‘Bonbon Drop’ 3D Stickers Fly Off Shelves in Japan

By Kenta Nakajo / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

10:30 JST, February 6, 2026

A sticker-trading craze among girls has led to persistent shortages at stores in Japan. The trend was sparked by the rise of Bonbon Drop stickers — or Bondoro for short — distinguished by their translucent three-dimensional bulge. More than 10 million sheets of stickers in total have been shipped within about 1½ years of their release, creating an unprecedented boom that has even been swept up adults.

Last December, Bondoro stickers arrived at the Mega Don Quijote Tachikawa Store in Tachikawa, Tokyo. Despite there being no prior announcement, a line of customers formed in front of its stationery section, and the stickers sold out as soon as they hit the shelves.

A 39-year-old office worker who bought them said she had been checking for restocks every lunch break for the past few weeks.

“I finally found them. I want to give them to my child,” she said.

Bondoro sell in sets of dozens, including fingertip-size character stickers.

They are produced by stationery maker Q-LiA based in Chuo Ward, Osaka, and have rapidly become popular through collaborations with the likes of Sanrio, Disney and the manga-anime franchise “Chiikawa.”

According to Don Quijote operator Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp., sales have skyrocketed since October and now rival overall stationery sales. They sell out the same day they arrive at stores across Tokyo.

“It’s rare for a product to hit this big,” an official of the company said. “They go just like pandemic-era antibacterial goods.”

Exchange frenzy

The Bondoro boom has also fueled the current sticker-swapping craze among girls.

A second-grader at an elementary school in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, said sticker trading has intensified at her school since last summer. Popular and rare stickers like Bondoro command high “rates,” meaning you need multiple relatively easier-to-find, thinner stickers to trade for them, she said.

The girl said she visited several nearby shopping centers, but Bondoro were sold out everywhere.

Her mother said: “All the parents of her classmates talk about lately is stickers. I never imagined they’d be this hard to get.”

Popular among adults

Kwansei Gakuin University Prof. Koji Namba, who studies cultural sociology, said the boom has to do with children having a collecting habit by nature.

“Historically, they have collected stamps or milk bottle caps,” he said. “In the 80s, it was ‘Bikkuri-Man stickers’ that came as freebies with snacks.”

Namba also pointed out that those who were elementary school students in the late 1990s to early 2000s and were in the middle of the sticker boom of the Heisei era [1989-2019] had now become parents. He said many of them enjoy exchanging stickers with their children, remembering their childhood.

“They capture not only elementary and junior high school girls but also the ‘kidult’ demographic [adults who retain a childlike spirit],” he said.