There are shops in Japan that sell goods duty free which now means the 10% sales tax is credited by the store when you buy something duty free for tourists. But i have found a dishonest trick going on. I am now officially a tourist in Japan so i can use the duty free system.
Let me give you my experiences. At Bic Camera where i am a member and get 10% credit on my next purchase every time I buy there. So when i bought a watch I asked for the duty free option and when i went to pay they said i could not get any points if i opted for duty free which means i paid full price including tax and then took the points. So they put in one hand just to take from the other hand.
Last week i went to buy a used backup phone in Akihabara. The shop offered a good price so i bought one. But i paid the tax since it was not a duty free licensed shop. Then i went to a few duty free used phone shops and found the same phone was 10% more expensive but they would credit the 10% tax. So they put in one hand just to take from the other hand.
Today i went to Apple to check out the new phones. Apple Japan is no longer a duty free shop. I wanted to get the tax credited so i went to duty free Yodobashi Camera and found the same phones. their prices are almost exactly 10% higher. So make sure you are really getting the benefit when shopping duty free.
I have been told this system is being taken over by the government on November 1 so duty free shops will probably issue a certificate and the tax reimbursement will be done at the airport on departure. But that does not mean duty free shops will provide any benefit. They might be more expensive than other shops as they are today. So check it out before you buy.
Very interesting and essentially mirrors my experience – prices in duty free shops nearly always seem very high to me, so I did not see any value in buying anything there. Obviously, there could be some savings for some items, but it would require checking out prices as you did. And the tax free offer is obviously meaningless if the pricing is higher than elsewhere.