Last updated: July 12, 2026 — every price below was pulled from a live listing on the day of writing. I live in Japan, buy figures here, and for this article I priced the same items on Japanese sites and US sites on the same afternoon so the comparison is apples to apples rather than vibes.
The internet’s mental model of figure prices is stuck in 2016: “Nendoroids are ¥4,000, prize figures are pocket change, and everything’s cheaper if you import it from Japan.” Two of those three are now wrong, and the third is only half-right.
Here is what figures actually cost in Japan in July 2026, category by category, with the overseas price sitting right next to it.
The Answer Up Front
- A standard Nendoroid now costs ¥6,500–¥7,700 in Japan (tax included). Not ¥4,000. The July 2026 lineup on Good Smile’s own store runs from ¥6,500 (Nendoroid Hideo Kojima) to ¥7,500 (Nendoroid Xiao), with exclusives at ¥8,500.
- A new 1/7 scale figure costs ¥25,000–¥42,000. Good Smile’s own in-house scale line sits lower, ¥16,500–¥35,000.
- Prize figures — the Sega Luminasta and Banpresto lines you see everywhere — have no retail price at all. By law, an arcade prize can’t exceed roughly ¥1,000 in retail value. On Japan’s used market they settle at ¥700–¥1,700. The same figures sell new in the US for $25–$39.
- The spread only exists on the secondhand and prize market. For a new, in-print figure, importing from Japan in 2026 is not cheaper — it’s usually more expensive. A Good Smile 1/7 Kisaki figure is ¥19,800 in Japan (≈$123) and $122.99 at BigBadToyStore. Buy it via a proxy and you’ll pay about $187 once Japan’s consumption tax, proxy fees, EMS, and the US surcharge land on it.
- The real arbitrage in 2026 is used prize figures and out-of-print stock, where a ¥700 Suruga-ya listing corresponds to a ¥4,700-and-up eBay sale. Everything else, buy locally.
Exchange reference used throughout: ¥161.6 = US$1 (Trading Economics, July 10, 2026). The yen is down about 9.7% against the dollar over twelve months, which is doing a lot of the work in these numbers.
Now the data.
1. Prize Figures (プライズ): The Category Everyone Misunderstands
They are capped by law, not by market
A Sega Luminasta or Banpresto Grandista figure is not a retail product. It’s an arcade prize, and under the National Police Agency’s interpretation of the Entertainment Business Act, a crane-game prize’s retail value must be roughly ¥1,000 or less — a cap raised from ¥800 on March 1, 2022 after two decades, because manufacturers said they could no longer hit ¥800 without gutting quality (regulatory explainer).
That single rule is why a 21cm painted PVC figure exists at a price point that makes no sense to Western collectors. It isn’t a bargain — it’s a legal ceiling.
What they cost in Japan, right now
These are live Suruga-ya listings pulled July 12, 2026, all Sega Luminasta, all used. “Marketplace” is the cheapest third-party offer on the same page — the price a Japanese collector who dumps a duplicate actually gets.
| Figure (Sega Luminasta) | Suruga-ya, used | Cheapest marketplace offer |
|---|---|---|
| Nemu Miyao (Witch Watch) | ¥690 | ¥480 |
| Nico Wakatsuki (Witch Watch) | ¥730 | ¥490 |
| Suguru Geto (JJK 5th Anniversary) | ¥820 | ¥710 |
| Misaki Shokuhou, Fallen Angel Maid (Railgun T) | ¥940 | ¥490 |
| Marin Kitagawa, “Cheering!” (My Dress-Up Darling) | ¥980 | ¥460 |
| Hatsune Miku, Christmas 2025 | ¥1,000 | ¥670 |
| Hatsune Miku, Classical Maid | ¥1,050 | ¥700 |
| Abigail Williams, Heroic Spirit Attire (FGO) | ¥1,180 | ¥500 |
| Taro Sakamoto, Serious Ver. (Sakamoto Days) | ¥1,700 | ¥420 |
| Gojo Satoru, Hollow Purple (JJK) | ¥4,000 | ¥3,000 |
Across all 330 Luminasta listings on Suruga-ya that day, the price distribution clusters hard: 60 items in the ¥700–999 band, 71 in ¥1,000–1,299, 37 in ¥1,300–1,599. The median used Luminasta is about ¥1,200 — roughly $7.50. Only genuine chase figures (that Gojo) break ¥3,000.
