A ubiquitous type of Japanese collectible is the ‘clear file’. A plastic, printed equivalent to the ‘manila folder’ of the west, these are the cheapest example of otaku/anime merchandise and are available seemingly everywhere in Japan.
The most common type is shown above: a piece of printed thin plastic folded and sealed at one end to create a folder that opens diagonally. As with most merchandise in Japan, the manufacturing is top-notch, and they have a great smooth feel in your hands and the print quality is super high.
Over the many years we’ve been traveling to Japan we’ve been accumulating these, and now have almost 100. The above photo shows the variety of sizes we own, with the most common being the two in the top left, which are A4 (the kimono girl) and slightly larger. I’m sure there are many more sizes than those shown above – I’ve seen a few as big as a wall poster! – but easily 75% of ours are A4 size.
A decent selection of ours were ‘free’, such as the two above which were bonuses for buying packs of gum/chocolate at convenience stores. If I’m ever in a ‘konbini’ and they have a clear file offer, I’ll bend over backwards to buy whatever it takes to get the file. And no, I don’t know who the people on the above are either!
We have dozens of clear files showing pretty models, which frequently come free with manga magazines. When they do, it doesn’t raise the price of the magazine, which shows how cheap and disposable these things are.
They are frequently given as bonus items when you purchase games, such as the above that came with a Switch game. More than once I’ve been checking out in a Japanese shop and seen a pile of files behind the counter and seriously considered buying the game just to get one.
Girl models aside, the majority of ours are anime related, but files are available for just about anything it seems. There’s a very good chance I’ve bought you one (or more!) of these over the years, and I know such purchases have included animals (squirrels, owls), trains, food and Japanese scenic photos.
I bought the above at the Cup Noodles store in Yokohama. In fact I almost always buy a clear file when I’m in a souvenir shop since they can be so inexpensive: often only a few dollars.
The above is very clever. While I don’t play the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, I love that they made this file to look like a giant card. I wish they’d make a MtG basic land into a clear file!
Earlier this year at the Osaka Ultraman store I spent enough yen that I got to play a bonus game where I had to shoot a little dart gun at a target board. I won the above pop-art clear file of an alien in the Ultraman universe 🙂
Several years ago when we saw NJPW at Tokyo Dome, the above was a freebie if you signed up for life insurance. I played the dumb foreigner and successfully talked my way into a free one! The signature is a facsimile, and ever since getting this KLS and I have nicknamed this wrestler ‘clear file’.
Clear files are often prizes in Ichiban Kuji lotteries (which probably deserve a post of their own one day), and we have quite a few such as the G prize from a recent Uma Musume Kuji.
The above is a girl from the K-Pop band Twice. Bernard bought me this when we were last in Japan together, and one day when he has long forgotten about it I’ll send it to him for Christmas 🙂
Clear files are also available in gacha machines, and the above are two examples (the right is Shin Godzilla). These machines have evolved over the years, and these days the files they vend are usually A4 size.
If you thought the gacha ones looked impractically small, look at the above! This came in a blind pack with a stick of gum, sold like trading cards. The file is so small it can’t even hold a single cheque (remember them?); what’s this supposed to be used for?!
As far as favourites are concerned I have two. The first is the above Puzzdra file sent to me by Adam’s alliteratively-named sister AC. For a game as popular and long-lasting as Puzzdra there’s a dearth of merchandise and this file is special for that reason.
And no surprises I love the above. I really should get some more Ultraman files…
The most recent one we’ve obtained is the above, which came free with a manga weekly I bought in Japan. I’ve never heard of the series, and the mag was long tossed, but of course this file will remain in our ‘collection’ forever.
Oh, and I actually use these things! In fact this post was motivated by me replacing a very worn out one I use for school with a new one (above) taken from our collection 🙂
