Guide · Akihabara

Part of: Akihabara Anime Tour

Is There a Tourist Information Center in Akihabara? Where to Get Help, from a Guide Who Works the Street

Yes. Akihabara's tourist information centre is Akiba Info, on the second floor of the UDX building (4-14-1 Sotokanda), open 11:00–17:00 and closed on Mondays. Staff speak English and it also takes luggage. Outside those hours the practical help desks are station staff at the ticket gates, the kōban police box, your hotel's front desk, and Japan's 24-hour visitor hotline on 050-3816-2787.

Most people searching for this are standing outside Akihabara Station with a phone at 8% battery, a suitcase, and a plan that has just stopped working. I meet guests at that exact spot most weeks, so this page is the list I would give you if you called me: where the official counter is, what it can actually do, and what to do at the seven hours of the day when it is shut.

Where is the tourist information center in Akihabara?

Akiba Info, second floor of the Akihabara UDX building, 4-14-1 Sotokanda. From the JR Electric Town exit, cross to the UDX side and take the escalators up one floor — it is a two- to three-minute walk. Open 11:00–17:00, closed Mondays, English spoken.

UDX is the big glass office block on the north-east side of the station, the one with the car park entrance and the restaurant floor. The information counter is not at street level, which is why people walk past it: you have to go up to the second floor.

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Which exit you come out of decides how long that walk is, and Akihabara has four separate stations sharing one name. If you are not sure which one you will arrive at, read which Akihabara station exit to use before you travel, not after.

What can the information center actually do for you?

Three things reliably: answer questions in English, hand you a paper map of the district, and hold your luggage — capacity is small, about 5 bags and 5 suitcases. It is a neighbourhood counter, not a travel agency, so treat it as a place to get unstuck rather than a place to book your trip.

The luggage part is the reason I send people there most often. Akihabara is a walking district and a suitcase turns a good afternoon into a chore. But five and five is a tiny capacity — on a weekend it can be gone by lunchtime, which is why the full list of luggage storage options in Akihabara matters more than this one counter does.

What it is not: it does not sell rail passes on the spot, it is not a lost-property office for the trains (that is the station), and it is not open when most visitors arrive. Which brings us to the real question.

What do you do when the information center is closed?

Closed means every Monday, every day before 11:00, and every day after 17:00 — including the entire Akihabara evening. In that window, ask station staff at the ticket gate first, then a kōban police box, then your hotel's front desk. For anything that needs English on the phone, the Japan Visitor Hotline is 050-3816-2787, 24 hours a day.

In rough order of usefulness, this is who I actually point guests at:

• Station staff at the ticket gate. The best help desk in Japan, open whenever trains run. They have the network memorised and dealing with confused travellers is the job. Write your destination down rather than pronouncing it.
• A kōban (police box). A small neighbourhood police post, usually near a station. Asking directions there is completely normal.
• Your hotel's front desk. Underused. They will phone the restaurant, write an address in Japanese on a card, and explain the bus.
• The Japan Visitor Hotline, 050-3816-2787, run by Japan's tourism organisation, 24 hours a day in English, Chinese and Korean. In a genuine emergency the numbers are 110 for police and 119 for fire and ambulance.

If the underlying worry is "what happens when nobody speaks English", the longer answer — including how to recognise a polite Japanese no — is in getting through Japan without Japanese.

Is there an information counter inside Akihabara Station itself?

Not a tourist information centre in the sense people mean. What the station has is staff at the ticket gates, and for anything involving trains, tickets, lost property or a route that has gone wrong, they are faster and better than a tourist counter would be. Akiba Info is outside the gates, one building over.

This trips people up because they expect an "i" desk on the concourse. Ask at the gate instead. The distinction that matters: train problem → station staff. District problem → Akiba Info.

Where should you meet someone in Akihabara?

Use a café with a door and a chair, not a landmark. My own meeting point is inside Vie de France Dining on the first floor of the BiTO AKIBA building (1-18-18 Sotokanda), by the Electric Town exit — indoors, unambiguous, and it works in rain and in August heat.

Pointing at a crossing or a mascot statue as a meeting point is how people end up on opposite corners of the same intersection for twenty minutes. Pick somewhere with a name, a floor and a sign. It is the same reason I publish a fixed indoor meeting point for the Akihabara anime tour rather than "outside the station".

Do you actually need the information center?

For a map and a question, yes, if you are here between 11:00 and 17:00 on a day that is not Monday. For luggage, book ahead instead of relying on five spaces. For planning your route through the district, a counter that closes at five is not the tool — an itinerary is.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Akihabara tourist information center free? Asking questions and taking a map costs nothing. Luggage storage is a paid service, and capacity is small enough that I would not build a day around it — see the luggage storage page for the options that let you reserve.

What time should I arrive in Akihabara if I want to use it? Late morning. It opens at 11:00, which happens to line up with when most of the big shops are properly awake anyway — the hour-by-hour version is in the best time to visit Akihabara.

Is it open on Mondays? No. Closed Mondays. If your Akihabara day is a Monday, plan around the station staff and your hotel instead, and book any luggage storage in advance.

Do I need it if I have a guide? No. On a guided day the map, the language and the luggage question are all handled before you arrive — that is most of what a guide is for. If you are weighing that up, how long to spend in Akihabara and the one-day itinerary will tell you whether you need one at all.

Is there a bigger tourist information centre nearby? Japan's tourism organisation certifies a national network of them, with the consistent "i" sign, and publishes the list. For central Tokyo that network is what to search rather than assuming each district has a large one — most, like Akihabara's, are single counters run by the local area.

Sources and honesty note

Akiba Info's floor, address, hours, closing day and storage capacity are the same figures I published on my Akihabara luggage storage page, taken from the operator's own listing when that page was compiled. Hotline and emergency numbers are Japan National Tourism Organization's published figures. Opening hours in Japan change quietly and small counters change them most — if your whole day depends on this counter being open, check before you travel rather than trusting a page.

About the author. I am Yuuki, an anime tour guide based in Akihabara. I run small-group tours in English most weeks, rated 4.96★ on Airbnb, and I have watched over 1,500 anime series — which is how most of my guests find me. I meet people by the Electric Town exit often enough to have opinions about where not to stand.

See the Akihabara anime tour →

Sources: Japan National Tourism Organization, Japan Visitor Hotline — 050-3816-2787, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in English, Chinese and Korean; police 110, fire and ambulance 119; Japan National Tourism Organization, Certified Tourist Information Centers in Japan.