What the same figures cost overseas
New, from a US retailer (BigBadToyStore, July 12, 2026), the Luminasta line is priced $24.99 on pre-order and $25–$39 in stock. Same sculpts:
| Figure | Suruga-ya, used (JP) | BigBadToyStore, new (US) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nemu Miyao | ¥690 (≈$4.27) | $28.99 | 6.8× |
| Nico Wakatsuki | ¥730 (≈$4.52) | $28.99 | 6.4× |
| Misaki Shokuhou | ¥940 (≈$5.82) | $28.99 | 5.0× |
| Marin Kitagawa (Cheering!) | ¥980 (≈$6.06) | $28.99 | 4.8× |
| Abigail Williams | ¥1,180 (≈$7.30) | $28.99 | 4.0× |
| Taro Sakamoto (Serious) | ¥1,700 (≈$10.52) | $28.99 | 2.8× |
eBay tells the same story from the other direction. These are sold listings from the week of July 6–12, 2026 (shown in yen because I searched with a Japan ship-to address; the shipping column is what the buyer actually paid on top):
| Figure | Suruga-ya, used (JP) | eBay sold, new (item + shipping) |
|---|---|---|
| Suguru Geto, JJK 5th Anniversary | ¥820 | ¥4,770 + ¥3,211 |
| Gojo Satoru, JJK 5th Anniversary | ¥1,580 | ¥3,895 + ¥8,360 |
| Hatsune Miku, Christmas 2025 | ¥1,000 | ¥2,587 + ¥9,182 |
| Hatsune Miku, Classical Maid | ¥1,050 | ¥3,395 + ¥9,104 |
| Gojo Satoru, Hollow Purple | ¥4,000 | ¥6,467 (free shipping, JP seller) |
Look at the shipping column. A single boxed prize figure costs ¥3,000–¥10,500 to ship from Japan. That is the entire ballgame, and it’s why the 5× “spread” is less exploitable than it looks. More on that below.
2. Nendoroids: The Price Everyone Still Quotes Is Two Price Hikes Out of Date
Good Smile’s Nendoroid MSRP has drifted upward relentlessly. The 2026 lineup, verified against Suruga-ya’s 定価 (list price) field and cross-checked on goodsmile.com the same day:
| Nendoroid | JP MSRP (tax incl.) | JP street price (Suruga-ya, new) | Official US price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Korilakkuma | ¥4,800 | — | $31.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Rilakkuma (rerelease) | ¥5,800 | — | $38.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Hideo Kojima (No.3083) | ¥6,500 | — | $48.99 (BBTS) |
| Konata Izumi 2.0 (Lucky Star) | ¥6,500 | ¥6,100 | $41.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Black Jack, Anime Color Ver. | ¥6,500 | ¥5,980 | — |
| Ako Amau (Blue Archive) | ¥6,900 | — | $45.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Arale Nakamachi (BanG Dream!) | ¥6,900 | — | $45.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Naked Snake (MGS Δ) | ¥6,900 | ¥6,000 (time sale) | $43.99 (Good Smile US) |
| Rintaro Okabe 2.0 (Steins;Gate) | ¥6,900 | ¥6,300 | — |
| Oguri Cap (Umamusume) | ¥7,000 | ¥6,900 | — |
| Gaia (Genshin Impact) | ¥7,200 | ¥6,600 | — |
| Meruem (HUNTER×HUNTER) | ¥7,300 | ¥6,900 | — |
| Xiao (Genshin Impact) | ¥7,500 | — | — |
| Phainon (Honkai: Star Rail) | ¥7,500 | ¥6,800 (time sale) | — |
| Kinako | ¥7,700 | ¥7,200 | — |
| Toshiya Miyata (GSC exclusive) | ¥8,500 | — | — |
Three things fall out of this table.
