Daiso’s One-Price World

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Daiso started as a truck-side discount stall in western Japan and became the company that defined the 100-yen shop. Today it runs more than 5,500 stores across over 25 countries and regions, selling kitchenware, stationery, cosmetics and snacks at fixed low prices. Its expansion shows how a Japanese retail format built on thrift, variety and design can travel, and why the prices change as soon as it leaves Japan.

From a mobile stall to Daiso Industries

Founder Hirotake Yano began in 1972 with Yano Shoten, a mobile business that sold household goods from a truck at temporary sites. Counting prices for hundreds of items was slow, so he began selling everything at one price. In December 1977 he incorporated Daiso Industries, and in 1991 the company opened its first directly managed 100-yen shop in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. The head office is in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The timing was ideal. Japan’s asset bubble burst in the early 1990s, and a long period of low growth and deflation followed. Shoppers who had become careful with money found that a 100-yen shop offered surprisingly good quality. Daiso’s slogan was, in effect, that customers should be surprised the item cost only 100 yen. Yano died in 2024, and his son Hirokazu Yano now leads the company.

How the model works

The 100-yen format looks simple, but it depends on scale and careful sourcing:

• Huge product range — tens of thousands of items, with hundreds of new products added every month to keep customers coming back
• Private label — most goods are developed in-house and made to order by partner factories in Japan and across Asia
• Averaged margins — some items are sold close to cost to attract shoppers, while others carry higher margins
• Design as value — neat packaging and practical Japanese design make low-priced goods feel like good choices rather than compromises

As costs rose, Daiso adapted. It introduced items priced above 100 yen, and in 2021 launched Standard Products, a store brand selling simple, better-made goods at mainly 300 yen. Its THREEPPY brand targets younger shoppers with trendier 300-yen items. The multi-banner strategy lets the company raise average spending without abandoning its low-price image.

Exporting thrift

Overseas expansion began in 2001 with a store in Taiwan. The United States followed in 2005 with an opening in the Seattle area. Since then Daiso has entered markets across Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and the Americas, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Why the price changes abroad

The one-price idea survives overseas, but the price itself does not. Shipping, import duties, rent and wages mean that a 100-yen item in Japan typically sells for a higher local equivalent abroad. In the United States, prices start at around $1.75 to $2, while in other markets Daiso uses its own local price points. The appeal overseas is less about rock-bottom prices and more about Japanese products, variety and design at prices that are still low for the local market. For many shoppers in the US, Daiso is as much a Japanese lifestyle store as a discount shop.

The Korea story

Korea shows another side of the brand. Daiso Korea was originally a partnership between Daiso Industries and the Korean company Asung HMP. It grew into a huge national chain with its own sourcing. In 2023 the Korean side bought back the roughly 34% stake held by the Japanese company, making Daiso Korea fully Korean-owned and effectively independent of the Japanese parent.

What it means for overseas partners

• Franchise and licensing partners — Daiso often enters new markets through local partners, which creates opportunities for retailers with strong property and logistics networks.
• Manufacturers — with a constant flow of new private-label products, Daiso is a large buyer for factories that can meet tight cost and quality targets.
• Mall operators — Daiso stores draw frequent, high-traffic visits and suit shopping centres looking for a Japanese anchor tenant.
• Competitors and investors — the rise of Chinese rivals such as Miniso shows that the fixed-price variety format is now a global category, not a Japanese curiosity.

Conclusion

Daiso grew by solving a problem in a truck: pricing too many items one by one. That simple idea became a retail format suited to Japan’s deflationary decades and then to cost-conscious shoppers worldwide. Abroad, the price is no longer 100 yen and the Korean business has gone its own way, but the core offer remains the same: a large, constantly changing range of useful goods at a price that makes buying easy.