Photo/Illutration A staff member organizes action figure shelves in Surugaya’s new flagship store in Shizuoka’s Aoi Ward on Aug. 18 ahead of its opening. (Eishi Omi)

SHIZUOKA--To say the new flagship store of the Surugaya hobby shop chain will be packed to the rafters with merchandise is to put it mildly.

Operator a-too Inc. is intent on making it one of the world’s largest in terms of size and selection, and that means filling it with several million new and used items ranging from video games and anime to figures, models and other products that define modern culture.

The company, whose businesses include selling and buying hobby goods, said it wants the store to be a “holy site” for modelers and anime fans from around the world.

Shizuoka Prefecture is home to numerous plastic model manufacturers, producing 80 percent of plastic kits in Japan.

Shizuoka-based a-too said it will open new shops on the first through fourth floors of a building in front of JR Shizuoka Station starting from October.

The current main shop operating in a building nearby will also be renovated to serve as the new flagship store together with the new outlet to occupy a total floor space of around 6,000 square meters.

It will deal in software for Nintendo Co.’s Family Computer home video game console (aka Nintendo Entertainment System), which marks the 40th anniversary of its release this year, in addition to CDs from the 1980s, figures and plastic models.

An exclusive section for premium trading cards will be set up on the fourth floor of the new store building.

A-too boasts one of Japan’s largest selections of new and used merchandise, with about 23 million items registered in its database.

The company plans to set up a large warehouse with a total floor space of more than 30,000 square meters in Shizuoka in 2025 to enhance its distribution capabilities.

It posted sales of about 33.3 billion yen ($226 million) in the business year ending in August 2022, nearly double the figure for the year ending in August 2015.

The company operates at least 100 Surugaya shops across Japan, including Tokyo’s Akihabara district, and is preparing to open a store in Taipei.

“We want to offer items that cannot be found anywhere else so that the store attracts customers from around the world,” said the company’s president, Tsunashige Sugiyama.

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