The standard Nendoroid MSRP band in 2026 is ¥6,500–¥7,700. If a guide tells you ¥4,000–¥5,000, it was written before the last two rounds of increases. (Collectors on MyFigureCollection have been tracking this climb for years; I couldn’t confirm a formal Good Smile price-increase press release, and I don’t think one exists — the MSRP simply crept up release by release.)
The Japanese street price is 5–12% below MSRP, because retailers like Suruga-ya discount new stock and run daily time sales. That ¥6,900 Naked Snake was ¥6,000 on the day I looked.
And here is the part nobody says out loud: the official US price is roughly the Japanese MSRP. ¥6,900 at ¥161.6 is $42.70. Good Smile US charges $43.99 for the same Nendoroid. Konata 2.0: ¥6,500 = $40.22, sold in the US for $41.99. That is a 3–8% premium — not the 40–60% markup the “always import” crowd assumes. Third-party US retailers sit a bit higher (BBTS lists most new Nendoroids at $42.99–$58.99), which is where the real markup lives.
Used Nendoroids in Japan barely discount at all: Suruga-ya’s used prices for recent releases land at ¥5,700–¥6,800, within a few hundred yen of new. Nendoroids hold value here.
3. Scale Figures (1/7, 1/8): Where the Spread Is Basically Zero
Official Japanese MSRPs, from live AmiAmi pre-order listings and goodsmile.com, July 2026:
| Figure | Scale | JP MSRP (tax incl.) | ≈ USD at ¥161.6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| G.S. Collection Kisaki: Memorial Lobby Ver. (Blue Archive, GSC) | 1/7 | ¥19,800 | $122.50 |
| Yanagi Uzaki, Cow Bikini (GSC, rerelease) | scale | ¥19,800 | $122.50 |
| Temari Tsukimura | 1/7 | ¥25,300 | $156.60 |
| Lou Magmel (CODE VEIN II) | 1/7 | ¥27,500 | $170.20 |
| Chisato/Takina: Key Visual Ver. (GSC) | scale | ¥35,000 | $216.60 |
| Amiya: Blooms of Time (Arknights) | 1/7 | ¥35,750 | $221.20 |
| Yvonne (Arknights: Endfield) | 1/7 | ¥42,350 | $262.10 |
So: ¥25,000–¥42,000 is the working range for a new 1/7 from a major maker, with Good Smile’s own line running cheaper at ¥16,500–¥35,000.
Now the punchline. The Good Smile 1/7 Kisaki figure is ¥19,800 in Japan. BigBadToyStore has the identical figure on pre-order at $122.99. The yen price converts to $122.50.
That is not a coincidence and it is not a markup — it’s what happens when a US distributor imports at wholesale, pays no Japanese consumption tax (exports are zero-rated), and ships by container instead of EMS. Comparable 1/7s at BBTS: Alter’s Azur Lane Implacable at $224.99, FuRyu’s F:Nex line at $158.99–$182.99, Kotobukiya’s Hindenburg at $309.99 — all sitting in the same band as the yen MSRPs.
For a new, in-print scale figure, there is no Japan discount to capture. You are competing with a professional importer, and you will lose.
4. Trading Figures, Blind Boxes and Acrylic Goods
The cheap end of the market, for completeness:
| Item type | Typical JP price | Overseas equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Gashapon / capsule toy (Bandai) | ¥300–¥500 (some ¥800) | $8–$15 per capsule from importers |
| Ichiban Kuji ticket (one draw) | ¥700–¥1,000 (e.g. ¥850 for the 2026 HUNTER×HUNTER kuji) | $12–$18 per ticket |
| Nendoroid Surprise blind box (set of 6) | — | $125.99 (BBTS, Blue Archive) |
| Acrylic stand (Good Smile, large) | ¥2,800 | — |
| Rubber keychain (GSC, Dandadan) | ¥1,650 | — |
| “Big” acrylic light stands, used | ¥450–¥980 (list price was ¥3,300) | — |
The Ichiban Kuji spread — ¥850 in a Japanese convenience store versus $12–$18 overseas — is the most extreme ratio in this entire article, and it’s the one category where a proxy genuinely, reliably pays for itself. Used acrylic goods are the other: a ¥3,300 standee that sells for ¥450 secondhand is close to free.
