$560B Asleep: Japan's Auction Gold Rush

Japan is asleep on $560B of secondhand goods. Auctions just woke it up.

▼ About This Episode

At three in the morning, a conveyor belt never stops. Used cameras, trading cards, a luxury watch — each parcel a sold lot heading overseas. On this midnight sorting line, Haru shows Sakura the strange new engine of Japanese commerce: the auction, reborn inside our phones.

Once, auctions meant wooden hammers and hushed rooms. Now Mercari lets buyers fight it out, and TikTok Shop turns bidding into a livestream spectacle — one handbag climbing from a few hundred yen to ¥350,000 (about $2,200) while strangers compete in real time. Behind the frenzy sits ¥91 trillion — roughly $560 billion — of "hidden assets" asleep in Japanese homes, and a "Used in Japan" trust premium the world now pays for.

But from $54,000 anime cels to resale crackdowns, the gold rush has a conscience problem. When everyone is a seller and a rival, what are we really bidding on — the object, or the rush of winning? And who gets left behind?

▼ Timestamps (Chapters)

00:00 - Japan's ¥91 Trillion Problem: $560 Billion of Unused Goods Sleeping in Closets01:07 - Auctions Reinvented: How Mercari & TikTok Shop Turned Bidding into Live Entertainment02:09 - Why the World Pays More: The 'Used in Japan' Trust Premium02:54 - Beyond Luxury: Used Cars, Anime Cels & the Collectibles Boom03:46 - The Dark Side of Auctions: Creators Left Behind & New Marketplace Rules04:39 - What Are We Really Bidding On? The Psychology of Winning

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◆Note

The content of this program is intended solely for informational purposes and reflects the personal views of the creators. Please make any investment or business decisions based on your own judgment and responsibility. This program does not endorse or recommend any specific financial products or investment strategies.

🎵Music by Ivan Ohanezov from Pixabay

#JapanBusiness #JapaneseCulture #NarrativeJapan #JapanPodcast #JapanAuction #UsedInJapan