The Konbini Shelf: Stomach, Hangover and Energy Drinks

In short

• A konbini sells drinks and quasi-drugs; real medicines, like stomach powders, are at drugstores.
• Turmeric drinks such as Ukon no Chikara are sold as health foods, not medicine.
• The local hangover set: a turmeric drink before, then miso soup with clams, a sports drink and umeboshi.
• Buy a cup of ice, a mixer and a can, and you have a konbini cocktail.

Konbini or drugstore: what’s sold where

Japan sorts over-the-counter medicines into three classes. Class 1 is sold only by a pharmacist; classes 2 and 3 by a pharmacist or a registered seller, which is why they live in drugstores and pharmacies.

A konbini has the other shelf: quasi-drugs (医薬部外品), such as many energy drinks, and plain drinks that only sound medical.

Important: Product names here are examples, not medical advice. Read the box, ask the pharmacist, and don’t combine medicines.

Something for the stomach

After rich food and a long day out, many people in Japan take a stomach medicine. Ohta’s Isan is a powder sold as a class 2 medicine, so you’ll find it, and Cabbagin Kowa, at a drugstore.

Show the staff what you need. They’ll point you to the shelf, and to the pharmacist for anything stronger.

Before and after a night out

There’s a ritual people put together from the konbini shelf. None of it is medicine; it’s what locals reach for.

1. Before drinking: a turmeric drink, such as Ukon no Chikara or Hepalyse W.

2. After: instant shijimi miso soup, the kind with small clams, for salt and warmth.

3. And a sports drink, which tastes better than water when you’re dried out.

4. The morning after: an umeboshi, a pickled plum, in a cup of hot water.

Tip: Turmeric drinks are soft drinks, not medicines, and drugstores shelve Ukon no Chikara with health foods. Solmac 5 is the exception, a quasi-drug for the stomach.

Energy drinks: small bottles, two kinds

Lipovitan D is a quasi-drug, the classic tired-salaryman bottle. Oronamin C looks similar but is a fizzy soft drink.

10% · 8% — The tax: Lipovitan D as a quasi-drug, Oronamin C as food

You’ll find both in konbini and drugstores. Many contain caffeine, so check the box before one late at night.

Konbini mixes over a cup of ice

Konbini freezers sell cups of ice. Add a mixer and a can or a small bottle, and you have a drink for the hotel room.

• Umeshu and soda: plum wine, topped up.
• Shochu and Calpis: the milky soft drink, made grown-up.
• Umeshu and green tea, the chawari.
• Whisky with honey and kinako soy milk, for something sweet.

Important: Shibuya bans drinking in public around the station every day from 6 pm to 5 am. Take the cup back to your room.

Are medicines tax-free?

Yes. Drugstores are often tax-free shops, and medicines count like any other goods. ¥5,000 per shop per day, before tax, is the minimum.

Since 1 November 2026 you pay the tax at the till and get it back when you leave. Anything you open and use in Japan no longer qualifies.