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The world’s Hello Kitty stores, ranked

The ten Sanrio and Hello Kitty stores worth crossing a city for, ranked and weighted by size, selection and spectacle, from the Ginza flagship to the pink Hello Kitty check-in at Taoyuan Airport, each entry marked Sanrio-run or licensed, a distinction invisible from the sidewalk.

An engraving of an ornate storefront with a striped awning and a large ribbon bow above the doors, a cartoon cat in the window, shopping bags and a blank signpost outside.

Hello Kitty has a physical address in most major cities, but only a handful are worth planning a trip around. This is a ranking of the ten most notable Sanrio and Hello Kitty stores in the world, weighted for size, selection and the sheer spectacle of the place. Sanrio runs some of them directly. Anything with a cafe, an airport, a hotel or a theme park attached is a licensee’s operation, and we say which is which.

Sanrio Nishi-Ginza (Sanrio World Ginza)

Sanrio-run

Ginza, Tokyo, Japan · Flagship in the Nishi-Ginza building; renewed 2014

Two floors in the Nishi-Ginza building hold the deepest Sanrio selection on earth, widely called the world’s largest Sanrio store, topped by the only Sanrio-approved Hello Kitty nail salon. If you visit one, visit this one.

Sanrio Puroland shops

Sanrio-run

Tama, Tokyo, Japan · Park opened 7 December 1990

Inside the indoor Hello Kitty theme park, the third-floor Entrance Shop is the biggest, stocked with Puroland-only goods sold nowhere else, alongside the themed Lady Kitty House and a My Melody & Kuromi shop.

See the parks file

Hello Kitty check-in & Sanrio shop, Taoyuan Airport

Licensed

Taoyuan (Taipei), Taiwan · Terminal 2, Ever Rich duty-free

Check in under a ribbon-and-star Hello Kitty ceiling, wait at a pink Kitty gate with a kids’ slide, then raid a duty-free shop of 1,000-plus Sanrio items and airport-only Kitty pastries. The most famous Hello Kitty airport anywhere.

See the EVA Air file

Sanrio flagship, 30 Wellington Street

Sanrio-run

Central, Hong Kong · Opened 9 December 2025

A new six-storey Sanrio building under a giant pink bow, with character digital walls floor to floor, is the largest Sanrio store in Hong Kong. Some upper floors are run with Bandai.

Sanrio Harajuku Store

Sanrio-run

Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan · Opened 11 December 2025

A three-floor megastore on Takeshita Street, on the old Harajuku Alta site, crowned by a Sanrio Café serving character roll cakes and burgers.

OTARU CAFE × HELLO KITTY

Licensed

Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan · Opened 2019; relocated 2022

Hokkaido’s first Hello Kitty cafe, a few steps from the Otaru canal and the music-box hall, with a ground-floor shop of Otaru-only Kitty goods under an upstairs cafe of Otaru-design lattes. It is the notable Hello Kitty stop in Otaru; there is no larger Sanrio-run store there.

Anji Hello Kitty Park flagship shop

Licensed

Anji, Zhejiang, China · Opened 1 July 2015

China’s first licensed Hello Kitty park: about 95,000 square meters of rides and parades with a castle hotel of Kitty suites, and a flagship shop where the cat is on everything down to the toilet seats.

See the parks file

Sanrio Lovers Club

Licensed

Hongdae, Seoul, South Korea · Year-round since a 2022 pop-up

A two-storey pastel “Sanrio school” in Hongdae: a ground-floor shop packed with plush and stationery under a reservation-only cafe with themed rooms for Kitty, Kuromi, My Melody and Cinnamoroll.

Hello Kitty Hollywood

Sanrio-run

Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA · Opened March 2019

A 3,600-square-foot, two-storey boutique on the Ovation Hollywood courtyard, behind a Tokyo-drawn mural of Hello Kitty and friends loose among LA landmarks.

Hello Kitty Grand Cafe

Licensed

Irvine, California, USA · Opened September 2018

The first permanent US Hello Kitty cafe, with a full merch shop and a hidden pink speakeasy, the Bow Room: high tea by day, 21-and-over cocktails after five.

Worth a detour

Sanrio Gift Gate Singapore

Takashimaya, Orchard Rd

Singapore’s main official shop, 2,000-plus items on the department-store toy floor.

Hello Kitty Happy Flight Shop

New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido

A third-floor airport shop for a last Kitty souvenir before you fly out of Hokkaido.

Sanrio Smile Shop & cafe

Universal CityWalk, Los Angeles

Twin storefronts, shop plus cafe, with CityWalk-exclusive goods.

ARTBOX Covent Garden

London, UK

Not a Sanrio store, but London’s kawaii HQ, with the UK’s widest range of official Sanrio goods shipped from Tokyo.

Famous, and gone

Listed so you don’t chase a closed address.

Hello Kitty Orchid Garden: Changi Airport, Singapore. The world’s first 24-hour Hello Kitty cafe. Closed February 2019.
Sanrio Hello Kitty House: Siam Square, Bangkok. Cafe, shop and spa. Closed July 2019.
Sanrio flagship stores: New York City. The Times Square and Flushing stores both closed by around 2016; there is no standalone Sanrio store in NYC now.
Hello Kitty Sweets: Taipei, Taiwan. A themed cafe that closed in early 2024.

Sources of record

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