Nintendo has confirmed it will launch a new official store in Fukuoka, Japan, by the end of 2025.

Nintendo Fukuoka becomes the company’s fourth official retail location in Japan, alongside Nintendo Tokyo, Nintendo Osaka, and Nintendo Kyoto. Unlike its predecessors, however, this marks Nintendo’s first store not situated on Honshu—Japan’s largest main island. Instead, it will be based in Fukuoka City on Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost major island.

On social media platform X, Japanese users responded to the announcement with congratulatory notes, alongside wishes for Nintendo to eventually open official stores across the entire country. Many commenters also suggested that Sapporo—the largest city on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido—would be the next logical choice for a Nintendo store.

Not all reactions were positive, though. A significant number expressed disappointment that Nintendo appeared to have skipped over Nagoya. Located in central Japan, Nagoya is the capital of Aichi Prefecture and a major industrial center. Despite being Japan’s fourth most populous city, it often contends with a reputation for being “boring.” This perception gained traction in 2016, when a survey asked residents of Japan’s eight largest cities to rank urban appeal for travelers. Demonstrating hometown pride, most respondents ranked their own city first—except Nagoya residents, who placed their city third, behind Tokyo and Kyoto. Adding to the irony, the survey was commissioned by the Nagoya municipal government.

Nagoya also suffers from its geographic location between Tokyo and Osaka, a position that leads many events and tour itineraries to bypass it entirely. A clip from the anime Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki details this so-called “Nagoya Skip” phenomenon below.

The "Nagoya Skip": When your city gets skipped over [Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki]
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“Nagoya skipping” is a trend that residents of the city are acutely aware of—which likely explains the volume of comments lamenting Nintendo’s decision to not open a store there. It’s worth noting that Nagoya has been in the headlines recently due to a new 17,000-seat arena scheduled to open there in July. City leaders and local media have expressed optimism that this venue will help reverse the “Nagoya Skip” pattern (source: Chukyo TV).

As for Nintendo Fukuoka, the new outlet will occupy space in a shopping mall inside Hakata Station—Kyushu’s largest railway hub, which connects via shinkansen (bullet train) to Honshu and is also easily accessible from Fukuoka Airport. By situating the store in such a central transit point, Nintendo will offer residents of surrounding prefectures more convenient access to Mario merchandise. In addition, since pandemic travel restrictions were lifted, Fukuoka has experienced growing inbound tourism—with South Korea contributing the largest share of visitors—and further growth is expected (source: Fukuoka Prefectural Government).

Nintendo's official stores don’t just sell Switch consoles, games, accessories, and all kinds of Nintendo-branded goods—they also host special events and offer hands-on previews of upcoming titles. Nintendo Fukuoka is well-positioned to help promote the anticipated Switch successor and get the hardware into customers’ hands faster.

Across the Pacific, Nintendo recently expanded its U.S. retail footprint with the debut of Nintendo San Francisco, its first West Coast store. IGN recently toured the location and spoke with Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser for more insights.