Why the Spread Exists (and Why It’s Smaller Than It Looks)
The weak yen. At ¥161.6 to the dollar, down ~9.7% year-on-year, every Japanese price is on sale for dollar holders before anyone touches a markup. This is the single biggest driver, and it’s also the least stable — it can reverse.
The consumption tax nobody mentions. Japan’s consumption tax is 10%, and Japanese retail prices are quoted tax-inclusive. Exports are zero-rated, so a US distributor importing at wholesale never pays it, and stores like AmiAmi strip it out for international orders (“no taxes are included in our price”). But a proxy service buys domestically, which means you pay the 10%. Using a proxy to “avoid the middleman” means voluntarily paying a tax the middleman is exempt from. (Note also: Japan’s tax-free shopping system for tourists switches to a refund-at-departure model on November 1, 2026 — you’ll pay the tax in-store and claim it back at the airport, ¥5,000 minimum purchase.)
Shipping, which dominates everything. The eBay data above is brutal on this point: ¥3,000–¥10,500 to ship one prize figure. Japan Post EMS to the US is ¥3,900 for 0.5 kg and ¥12,700 for 4 kg. Figures are light and enormous — the worst possible cargo, and couriers bill them by volume rather than weight. A container ship doesn’t care; your parcel does. Picking the right service is the biggest lever you have here: we compared every option in the cheapest ways to ship from Japan in 2026.
The US surcharge. De minimis is still suspended, and the current 10% ad valorem Section 122 surcharge (effective February 24, 2026 under Proclamation 11012) applies to essentially all imports. It is scheduled to expire by operation of law on July 24, 2026 — twelve days from this writing — and what replaces it is genuinely unknown. Full detail in our US tariff guide.
And prize figures never had a price to inflate. A ¥1,000-capped arcade prize that a US shop lands, warehouses, and sells for $28.99 isn’t being gouged — it’s being retailed for the first time in its life.
So Is It Actually Cheaper to Buy From Japan?
Three worked examples, all using real prices from this article, Neokyo/ZenMarket fees as of July 2026, EMS rates, and a 10% US duty. For an item that isn’t one of these, run it through our proxy fee calculator — same cost stack, your numbers.
Case A: One new Nendoroid
| JP + proxy | Good Smile US | |
|---|---|---|
| Item (Nendoroid Naked Snake) | ¥6,000 (Suruga-ya, new) | $43.99 |
| Proxy fee | ¥500 (ZenMarket) | — |
| International shipping (EMS 0.5 kg) | ¥3,900 | ~$8 |
| US duty (10%) | ¥600 | — |
| Total | ¥11,000 ≈ $68 | ≈ $52 + sales tax |
The US official store wins by ~$15. This surprises people. It shouldn’t: Good Smile US prices at roughly the yen MSRP, and you skip the tax, the fee, and the EMS bill.
Case B: One new 1/7 scale figure
| JP + proxy | BigBadToyStore | |
|---|---|---|
| Item (GSC Kisaki 1/7) | ¥19,800 | $122.99 |
| Proxy fee | ¥500 | — |
| International shipping (EMS 2 kg) | ¥7,900 | $0 (free over $99) |
| US duty (10%) | ¥1,980 | — |
| Total | ¥30,180 ≈ $187 | ≈ $123 + sales tax |
The US retailer wins by ~$64, or 34%. Not close.
Case C: Five used prize figures from Suruga-ya
| JP + proxy | BigBadToyStore (new) | |
|---|---|---|
| Items (the five ¥690–¥1,180 Luminastas above) | ¥4,520 | 5 × $28.99 = $144.95 |
| Proxy fee (5 × ¥350, Neokyo) | ¥1,750 | — |
| Packing | ¥500 | — |
| International shipping (EMS 4 kg — prize figures are bulky) | ¥12,700 | $0 |
| US duty (10%) | ¥452 | — |
| Total | ¥19,922 ≈ $123 | ≈ $145 + sales tax |
Japan wins — by about $22, or 15%. On items whose Japanese price is one-fifth of the US price. That is how completely shipping eats the arbitrage on bulky, cheap goods.
Push the item count to ten or fifteen and the maths improves (shipping scales slower than item count). Swap the prize figures for something small and JP-exclusive — doujinshi, acrylics, kuji prizes, out-of-print Nendoroids — and Japan wins outright, because there’s no US listing to compare against at all.
