August 1996, Starbucks Coffee Japan opens it's first Starbucks store outside North America in Tokyo 's Ginza district. Today the company has over 800+ Japanese locations.

The Japanese Starbucks cards are issued with English on the front and Japanese on the back. Japan has many exclusive designs including the Daruma, Dolphin, the 2005 Special Olympics, Siren Card, the Sakura Card and the six "city" Cards. Various promotional issues and well as "mini" designs are exclusive to Japan as well (see below).

Cards issued to Japan are only good at the Starbucks locations there, but still highly collectable with collectors around the world.

Japan, like Taiwan, requires a customer to purchase a Starbucks Card first, then the customer can add funds to the Card. This is one reason that Cards from Japan can cost a bit more. In Japan, Starbucks Cards are only valid for three (3) years.

In 2010, Japan had a promotion called "Music for You". Various Cards were issued promoting iTunes and Discoveries (a canned coffee drink). These Cards are not normal issue Starbucks Cards and were sent to "prize" recipients instead of normal counter Cards for the general public. Details of this program are not known, but we've made the decision not to add them to the Japanese page. The best way to determine if a Card is a "normal" Starbucks issue is the clear panel on the right. These Cards are white and generally look and feel like the customized Cards that are ordered via Starbucks.com.

Click each card image for more information.