🧦 FamilyMart's 47-Prefecture Socks & Stickers
Request Now
HELB TeamJapan's convenience stores were already souvenir territory. FamilyMart has just raised the bar. To mark its 45th anniversary, the chain released its first-ever regional merchandise on 4 September 2026: 47 striped Line Socks and 47 stickers, one design for every prefecture in Japan.
The catch is the fun part. Each design is sold only at FamilyMart stores inside the prefecture it represents. Walk into a Tokyo FamilyMart and you'll find the Tokyo sock and nothing else. Want the Okinawa pair? You need to be in Okinawa, or know someone who is. If you've used HELB before, you can probably see where this is going.
The socks: 47 stripes, 47 flowers
The socks are FamilyMart's Convenience Wear Line Socks, the white ribbed crew socks with a band of stripes at the cuff that have become a quiet cult item since the apparel line launched in 2021. For the anniversary edition the stripe colours change by prefecture, taking their palette from each prefecture's official flower. Tokyo's cuff mixes several pinks with brown and green for Somei Yoshino, the cherry blossom that lines the Meguro River every spring. Kyoto also chose cherry blossom, but the weeping variety, so its pinks run warmer and pick up a stripe of orange. Aichi gets a deep blue for the rabbit-ear iris, Ishikawa a near-black band for the black lily, and Ehime is, naturally, mikan orange.
Specs: unisex, two sizes (22 to 25 cm and 25 to 28 cm), a thick pile-knit sole and an antibacterial, odour-resistant finish. ¥600 including tax. Each pack is numbered (Tokyo is 13 of 47) and the back carries a line drawing of the flower with its name, family and blooming season in both Japanese and English, which makes them an unusually good gift for someone who has never set foot in that prefecture.
The stickers: FamilyMart's original mascot goes local
The stickers revive the Sun and Star mark FamilyMart used when it was founded in 1981. On each one the sun dresses up as a local speciality, and the star hides a second detail. Tokyo's sun is a night-time skyline and its star is a decorative manhole cover, a nod to the city's habit of turning drain covers into art. Akita's is a red Namahage demon from the Oga Peninsula's New Year ritual, with the star as the blade the demons carry. Osaka's is a takoyaki ball with the red pickled ginger served alongside. Kyoto's is a maiko, and its star is a senjafuda, the name slips you'll spot pasted to temple gates. Okinawa's is a shisa, the guardian lion-dog on every rooftop, with a hibiscus in its star. ¥300 each.
The full sticker lineup, region by region:
- Hokkaido & Tohoku: Hokkaido (melon), Aomori (apple), Iwate (wanko soba), Miyagi (zunda mochi), Akita (Namahage), Yamagata (cherries), Fukushima (kokeshi doll)
- Kanto: Ibaraki (natto), Tochigi (gyoza), Gunma (daruma), Saitama (Soka rice crackers), Chiba (peanuts), Tokyo (skyline), Kanagawa (steamed dumplings)
- Chubu: Niigata (rice), Toyama (medicine), Ishikawa (Wajima lacquerware), Fukui (sauce katsudon), Yamanashi (peaches), Nagano (oyaki), Gifu (gohei mochi), Shizuoka (deep-steamed green tea), Aichi (fried prawn)
- Kinki: Mie (spiny lobster), Shiga (Shigaraki tanuki), Kyoto (maiko), Osaka (takoyaki), Hyogo (Kobe beef), Nara (persimmon-leaf sushi), Wakayama (Nanko plum)
- Chugoku: Tottori (Nijisseiki pear), Shimane (magatama beads), Okayama (Momotaro), Hiroshima (okonomiyaki), Yamaguchi (fugu)
- Shikoku: Tokushima (Awa Odori dancer), Kagawa (Sanuki udon), Ehime (mikan), Kochi (seared bonito)
- Kyushu & Okinawa: Fukuoka (tonkotsu ramen), Saga (hot-air balloon), Nagasaki (stained glass), Kumamoto (mustard lotus root), Oita (onsen), Miyazaki (mango), Kagoshima (black pork), Okinawa (shisa)
Three more things worth knowing
- Complete-set lottery. Pay with FamiPay, FamilyMart's app, and every pair earns a stamp. Ten stamps enter you into a draw for a full 47-pair set. It runs until 26 February 2027 but needs a Japanese FamiPay account, so it's one for the travellers rather than the shoppers.
- Overseas editions. FamilyMart stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei each get a city sock too, themed on the Chinese rose, the magnolia and the azalea. Not part of the 47, but a nice extra if a traveller is passing through.
- Stock. FamilyMart's product page already carries a notice that some stores are running low. Don't wait too long.
How to get yours without being in Japan
This is a textbook HELB request. Since every design lives in a different prefecture, the trick is matching each sock with a traveller who is actually going there.
1. Create a request on HELB naming the prefecture, the item (sock, sticker or both) and your sock size. Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto see the most traveller traffic, so those will match fastest. For somewhere like Kochi or Shimane, post early. 2. A traveller heading there accepts and picks it up at any FamilyMart in that prefecture. With around 16,500 stores nationwide it rarely means a detour. 3. Pay through HELB and collect in Singapore when they land.
Travelling to Japan yourself? Flip it around. Post which prefectures you'll pass through and pick up a few pairs for shoppers on the way. At ¥600 a pair they fit in any bag, and right now they're one of the few souvenirs people genuinely can't get anywhere else.
If you're looking for any of these, simply create a request on HELB. Our network of verified travellers can help you get what you need.
Sources
- Family Mart releases 47 convenience store socks and stickers, one for every prefecture in Japan, Oona McGee, SoraNews24, 9 September 2026
- FamilyMart Co., Ltd. press release, 4 September 2026 (Japanese)
- Convenience Wear: 47 prefecture socks, FamilyMart product page with flower themes and photos (Japanese)
Product photography © FamilyMart Co., Ltd., reproduced from the company's press materials for editorial coverage. HELB is not affiliated with FamilyMart.