The honest bottom line for July 2026: import from Japan when the item is used, out-of-print, JP-exclusive, or small and dense. Buy locally when it’s new, in-print, and licensed for Western distribution. The days when “just use a proxy” was blanket good advice ended when the yen weakened enough for US distributors to price at parity.
Pitfalls
Prize figure boxes are enormous. A ¥690 figure ships in a box built for arcade stacking. Proxies charge by dimensional weight. Ask them to discard the outer box (most will, if you say so in writing) — it can halve your shipping. It also destroys resale value, so decide which you care about.
Suruga-ya’s used grades are loose. 状態難 means real damage, 箱なし means no box, ジャンク means junk. Two identical listings at different prices are almost always a condition gap, not a bargain. See our Suruga-ya guide.
Suruga-ya’s English site marks up 40%. Verified July 12, 2026 — exactly 1.40× the Japanese price on every item checked. It is not a shortcut to Japanese pricing.
Prize figures are the most-counterfeited category on Mercari and Yahoo! Auctions, precisely because they’re cheap enough that nobody inspects them. Our bootleg red flags guide covers what to look for.
Every duty number here expires on July 24, 2026. Re-check before you commit to a large order.
FAQ
How much is a Nendoroid in Japan?
¥6,500–¥7,700 for a standard release in 2026, tax included; ¥8,500 for Good Smile exclusives. Japanese shops typically discount new stock 5–12% below MSRP.
Why are prize figures so cheap in Japan?
Because they legally have to be. Japan’s arcade-prize regulations cap a crane-game prize’s retail value at roughly ¥1,000. They’re manufactured to hit that number, and they’ve never had a retail price.
Is it cheaper to buy figures in Japan?
For used, secondhand, and prize figures: yes, dramatically — often 3–6× cheaper before shipping. For new, in-print figures sold by Western distributors: no. Good Smile US and BigBadToyStore price at roughly the yen MSRP, and a proxy adds Japan’s 10% consumption tax, a service fee, and EMS on top.
What about buying figures in person in Japan?
Best of both worlds — you skip proxy fees and international shipping entirely, and from November 1, 2026 you can reclaim the 10% consumption tax at the airport on purchases over ¥5,000. Akihabara and Nakano Broadway prize-figure bins are where those ¥500 Luminastas live.
Do these prices include Japanese consumption tax?
Every yen figure in this article is tax-inclusive (税込), which is how Japanese retail prices are legally displayed. US prices exclude state sales tax.
Will the yen stay this weak?
Nobody knows, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. At ¥161.6 the “Japan is cheap” story is largely an FX story. If the yen strengthens to ¥130, most of the spread in this article closes on its own.
Sources & methodology
All prices sampled July 12, 2026 from live listings. Japanese prices: suruga-ya.jp (used and new figure listings, including the 定価/list-price field) and goodsmile.com (official MSRPs, verified on individual product pages such as Nendoroid Xiao and Nendoroid Hideo Kojima); 1/7 scale MSRPs from live AmiAmi pre-order pages. Overseas prices: BigBadToyStore and Good Smile US product listings, and eBay sold listings from July 6–12, 2026. Exchange rate ¥161.6/USD from Trading Economics (July 10, 2026). The arcade-prize value cap and its 2022 revision from ¥800 to ¥1,000: Bengo4 News and this regulatory explainer. Consumption-tax treatment of exports from AmiAmi’s customs page; the November 2026 tax-free refund switch from Japan Travel. Shipping from Japan Post’s official EMS schedule. US duty status from Nakachi Eckhardt & Jacobson’s Section 122 analysis. Proxy fees per our own proxy comparison.
Two honest caveats. First, I could not find a formal Good Smile Company press release announcing a Nendoroid price increase — the MSRP has drifted upward release by release rather than in an announced step, so I’ve reported the observed 2026 range rather than a stated one. Second, prize figures have no official retail price by design, so every “Japanese price” for them in this article is a secondary-market price, not an MSRP. Prices, duty rates, and the exchange rate all move; the tariff regime in particular changes on July 24, 2026.
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