Nakano is known to even foreign travelers as a mecca for subcultures like anime and games. It is here that Fujiya Camera, boasting an 80-year history, is located.

To get to the main shop, go out the north exit of JR Nakano Station and head towards Nakano Broadway and you will see the shop’s yellow and blue sign on the right.

On the first floor are Canon, Sony, Olympus, Fujifilm, and Panasonic, while on the second floor are Nikon, Contax, Pentax, famous German brands such as Leica and Zeiss single-lens reflex film cameras, and Mamiya and Hasselblad, which account for almost half of the cameras there.

This camera store in Tokyo has about 4,000 used items and about 5,000 new items.

There are five levels used to indicate the condition of the items, starting with A (in beautiful condition) ~ B (feels like it has been used a lot). There are also outlet products that have never been used.

In the annex of the shop on the same street, you can find used accessories such as tripods. Upstairs, there are valuable old cameras and lenses, though there is no guarantee that they will work. This is a second-hand camera store you really should visit if you have the time.

The many mass-merchandising electrical appliance shops in Nishi Shinjuku make it a lively place. It is here that Map Camera’s main store is located. Map Camera is one of the largest vendors of good-quality used cameras in Japan. It has an inventory of about 20,000 cameras, which it sells through its shop and online. It carries over 30 different brands, both foreign and domestic.

Not only does it have an excellent selection of vintage film cameras, but also the latest digital single-lens reflex (dSLR) cameras at affordable cheap prices. The price tags also indicate the camera's condition according to a six-level evaluation, such as Like New, Very Good, Good, etc.

The store also has a department specializing in buying cameras and another for repairs and maintenance. The shop has a reputation for maintaining good quality control.

This second-hand camera store in Tokyo occupies the third through fifth floors and first basement of the building. Nikon, Pentax, and Fujifilm are found on the third floor; Canon and Olympus are on the fourth floor; and Sony and Contax are on the fifth floor.

In the basement, there are imported cameras, such as Leica for which there is a boutique corner as the shop is an officially recognized retailer of Leica. Here you can see comparisons of old and new Leica.

On the first and second floors of this building, GMT handles used and new luxury wristwatches and Kingdom Note, which sells fountain pens, is located on the sixth floor; both of these shops are managed by Map Camera. If time permits, these are also worth visiting.

Lemon Inc. has a history of around 40 years in Ginza. In addition to this main shop, there are shops in Shinjuku, Akihabara, and Sakae in Nagoya. The Ginza Kyokai shop, located to the east of Yurakucho Station, has an extensive collection of film cameras. It enjoys great popularity among classic camera aficionados looking for second-hand film cameras in Tokyo.

In addition to national brands such as Nikon, Canon, Olympus, and Pentax, the shop also has many good-quality used foreign cameras and lenses, such as Leica and Hasselblad. The shop also has a good selection of both domestic and foreign twin-lens reflex cameras, such as Rolleiflex, Ricohflex, and Yashicaflex.

The condition of the cameras is indicated by letters of the alphabet. A means the camera is in almost new and beautiful condition; AB+ means the camera has almost imperceptible defects; AB means that the defect is very light; and B means there is damage, cloudy lens, and feels old and worn out.

The shop also has a collection of used Japanese watches like Seiko and Citizen, plus domestic and foreign writing instruments, and model trains.

Gucci, Beams, Ships, and other well-known shops line Ginza Renga-dori, but among hardcore camera fans, the street is famous for Sukiya Camera. It began business 80 years ago in Sukiya-dori and then moved to its current location around 10 years ago. It remains as popular with devoted customers as ever for its famous products.

In recent years there has been a large increase in the number of foreign visitors to the shop seeking rare expensive compact film cameras made by Kyocera and Contax and famous cameras such as Leica.

The one-room shop snugly located on the first floor of the building has about 1,000 cameras and lenses on display. Of these, about one-third are Leica camera bodies and lenses.

Also on display are domestic brands such as Canon and Nikon as well as foreign brands like Hasselblad and Minox. Once a rare item goes on display, it doesn’t take long for a collector to snap it up. Come and visit and you, too, may also discover what you have been looking for.

New multifunctional high-end cameras at list prices are sometimes beyond one's budget, but the same camera when used is often affordable. You might just be lucky enough to find the old model that you could not buy when it was new or a classic camera that you had long been looking for here in Japan.

While best known for their massive new electronics and camera selections, BicCamera and Yodobashi Camera also stock a rotating range of used cameras and lenses. Prices may not be as low as specialty secondhand shops, but their wide selection, easy accessibility, and frequent tax-free shopping promotions make them worth a quick look if you’re in the area.

Browse a list of BicCamera locations below, and also enjoy a special discount of 10% tax-free plus up to 7% additional off on applicable purchases. (Details in the linked page.)

Whether you are looking to buy a new camera, one of a certain quality and design, or a vintage camera, these shops offer wide selections of good quality used items to choose from, but when you do decide to buy, make sure that you carefully check the price and condition so that you don’t have any regrets later on.

*Some cameras mentioned may have been sold, and prices may have changed since this article was written.