Will Muji Japan’s “Fukukan” continue to disappoint in 2024?

We hold out hope for a can that’s been disappointing us in recent years. 

Fukubukuro lucky bags can be a hit-and-miss situation, and one that’s been more of a miss than a hit in recent years is the one from Muji.

For starters, it’s sold in a small can — a “fukukan” — which limits the size of the contents, and secondly, it’s incredibly hard to get as it can only be purchased by lottery winners. Out of 21 people from our team who applied for the fukukan, only two won, making it one of the hardest to get in the country.

Then there’s the contents, which have underwhelmed us in previous years. So when it came round to pulling the lid on this year’s fukuan, we had our expectations set low, but there was still a part of us hoping for a miracle.

▼ Would this be 2,024 yen (US$14.03) well spent?

Taking the items out of the can, there looked to be a lot here, but we’ve been fooled before so we remained dubious.

First up, we have the Muji Gift Card, which is worth 2,024 yen and valid for three years. We’d received a gift card like this last year as well, but back then it was worth 2,023 yen, which is what we paid for it in — yes, you guessed it — 2023.

▼ With this gift card, the can had already paid for itself, so we couldn’t really complain too much.

Another thing we’ve come to expect from Muji’s annual fukukan is the lucky decoration, randomly selected from a handcrafted 36-piece collection. These decorations are individually handmade by artisans from around Japan, and the one we received was a lucky dragon from Aida District, Okayama Prefecture.

This beautiful wooden dragon was made from fragrant cypress sourced from the forests of Okayama’s Nishiawakura Village. It was wonderfully well made and full of homely charm.

Surprisingly satisfied with the handcrafted product, the only thing left to do now was inspect what looked to be two packages wrapped in brown paper packaging.

However, when we unravelled them, they contained…

▼ …nothing at all!

Muji had snared us yet again, because these brown paper packages fool us every year. The sense of anticipation and disappointment was like opening the lid on an empty treasure chest, leaving us feeling as deflated as the packaging.

All in all, though, Muji’s lucky can wasn’t all bad. We’re now so accustomed to the can and its contents that we know not to get our hopes up, and perhaps that’s the key to avoiding disappointment with any type of lucky bag at this time of year.

We do hope they’ll rethink those paper packages, though, unless they actually want to put something in them, like the lucky bookmarks we were thrilled to receive back in 2021!

Photos: ©SoraNews24
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