Makoto Kobara is rather pleased with his Comme des Garcons suit. Yet the 24-year-old's favorite thing about it is not the chic design or subtle color, but the fact that it cost him under 26,000 yen.
"I couldn't -- and wouldn't -- buy the same suit new," said Kobara, a part-time office employee. "It's kinda fun to get hold of something you know is worth five or six times the price you paid for it."
Kobara purchased his suit from one of the many secondhand designer goods stores that can be found in Tokyo and other major cities of Japan. These stores stock a wide variety of the world's best-known labels, such as Martin Margiela, Prada, Yohji Yamamoto, Helmut Lang, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Miu Miu.