This page contains promotions (affiliate links) (Editorial & ad policy)
Cordless vacuums near Tokyo: where to buy + 5 light picks
Approximate, at the rate on 2026-10-02. You pay in yen.
- Five cordless vacuums for a Tokyo flat, from Hitachi’s 1.1 kg to Dyson’s 2.2 kg
- Charging runs from Makita’s 22 minutes to Iris Ohyama’s four hours
- Dyson runs 60 minutes, Hitachi takes paper bags, Iris Ohyama is under ¥10,000
The five
| Best for | Where to get it | Score | Street price, incl. tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hair does not wrap round the brush, and it spots dust you cannot see — if you can’t decide | Panasonic Power Cordless cyclone stick vacuum See price |
78/100 | ¥49,500 (street price) |
| A paper bag at 1.1 kg — throw the dust away without touching it | Hitachi Karu-Pack Stick, paper-bag cordless stick See price |
77/100 | ¥39,694 (street price) |
| Under ¥10,000, with a charging stand that fits an A4 footprint | Iris Ohyama rechargeable cyclone stick cleaner See price |
77/100 | ¥9,880 (street price) |
| 100 W of suction published, and a 22-minute charge | Makita 18V cordless cleaner, integrated cyclone See price |
77/100 | ¥17,100 (street price) |
| Sixty minutes and 0.35 litres — the one that does the whole flat | Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute See price |
76/100 | ¥61,648 (street price) |
These are sold on Rakuten Ichiba, which generally ships within Japan only, and they run on Japanese mains power (100V, 50/60Hz). They suit a home in Japan rather than a suitcase.
Rather see them in a shop first? Where to buy in Tokyo lists six big electronics stores by the main stations, with opening hours and how tax-free works now.
Hair does not wrap round the brush, and it spots dust you cannot see
Panasonic Power Cordless cyclone stick vacuum
- 1.2 kg assembled, 800 g as a body
- Head reaches along skirting boards, with a white LED
- Drops onto a charging stand; about three hours to charge
Why it made the five
-
A brush designed so hair does not wrap around it
-
A sensor that finds and signals dust you cannot see
-
A drop-on charging stand, so it is always charged
-
Running noise published at 63–67 dB
-
Right for: Households with a lot of hair, and no patience for cutting it off a brush bar.
-
Not for: Keeping the price down.
-
Worth knowing: The bin holds 0.13 litres, less than the Hitachi’s 0.4 or the Dyson’s 0.35, so you will empty it often. Maximum power runs for about eight minutes.
Score breakdown — 78/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | No suction figure published; a motorised non-tangling head and a dust sensor earn two points |
| Value for money | ★★☆☆☆ | ¥49,500 plus about ¥9,800 for a genuine battery — ¥59,300 in all |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★★ | 1.2 kg and a drop-on charging stand: the maximum |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.55 across 78 reviews on four sites |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | The only one here claiming both a non-tangling brush and a dust sensor, and one of only two publishing a noise figure |
A paper bag at 1.1 kg — throw the dust away without touching it
Hitachi Karu-Pack Stick, paper-bag cordless stick
- The bag goes in the bin whole: no cup to rinse, no filter to beat out
- Self-propelled head, detaches with one touch
- 18 V cassette battery, charging stand included
Why it made the five
-
A paper bag, at 1.1 kg assembled — unusual in itself
-
0.4 litres, more than any cyclone model here
-
About two hours to charge; 30 minutes on standard, 45 without the head
-
A washable, one-touch non-tangling head
-
Right for: Disliking the dust cloud when you empty a cyclone bin, and cleaning everything at the weekend.
-
Not for: Wanting no running costs — the bags are consumables.
-
Worth knowing: A twelve-pack of bags is about ¥870. Hitachi’s specification says battery replacement goes through the retailer, with a labour charge possible on top of the part — this is not a battery you swap yourself.
Score breakdown — 77/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | No suction figure published; a motorised self-propelled head with a non-tangling brush earns one point |
| Value for money | ★★☆☆☆ | ¥39,694, but the battery replacement cost cannot be confirmed, which costs a star |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★★ | 1.1 kg and a charging stand: the maximum |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.37 across 157 reviews on four sites |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | The only paper-bag model here, at 1.1 kg, and with the largest capacity of the eight |
Under ¥10,000, with a charging stand that fits an A4 footprint
Iris Ohyama rechargeable cyclone stick cleaner
- 1.4 kg with floor head and tube, 850 g as a body
- Bin holds 0.15 litres to the fill line, 0.3 at most
- About 20 minutes on standard, 10 on turbo
Why it made the five
-
A drop-on charging stand with a footprint under A4
-
A self-propelled powered head that pulls itself forward
-
An electrostatic mop and charging case included, for dusting before you vacuum
-
The only model here under ¥10,000
-
Right for: A first cordless vacuum, bought cheaply.
