japan in December 2019 and ran only pop-ups for five years. On 22 March 2025 it opened its first permanent store. It didn't pick Shibuya or Ginza. It picked an AEON mall in Urawa-Misono, Saitama, an hour by train from central Tokyo: a corner near the middle of the ground floor, next to the 300-yen shop 3COINS, about 130 square meters. With the Nagoya store on 18 July 2026, Xiaomi had ten stores in Japan. Apple has eleven. Toyo Keizai ran a headline in March saying Xiaomi's store count had passed Apple's. By my count it is catching up and hasn't passed yet. Put the two lists side by side, though, and something more interesting than the count shows up. Apple's eleven are all flagship sites in city centers. Nine of Xiaomi's ten are in suburban and near-suburban shopping malls. ## Before where, who The first store carried over 160 products. Phones were the centerpiece, but most of the floor went to rice cookers, air fryers, robot vacuums, air purifiers, scales and TVs. At the opening, Xiaomi Japan's head of product planning said the store was designed so customers could see the value of smart-home products, with wider aisles so a family could browse together. That sentence is the whole site-selection logic. People buying a phone go to Shibuya. People buying a rice cooker don't. The place where a family wanders on a weekend and picks up an air fryer on the way is AEON. AEON supplies the footfall, and Xiaomi already worked with AEON in other Asian markets, so the negotiation didn't start from zero. Xiaomi wasn't choosing "Saitama" as a place. It was choosing a customer: families buying appliances in a mall. Xiaomi tested its store template in suburban malls before Tokyo, then copied it to ten stores Order of Xiaomi’s permanent stores in Japan, 2019 to 2026. From Impress Watch, Sumahon and Apple’s store list 1. Dec 2019Enters Japanpop-ups only for five years 2. Mar 2025First permanent store: AEON Mall Urawa-Misono, Saitamaan hour by train from central Tokyo, about 130 m². A test store 3. Apr–Sep 2025Kawaguchi, Chibaboth malls 4. Dec 2025First store inside Tokyo’s 23 wards: Kameidosix years after entry 5. Mar–Apr 2026Four Kansai stores at once3 AEON, 1 LaLaport 6. Jul 2026Nagoya, store no. 10nine of ten in malls, one template **For comparison**　Apple has 11 stores, all in city-center flagship sites Most companies open their first store in central Tokyo. Xiaomi used its first store to test, not to advertise. Figure 1. Xiaomi opened its first permanent store at AEON Mall Urawa-Misono in Saitama in March 2025, reached Tokyo’s 23 wards only in December 2025 and its tenth store in Nagoya in July 2026, with nine of the ten in malls on one template: the reverse of Apple’s 11 city-center stores. ## The order of expansion Store two was Kawaguchi, Saitama, in April 2025. Then Chiba. Only after that came the first store inside Tokyo's 23 wards, Kameido, in December 2025. In March and April 2026 four Kansai stores opened at once, three in AEON malls and one in a LaLaport. In July, Nagoya. All in malls, all the same format, two to three hundred products each. Most companies entering Japan do it the other way round. They open store one in central Tokyo because HQ wants an address for the press release, and store two in Osaka because Kansai has to be covered. Then they discover that two rents have eaten the annual budget, and the visitors are tourists and the curious. Xiaomi proved the format and the customer on suburban rent first, then copied the template into other malls. Apple's model is a destination. Customers travel for it. Xiaomi's is adjacency. The customers are already there. ## From phones to appliances: what changed is the channel I agree with Toyo Keizai's other call, that in Japan Xiaomi is turning from a phone maker into a lifestyle-appliance brand. There's more to that than adding categories. Japan's phone channel is controlled by three carriers, and a new brand has no shelf there. The appliance channel is mass retailers plus the brand's own stores, and that door is open. Changing category is a way of switching to a channel you can actually get into. [Decide who you sell to first](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/smes-are-99-percent-who-do-you-sell-to?hsLang=en) made the same point for B2B. The customer decides the channel, and the channel decides the location. ## What a company entering Japan can borrow Use store one to test. Save the announcement for later. Pick a site with rent you can control, steady footfall and overlap with your target customer. Watch sales per square meter and repeat visits for six months, then decide on store two. Take "Tokyo" out of the site criteria and put in "where are my customers on a weekend". For Xiaomi that is AEON. For a B2B software company it might be an industrial park near Osaka. For a restaurant brand, a commuter line. Make the format a template. Xiaomi's ten stores are really one store, which is why the tenth took far less time to prepare than the first. Japanese commercial landlords screen new brands hard. A template that has worked at AEON gets you through the door at LaLaport. Apple is in Ginza because Apple's customers will go to Ginza for it. Where will your customers go for you? If the honest answer is nowhere, put the store where they were already going. References - [Impress Watch：「シャオミ ストア」はイオンモール浦和美園の一等地 160製品展示（2025-03）](https://www.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1671819.html) - [Impress Watch：シャオミ、Xiaomi Store を関西に4店舗、秋葉原にサービスセンター（2026-02）](https://www.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2087534.html) - [すまほん!!：Xiaomi Store イオンモール Nagoya Noritake Garden店、7月18日オープン、国内10店舗目（2026-07）](https://smhn.info/202607-xiaomi-nagoya-tokai-store-japan-10th-july18-opening) - [東洋経済：国内店舗数アップル超えのシャオミ（2026-03）](https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/938990) - [Apple：Apple Store 店舗一覧（日本）](https://www.apple.com/jp/retail/storelist/) Author [Nobu Sato](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en) Launching in Japan, starting with people and systems. I write about building organizations, sales teams and technology organizations in Japan, in English, Japanese and Chinese. [Profile](https://nobusato.jp/en/profile?hsLang=en)[Contact](https://nobusato.jp/en/contact?hsLang=en) ## Read next 1. 01[Open the repair center before you scale](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/open-the-repair-center-before-you-scale?hsLang=en)5 min At five stores, Xiaomi opened an Akihabara service center before growing to ten. Japanese buyers ask who fixes it ... 2. 02[A joint venture with a Japanese partner: shortcut or detour?](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/japanese-joint-venture-shortcut-or-detour?hsLang=en)6 min BYD built its own entity, Chery joined a five-company JV, UBTech gave a listed firm 36-month exclusivity. Own entity, ... 3. 03[Your Price Decides What Kind of Sales Team You Need](https://nobusato.jp/en/blog/pricing-decides-the-sales-team?hsLang=en)7 min Cybozu raised kintone's smallest deal in Japan from 90,000 to 216,000 yen a year. Price bands decide your sales team, ... 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