diskunion guide: which store for which genre

diskunion doesn't work like a single big record store. It's a chain of shops, most of them in Tokyo, and many are specialists: one floor for jazz, another for punk, another for Latin and Brazilian records. The same building can hold four different "diskunion" shops with nothing in common but the bags. If you know what you're looking for, the store list matters more than the neighbourhood.

This guide sorts the main branches by genre, based on diskunion's own store pages (read November 2026). Hours are the same almost everywhere: 12:00–20:00 on weekdays, 11:00–20:00 on weekends and public holidays. The Kichijoji store is the exception, at 10:00–20:00.

How diskunion is organised

The chain started with a record shop called Union Record in 1967; two record-only shops carry that name today, in Shinjuku and Shibuya. diskunion's store list sorts its shops into nearly twenty specialties, from used and rock to jazz, club, soul, Latin/Brazil/world, classical, Shōwa kayō and anime/game music.

Three areas hold most of the specialists:

• Shinjuku, east of the station around Shinjuku 3-chome: a building with one genre per floor (the Yamada Building), plus the Jurakutwin B Building and a few more addresses within a short walk.
• Ochanomizu, by JR Ochanomizu Station: jazz, soul, a big used floor, metal and classical.
• Shibuya, in Udagawacho: club music and jazz/rare groove in the same building, a record-only shop in Shibuya PARCO, and a large rock store.

Hori checks three diskunion shops for your Discogs wantlist: the Shibuya and Shimokitazawa club music shops and the Shinjuku soul/dance shop. The others are listed here so you can plan a visit.

Jazz

diskunion runs several jazz shops, and serious jazz collectors often do more than one.

• Shinjuku Jazz-kan, 3rd floor of the Jurakutwin B Building, Shinjuku 3-34-1. New and used CDs and a large record stock, from cheap staples to out-of-print LPs. The store page calls it one of the world's leading jazz shops.
• JazzTOKYO, Ochanomizu, 2nd floor of the New Surugadai Building. More than 50,000 CDs and records and a jazz book corner, sharing the floor with the soul shop.
• Shibuya Jazz/Rare Groove, 5th floor of the Antenna 21 building in Udagawacho, mostly records, with frequent overseas buying.
• Kichijoji Jazz-kan, a shop-in-shop inside the Kichijoji store (Kichijoji PARCO B1F) since March 2025, mainly modern jazz.
• Yokohama Kannai also has a jazz shop-in-shop.

diskunion Shinjuku Jazz-kanNot watched yetShinjuku Public holidays: weekend hours.Not watched yet Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

diskunion JazzTOKYONot watched yetOchanomizu Public holidays: weekend hours.Not watched yet Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

For jazz shops outside diskunion, see our jazz record shops guide.

Club music, hip hop and dance

• Shibuya Club Music Shop (Antenna 21, 4F) and Shimokitazawa Club Music Shop (opposite Kitazawa Town Hall): hip hop, R&B, house, techno, soul and disco on vinyl, new and used.
• Shinjuku Soul/Dance Music Shop (Jurakutwin B Building, 4F): soul, funk, disco and dance music.

All three are watched by Hori.

diskunion Shibuya Club Music ShopWatched by HoriShibuya Public holidays: weekend hours.Watched by Hori Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

diskunion Shinjuku Soul/Dance Music ShopWatched by HoriShinjuku Public holidays: weekend hours.Watched by Hori Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

Soul, rare groove, Latin and Brazilian

• Ochanomizu Soul/Rare Groove, on the same floor as JazzTOKYO: soul, funk, disco, blues, Brazilian, Latin, reggae, soundtracks and Japanese records (wamono). The store page counts about 5,000 used and 1,000 new records.
• Shinjuku Latin/Brazil-kan, 4th floor of the Yamada Building: bossa nova, samba and Brazilian originals, Latin and salsa, 1970s roots reggae and dub, and world music. It's diskunion's only Latin/Brazil/reggae shop.

diskunion Latin/Brazil-kanNot watched yetShinjuku Public holidays: weekend hours.Not watched yet Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

Rock, punk, prog and alternative

Shinjuku is the rock end of diskunion:

• Shinjuku Rock Record Store (Shimokiku Building, 5F): 1960s–70s rock on vinyl, imported originals, posters and memorabilia. The store page calls it diskunion's largest records-only floor.
• Progressive Rock-kan (Yamada Building, 3F): prog, from new CDs to obscure out-of-print vinyl.
• Indie/Alternative Rock-kan (Yamada Building, 6F): indie, new wave, post-punk, neo-acoustic, post-rock, electronica, noise.
• Punk Market (Yamada Building, 7F): 70s punk and power pop, Oi, ska, rockabilly, 80s hardcore and later.

In Shibuya, ROCK in TOKYO (YY Udagawa Building, B1F) covers rock from the 1950s to the 2020s, including metal, punk and Japanese rock, with about 50,000 items.

diskunion Shinjuku Rock Record StoreNot watched yetShinjuku Public holidays: weekend hours.Not watched yet Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

Japanese music

• Showa Kayo-kan (Yamada Building, 2F, Shinjuku): Shōwa-era kayōkyoku, used LPs and EPs.
• Japanese records also turn up in the soul shops' wamono sections (Ochanomizu) and in the general stores.

Everything, used

If you want to cover a lot of ground in one place:

• Ochanomizu Ekimae (New Ochanomizu Building, 2F, by the Hijiribashi exit): all genres, mostly used, more than 70,000 items on display. diskunion calls it its largest sales floor in Tokyo.
• Shinjuku Used Center (T&T III Building, 3F): used only, all genres.
• Union Record Shinjuku (Jurakutwin B Building, 1F) and Union Record Shibuya (Shibuya PARCO, B1F): records only, all genres, new and used.
• Shimokitazawa: all genres, with what its page calls diskunion's largest used stock for rock, jazz, soul and J-pop.

diskunion Ochanomizu EkimaeNot watched yetOchanomizu Public holidays: weekend hours.Not watched yet Public holidays: weekend hours.Shop page →

Outside central Tokyo there are general stores in Kichijoji, Nakano, Ikebukuro, Takadanobaba, Yokohama, Osaka (Umeda) and Nagoya (Sakae), among others.

Grading and returns

diskunion grades used records on its own scale, sleeve first and disc second: S (sealed), A (little sign of use), B+ (minor marks), B (visible use), C (damaged or may not play cleanly), with + and − in between. Defective used items are refunded rather than exchanged, within seven days. The details, and the Japanese terms on the price cards, are in our grading guide.

A diskunion day

1. Ochanomizu at noon: Ekimae for the big used floor, then JazzTOKYO and the soul shop, which share a floor in the New Surugadai Building. Lighthouse Records, a short walk away, opens at 13:00 from Tuesday to Saturday.
2. Shinjuku in the afternoon: the Jurakutwin B Building (Union Record, jazz, soul/dance), then the Yamada Building floor by floor for your genres.
3. Shibuya in the evening, if you still have energy: club music and jazz/rare groove at Antenna 21, both open until 20:00.

Buying from abroad? diskunion takes overseas orders through WorldShopping, its official checkout for buyers outside Japan, for new records only; our guide to buying from Japanese shops covers the options.