-
Not for: Wanting a quick charge — this one takes about four hours.
-
Worth knowing: Four hours is the longest charge time of the eight. The guarantee is one year, and Iris Ohyama lists only filters and a mop as spares — no battery.
Score breakdown — 77/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★☆ | No suction figure published; a motorised self-propelled head earns one point |
| Value for money | ★★★★☆ | ¥9,880, but no battery is sold separately, which costs a star |
| Easy to live with | ★★★★☆ | 1.4 kg earns no weight point; the drop-on stand with an A4 footprint earns one |
| Trust | ★★★☆☆ | 4.15 across 6,143 reviews on four sites |
| Only here | ★★★★☆ | The only one under ¥10,000, and the only one supplied with an electrostatic mop for dusting first |
100 W of suction published, and a 22-minute charge
Makita 18V cordless cleaner, integrated cyclone
- Cyclone built into the body; cleaning frequency cut to about a sixth of the same machine without it
- Suction: 100 W powerful, 60 strong, 35 standard, 15 eco
- Supplied DC18RF charger; battery fits more than 350 other Makita 18 V tools
Why it made the five
-
Suction published for all four modes, from 100 W down to 15 W
-
Full charge in 22 minutes — buy a second battery and waiting ends
-
Noise published at 55 dB(A) on eco, 66 at full power
-
The battery is shared with Makita’s power tools
-
Right for: Wanting numbers rather than adjectives, and never waiting to charge.
-
Not for: Wanting it light, or wanting it to live on a stand.
-
Worth knowing: The ¥17,100 is the bare tool — battery and charger are extra, and the kit with both is ¥51,700 before tax. The 1.7 kg figure includes the battery but excludes nozzle and tube, so it is not comparable with the others.
Score breakdown — 77/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | 100 W on the strongest mode, published — a straight five |
| Value for money | ★★★☆☆ | ¥17,100 for the tool plus ¥20,900 for a BL1830B battery — ¥38,000 in all |
| Easy to live with | ★★☆☆☆ | 1.7 kg costs a star, and there is no stand and no self-standing claim |
| Trust | ★★★★☆ | 4.44 across 974 reviews on four sites |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | The only one publishing suction for every mode and a noise figure, with a 22-minute charge and a battery shared across 350-plus tools |
Sixty minutes and 0.35 litres — the one that does the whole flat
Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute
- 60 minutes is in eco mode with a non-motorised tool
- Fluffy Optic head: angled LED shows fine dust on hard floors
- Motorbar head for carpet and rugs; about three and a half hours to charge
Why it made the five
-
Up to 60 minutes — the longest runtime of the eight
-
A 0.35-litre bin, so you can do the whole flat without emptying it
-
Two heads: hard floor with an LED, and carpet
-
A free-standing charging dock included
-
Right for: Two or more rooms in one session, or a flat with carpet and rugs.
-
Not for: Putting weight first, or watching the budget.
-
Worth knowing: The 2.2 kg figure is with the Fluffy Optic head; with the Motorbar it is 2.4 kg. Dyson sells a replacement battery but publishes no price for it.
Score breakdown — 76/100
| Criterion | Stars | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | ★★★★★ | No suction figure on the Japanese site; motorised heads and an automatic mode that senses dust earn two points |
| Value for money | ★☆☆☆☆ | ¥61,648, and no battery price published — our lowest band |
| Easy to live with | ★★★☆☆ | 2.2 kg costs a star; the free-standing dock earns one back |
| Trust | ★★★★★ | 4.49 across 1,276 reviews on four sites |
| Only here | ★★★★★ | The longest runtime and largest bin here, two interchangeable heads, and an LED that reveals dust you would otherwise walk past |
Where to buy in Tokyo
Want to see cordless vacuums before you buy? These six big electronics stores are at or near Tokyo’s main stations. Hours, floors and services are as each store’s official page listed them on 5 November 2026; check again before a special trip.
