The 24-hour main store is the most practical late-night shop in Asakusa, with tax-free and a real free coupon. It is cramped at peak hours, and the coupon is Donki's own, so don't let anyone sell it to you as an exclusive.
Good fortune
- Open 24 hours, every day, next to Hoppy Street
- Huge range of snacks, skincare, medicine and souvenirs
- Tax-free at both Asakusa stores, plus a free extra 5–7% coupon
- Wide payment options, including Suica, Alipay+ and WeChat Pay
Tie it to the rack
- Narrow, crowded aisles in the evening
- Pharmacy medicines only when a pharmacist is on duty
- EKIMISE branch is small and closes at 20:00
- Tax refund now happens at the airport, not at the till
At Senso-ji you tie a bad fortune to the rack and leave it behind. We use the same scale for our verdicts.
Don Quijote - "Donki" to everyone in Japan - is the discount chain you will walk past in every big Tokyo neighborhood. Asakusa has two, and they are not equal. The main Don Quijote Asakusa at Asakusa 2-10 is open around the clock and is the one worth reviewing; the EKIMISE branch on the 4th floor above Tobu Asakusa station is a small, daytime shop. This review covers the company, both stores, tax-free and the free coupon Klook hands out. For directions, what to buy and photo tips, see our Don Quijote Asakusa guide.
Who runs Don Quijote
Don Quijote belongs to Pan Pacific International Holdings (PPIH), listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under code 7532. The company began as Just Co., Ltd., founded by Takao Yasuda in September 1980, and opened the first Don Quijote in Fuchu, western Tokyo, in March 1989. It renamed itself PPIH in 2019 and has its head office in Dogenzaka, Shibuya.
That matters for one reason: everything official about the Asakusa stores - hours, stocktaking closures, payment methods - is published on donki.com's store pages. Booking platforms, coupon sites and blogs repeat that information, not always correctly. When something here conflicts with a third-party listing, the donki.com page wins.
The main store: Asakusa 2-10
The main store stands on the Rokku side of Asakusa, west of Senso-ji, a minute from Tsukuba Express Asakusa Exit A1 and right beside Hoppy Street. Its store page lists:
- Open 24 hours, no closed days, except the occasional overnight stocktaking closure, announced on the store page.
- Tax-free, UnionPay and credit cards.
- An ATM, a pharmacy counter (pharmacist-only medicines are sold only while a pharmacist is on duty) and alcohol.
- A long list of IC and QR payments: Suica, PASMO, Alipay+, WeChat Pay, KakaoPay and others.
- No car park.
The building is more than a shop. On the ground floor are two outside businesses - D&N with dried fruit and Kitchokichi selling Kobe beef as steak, skewers and sushi. Upstairs are Saizeriya and Shabu-yo all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu (5F), Karaoke Rainbow (6F) and the live house Asakusa VAMPKIN (7F). A group can eat, sing and shop without leaving the building, which at 23:00 in early-closing Asakusa is a real selling point.
What it does well. The hours. Asakusa goes to bed early - Nakamise shops shut around 18:00–19:00, Kamiya Bar takes last orders at 19:30, most izakaya close by 22:00 or 23:00 - and Donki is still lit at 03:00. The range is the other strength: snacks, skincare, cosmetics, medicine, alcohol, souvenirs and household oddities under one roof.
What it does badly. Space. Donki's signature "compressed display" means aisles you edge along sideways, and in the evening, after the temple illumination comes on and the Hoppy Street crowd spills over, it gets properly crowded. The tax-free counter can queue. If you have a stroller, go in the morning.
The EKIMISE branch
Don Quijote Asakusa EKIMISE is on the 4th floor of the EKIMISE building at 1-4-1 Hanakawado, directly connected to Tobu Asakusa station and one minute from Ginza Line Exit 7. It keeps 10:00–20:00, not 24 hours, and does tax-free.
It is a convenience stop, not a destination. If you are about to board a Tobu limited express to Nikko or a local train to Skytree and forgot sunscreen or snacks, it saves the ten-minute walk to Rokku. For a proper shop, go to the main store.
Two claims that keep appearing online are wrong for both stores: neither is a "MEGA Don Quijote", and neither has a Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel is at the Dotonbori store in Osaka.
Tax-free: what changed
Both Asakusa stores do tax-free, but the way it works for visitors has changed. Japan now uses a refund-at-departure system:
- You pay the full, tax-inclusive price in the store, with your passport.
- The minimum is still ¥5,000 before tax, per shop, per day.
- You get the consumption tax back at the departure airport or seaport, at a customs tax-free kiosk, within 90 days of purchase and before checking your luggage.
- The refund is paid by the shop or its refund agent - to a card, bank account, app or in cash - and timing varies.
For shoppers this is a mixed change. The sealed-bag rule for food and cosmetics is gone, and so is the old ¥500,000 limit on consumables. But the discount no longer shows up on your receipt, you need your purchases with you at the airport, and you have to leave time for the kiosk. Our getting to Asakusa guide has the direct trains to Haneda and Narita - add a margin for the refund if you shopped big.
The free coupon: honest take
Don Quijote runs a tourist coupon with two tiers: 5% off ¥10,000–29,999 and 7% off ¥30,000 or more, both before tax. Alcohol, tobacco, POSA cards, game consoles and items over ¥100,000 are excluded. Show the coupon - the live web page, not a screenshot - with your passport before checkout; it can be used once per traveler.
Klook lists it as a free voucher:
Prices are the lowest option the platform shows, in US dollars, and move with dates and exchange rates. The booking page is final. Prices checked: September 28, 2026.
Here is the part a booking site won't lead with. It is Don Quijote's own coupon, and LIVE JAPAN and MATCHA give away the same one, also free. There is no Klook-only extra and nothing to pay. It is valid at Don Quijote stores across Japan, so one coupon covers your Shibuya or Osaka Donki too. Get it wherever is easiest for you; if you already use Klook for other bookings, keeping it in the app is tidy. Klook's listing also mentions "up to 10% tax free" alongside the discount. That describes the old at-the-till system - today the tax comes back at departure. More on Klook in our Klook review.
Is the coupon worth the minute it takes? If your basket is over ¥10,000 before tax, yes. Under that, it does nothing.
Verdict
As a place, Don Quijote Asakusa earns a kichi. It is the most useful shop in the neighborhood for anyone out after dark, it sits exactly where an evening in Asakusa naturally ends - next to Hoppy Street and a few minutes from the lit-up temple - and it combines tax-free with a genuine, free extra discount. It loses points for crowding at peak times and for the small print: pharmacist-only medicines at limited hours, a coupon with exclusions, and a tax refund you now collect at the airport rather than at the till.
Plan it as the last stop of the evening, not the reason for the trip. See the Asakusa at night guide for what to do before it, and the Asakusa food guide for dinner nearby. Other reviews - from the Senso-ji itself to the Tourist Information Center across from Kaminarimon - are listed on our reviews page.