How to Buy a Used Bike in Japan (And Avoid Facebook Marketplace Scams)

As in most shopping goals in Japan, Tokyo offers the best range of used bicycles, though other major cities have some great options as well. We got our Trek Domane AL4 and Khodaabloom road bikes at a store called Buychari, which has dozens of locations across the country, and we were super pleased with our purchase.

The bikes themselves cost about 80,000 yen each, but with registration, pedals, helmets, and extra gear, it added up to about 200,000 yen overall for both of us.

The Facebook Marketplace Scam We Fell For in Osaka

If you’ve read our Shikoku travel journal, you may remember that before getting these bikes, there were almost two weeks of… some struggle. We expected more out of the Osaka second-hand gravel bike search, and along with visiting many second-hand shops, we searched Facebook Marketplace. We thought we found two good bikes and "placed an order" with an online "vendor," but the bikes never arrived.

Red flags we were blind to because we were desperate:

Paying with Gift Cards: Scammers often ask for konbini (convenience store) gift cards, which you can charge with up to 100,000 yen. Reliable sellers will never ask for this.
Generic Photos: Stock photos of bike boxes, shop fronts, or unverified personal details mean nothing.
Buying Online: Japan is extremely safe, but online scams are surprisingly common. As a general rule, we do not recommend getting your bike online.

Japanese Bike Sizing & Shop Communication Tips

Japanese bikes run smaller, and gravel bikes are not extremely common second-hand. The sizing is also slightly different—a size 54 in Japan will not be identical to a size 54 in Australia, even on the exact same make and model.

Filter Online Inventory: Some larger second-hand shops have online sites where you can search existing inventory and filter by size before heading to a shop so you know if it’s worth the trip.
Email Shops in Advance: Japanese bike shops are very accessible by email. You can reach out even before arriving in the country to see what they have to offer or ask them to update you if something comes in, as turnover is quick.
Where to Go: We heard recommendations for bike shopping at Hard-Off, Mode-Off, and Y's Road, but none of these had relevant stock for us. Buychari was the only chain that actually had a wide range across multiple locations.

Additional Costs & Police Registration (Bouhan Touroku)

The bike will most likely come without pedals, locks, or lights, and you will need to pay a registration fee. This registration, known as Bouhan Touroku (自転車防犯登録) costs around ¥600 and is one of the main things that keeps bicycles in Japan extremely safe from theft.

When you buy from a legitimate store like Buychari, they handle this police registration for you at the register.