| Store | Station | Open | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Akiba | Akihabara (JR), 1 min walk | 9:30–22:00 daily | 5F: vacuum cleaners Tax-free counter on 3F; the refund can be paid in cash on the spot 5F also has a section of appliances made for use abroad (rice cookers, kettles, irons) |
| Yodobashi Camera Shinjuku West Main Store | Shinjuku (JR), west exit | 9:30–22:00 daily | Tax-free; the refund can be paid in cash at the store |
| Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Ikebukuro | Ikebukuro | 9:30–22:00 daily | Tax-free; the refund can be paid in cash at the store |
| Bic Camera Yurakucho | Yurakucho (JR), Hibiya exit, 1 min walk | 10:00–22:00, open every day | B1F: vacuum cleaners Tax-free Airport delivery service |
| Bic Camera Shinjuku West Exit | Shinjuku, west exit (exit B16) | 10:00–20:30 Mon–Sat, 10:00–20:00 Sun and holidays | 5F: vacuum cleaners Tax-free Airport delivery service |
| Yamada Denki LABI Shibuya | Shibuya, 5–10 min walk | 10:00–22:00 | Tax-free Airport delivery service |
Tax-free shopping changed on 1 November 2026
- Since 1 November 2026, tax-free shopping in Japan is a refund: you pay the full price including consumption tax, show your passport at the till, and the tax comes back after customs at the airport or port confirms you are taking the goods out of Japan.
- Get that customs check within 90 days of buying, before you check in your bags, with every item from the receipt. The minimum spend is ¥5,000 before tax (Bic Camera’s rules).
- Yodobashi’s Akiba, Shinjuku West, Ikebukuro and Ueno stores can pay the refund in cash at their tax-free counter. You register a credit card, which is charged back if the customs check is not completed.
- Japanese appliances run on 100V. Bic Camera states that its free warranty does not cover use outside Japan.
Know before you buy
- Weight is the whole argument. These run from 870 g to 2.2 kg, and the difference is obvious within a minute of using one.
- Only one of the eight we compared states that it stands up on its own with the pipe and head attached. The rest live on a charging stand.
- Runtime matters more if you do the whole flat at once: 60 minutes at the top, 20 at the bottom. A single room is fine on 20; two or more wants 30-plus.
- Charge times run from 22 minutes to about four hours. One model uses the same removable battery as the maker’s power tools, so you can simply swap in another.
- A paper-bag model lets you throw the dust away without seeing it, and holds more — 0.4 litres against 0.13–0.35 for the cyclone models.
- Ask what a replacement battery costs before you buy. Four of these publish a price; two publish nothing at all, and one tells you to take it to the shop.
How we chose: theme, conditions, scoring
How we chose
- Candidates: 114
- Met every condition below: 18
- Kept: five, each the best at something different
Conditions (all of them, not most of them)
- A cordless stick vacuum weighing 2.5 kg or less assembled — body, extension tube, head and battery
- Runtime published for each mode
- Charge time published
- The collection method and how you clean it are published
- A new unit can be bought on Rakuten Ichiba
Scoring
Five criteria, one to five stars each, weighted to one hundred points. Every star says where the number came from.
- Quality25 pts
- Where suction power is published, we use the figure for the strongest mode: 100 W or more is five stars, 50 W four, under 50 three. Where it is not, we start at three and add one for a motorised brush head and one for a sensor that detects floor type or dust.
- Value for money20 pts
- The cheapest new unit on Rakuten Ichiba plus one replacement battery. Under ¥20,000 is five stars, under ¥35,000 four, under ¥45,000 three, under ¥60,000 two, above that one. Where no battery price can be confirmed, we price the machine alone and drop one star.
- Easy to live with20 pts
- Starts at three stars. Add one at 1.2 kg or less and one more at 1.0 kg or less. Add one if the maker states it stands with pipe and head attached, and one if a drop-on charging stand is included. Subtract one above 1.5 kg.
- Trust15 pts
- Review counts and weighted averages we counted ourselves across Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping and Kakaku.com, alongside Rakuten.
- Only here20 pts
- Starts at three stars. Add one or two where a figure or mechanism belongs to this model alone among the eight, and where it bears on cleaning a flat in one go at the weekend.
