In Tokyo, Japan, you can buy cheap suitcases, as in roughly US$50 for a 28-inch, in several of the covered shopping streets. If the shopping streets are closed or you do not want to go there, Ginza Karen in particular is well-known for selling suitcases at that same price point. This shop is extremely popular with Chinese tourists and one location, in Nihonbashi, is conveniently open until midnight!
Ginza Karen also sells higher-priced suitcases, but most people who go there— myself included— are looking for the ~US$50 suitcases to quickly and cheaply carry back our purchases.
I have purchased from this business twice, 5 years apart. They sell a good basic hard shell suitcase for transporting things home but not one that will last for 15+ years. My first suitcase lasted three international trips over 5 years before slightly cracking at the plastic above the wheel.
I can personally confirm that between the workers in the shop, they are completely fluent in Chinese, at least mostly fluent in Japanese, and capable of basic English. (I think some of the older workers are ethnically Chinese.) I heard that they also speak Thai and Korean but, not being linguistically skilled in those languages myself, I cannot judge their fluency.
Getting to the Ginza Karen Nihonbashi location is very easy. It was only a minute or two from the Ningyocho Station’s A2 exit. That they closed at midnight also was helpful! A lot of the covered streets that sell suitcases at similar prices close by 10 PM.
The first time I visited, midday, at an older location in 2018, it was so crowded that one could only enter the shop with great difficulty. There were two Chinese tour groups at the same time plus all the regular tourists. Some saw the mass of people and decided they could get a suitcase later.
The way it worked was that the store representatives would come out to the sidewalk with suitcases of x size in y color and shout the size, color, and quantity (“I have 4 30-inch suitcases in blue!”) in Chinese and Japanese or Chinese and English. Customers had to come forward to claim the color and size. The store representative would ask if you wanted anything else and quickly put you in line to pay. You knew the price because different workers kept shouting in Chinese, Japanese, and English that all the suitcases were JP¥5500 (~US$50 in 2018) in between new sets of luggage coming out.
After you paid and exited, someone would promptly hand you the suitcase(s) outside of the store and you went on your way—- unless you were part of a tour group and waiting for everyone else to finish in which case you milled about on the sidewalk just outside to help draw more tourists’ attention.
The second time, in 2023, I visited the Nihonbashi location late at night. I could actually enter the store before committing to purchase! This time, they had salespeople talking individually at normal volume to the customers more like in a regular shop. This time, I knew the prices not because someone was constantly reminding me but because they put signs above the luggage. (I believe it was JP¥7200 for the one I purchased this 2023, which still comes out to ~US$50, but it was no longer one price fits all.) I was given the suitcase to take to the counter myself and it was much less hectic.
