Internationally renowned U.S. guitar brand Fender opened a flagship store in Tokyo on Friday, calling it its first anywhere in the world in its 77-year history.
Located in the capital's Harajuku district, a center of youth fashion, the Fender Flagship Tokyo store spans three floors and a basement and sells guitars in every series the company produces.
The decision to base its flagship store in Japan, with a lineup that includes limited edition guitars only available in the shop, comes as the firm looks to grow in Asia while benefitting from Tokyo's appeal to international tourists.
Established in California in 1946, Fender's stratocaster guitars first created in the 1950s have been the go-to choice for a number of rock's most famous musicians, including Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison and Buddy Holly.
The move to establish a major store dedicated to its own products is new ground for the instruments company, which usually sells through musical instrument stores handling guitars from a variety of makers.
The 1,070-square-meter shop offers different experiences across its four levels.
On the second floor, visitors can test-play electric guitars at high volume before buying.
Its third-floor section, billed as the store's "dream factory," is home to its Fender Custom Shop that combines the atmosphere of a guitar museum with that of a boutique shop.
There, customers can order specially made Fender guitars crafted by the company's master builders who have created instruments for world renowned guitar heroes including Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Some guitars on offer are priced as high as around the 4 million yen ($27,600) level.
The store also has a cafe in its basement, and the company is launching a lifestyle brand called "F is for Fender" in time with the opening. The range is set to update seasonally.
At an event on Thursday ahead of the store's opening, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. CEO Andy Mooney pointed to a surge in people taking up the guitar during the coronavirus pandemic as evidence of the instruments' enduring appeal.
A survey by his company and polling firm YouGov showed that in the two years from October 2021, around 16 million people in the U.S. began learning the guitar, with a majority citing the pandemic as a key motivator.
The choice of Tokyo for the store reflected expectations that Asia will become the world's biggest music market in the next 10 years, with Japan the most influential place on the continent, he said.