What we dropped
| Candidate | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Toshiba Torneo cordless cyclone stick cleaner | Runner-up (79/100) | The score is high enough, but its character overlaps with the five |
| Sharp RACTIVE Air cordless stick cleaner | Runner-up (78/100) | The score is high enough, but its character overlaps with the five |
| Yamazen lightweight cordless stick cleaner, 2-way | Runner-up (73/100) | 73 points, below the lowest of the five (76) |
| Dyson V8 Slim Fluffy (SV25 SLM) | Runner-up | 2.15 kg, 40 minutes, a 0.54-litre bin and about ¥29,489 new — it qualifies, but it had no reviews at all on Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping or Kakaku.com. |
| Sharp RACTIVE Air EC-AR50A | Runner-up | A current model at 1.3 kg, about 100 minutes to charge, 57–64 dB — but about ¥58,060 new and no reviews on any of the three sites. |
| Panasonic MC-PB61J | Runner-up | A paper-bag model at 1.3 kg with a 0.5-litre capacity, but it duplicates the lighter Hitachi we chose. |
| Hitachi PV-BL3P | Runner-up | Nearly identical specification to the PKV-BK3P as a cyclone, but two Amazon reviews and about ¥43,300 new. |
| Hitachi PV-BL50P | Runner-up | 1.4 kg and about 40 minutes on standard, but about ¥48,400 new and six Amazon reviews. |
| Toshiba VC-SL55D and five others | Outside the theme | Toshiba’s range page marks them as launching in October 2026, so no new unit can be bought yet. |
| Toshiba VC-CLZ74DS | Outside the theme | A flagship with an automatic emptying dock; we kept this guide to light machines without one. |
| Panasonic MC-NX600KM and MC-NX500K | Outside the theme | Separate-type machines designed around a clean dock, rather than a stick on its own. |
| Anker eufy | Outside the theme | Its Japanese store lists only two handheld models, both out of stock when we checked. |
| Tineco | Outside the theme | The official range page would not load, so we could not verify what is currently sold in Japan or its specifications. |
Questions visitors ask
Which is the cheapest?
The Iris Ohyama rechargeable cyclone stick cleaner, at about ¥9,880. The Makita 18V cordless cleaner is next at about ¥17,100. Prices are typical selling prices including tax and move often; the link on each one shows today’s price.
Where can I buy one in Tokyo?
All five are sold by Rakuten stores that deliver to any address in Japan, usually within a few days, and the links above go straight to them. If you would rather see the vacuums in person, the big electronics chains — Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera and Yamada Denki — have branches next to the main stations, including Shinjuku, Akihabara, Yurakucho and Ikebukuro, and carry the major Japanese brands. Online prices are often lower than in the store, so it is worth checking both.
Which is the lightest?
The Yamazen at 870 g assembled, 650 g as a handheld. Then the Toshiba at 1.0 kg, the Hitachi at 1.1, and the Panasonic and Sharp at 1.2. The heaviest is the Dyson at 2.2 kg with its hard-floor head, 2.4 with the carpet one. Makita’s 1.7 kg is measured differently — with battery but without nozzle and tube — so do not compare it directly.
Which stands up on its own?
Of the eight we compared, only Sharp’s EC-AR11, which states that the head stands with the pipe attached — so you can switch from floor to crevice without bending down. The Panasonic, Iris Ohyama, Hitachi and Dyson all come with a stand or dock to stand them in. Makita supplies neither.
Is one charge enough to do the whole flat?
The Dyson runs longest at up to 60 minutes. Sharp manages about 40 on standard, Makita 38 on eco and 21 on standard, Hitachi and Toshiba about 30, Yamazen and Iris Ohyama about 20, and the Panasonic 8 to 30 depending on what its automatic mode decides. One room is fine on 20 minutes; for two or more, aim at 30.
How long do they take to charge?
Hitachi and Yamazen about two hours, Toshiba two and a half, Sharp about 100 minutes, Panasonic three, Dyson three and a half, Iris Ohyama about four. Makita is the outlier: 22 minutes to full with the supplied DC18RF charger, because it uses the same removable packs as its power tools.
Can I replace the battery myself, and what does it cost?
Four publish a price: Sharp ¥11,880, Toshiba ¥11,000, Makita ¥19,000 before tax, and Panasonic about ¥9,800 on Rakuten. Hitachi’s specification says to go through the retailer, with a labour charge possible. Iris Ohyama and Yamazen list no battery at all. Dyson sells one but shows no price. Over five years this is a real part of the cost.
Cyclone or paper bag?
A cyclone has no consumables; a paper bag means you never see or breathe the dust you have collected, and the Hitachi’s bag holds 0.4 litres against 0.13–0.35 for the cyclones here. The bags cost about ¥870 for twelve. If emptying the bin is the part you dislike, that is money well spent.
Changes
- 2026-10-25 First published. Scored from 114 candidates.