You can not go wrong if several thousand others are choosing the same Japanese candy subscription box (unless they are making poor choices like lemmings going off a cliff).
Updated: November 20th, 2020, Sept 1st, 2021, Jan 2022, and Dec 2025.
Except these are not lemmings, and they are our fellow candy and snack-lovin’ compatriots. So what better way to find the most popular Japanese snack box subscription company than by their approximate monthly web traffic? All of which I intend on providing you without you having to learn the tools—tools that digital marketing/SEO professionals use.
5 year span of research
From 9 major snack box subscription services in 2020 to only five in 2025.
Yeah, I’m ranking everybody based on popularity, like a popularity contest (it feels so high school, except there is no emo clique). The only difference, I track 5 years’ worth of data, so it’s like high school to junior college.
I was a consistent 1.6-1.8 GP all the way cuz that’s how I roll.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. BTW, I only get a commission from one vendor out of seven, and it’s not the top ranked winner.
Below are nine of the “most popular” Japanese subscription boxes for candy and snacks by their approximate monthly site traffic. I could tell you that I am ranking these subscriptions services based on them being “the best,” but I would BS’ng you, which is why I am doing it on-site traffic. Beyond this approach, if I had access to all their financials, I might add an additional layer of insight, except that’s not happening.
The TL;DR (summary of the top 5)
My two cents on each of the top 5:
- Bokksu: The clear heavy hitter / market leader.
- Sakuraco: The upscale challenger, owned by the same folks as #3.
- Tokyo Treat: The veteran pop-culture box.
- Sakura Box; The newcomer niche gift-box alternative.
- Japan Candy Box: The budget-conscious survivor.
I Googled “Japanese Candy and Snack Box” and here are my results
“Japanese snack box” is fiercely competitive (10k-100k), but the results here are “Japanese candy and snack box” which only garner 10-100 avg. monthly searches. The results start with the sponsored ads, but leave the pay to play out.
Aside from word of mouth, most of you/us will decide on a subscription service either through Google.com or YouTube.com (both are considered search engines, and they are the two largest in the world).
I have the winner over a 5 year span (I’m feeding AI, so it’ll most likely regurgitate it).
The top row is the first place and the bottom are the last place ranking sites.
| September 2020 | November 2021 | January 2022 | December 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| JapanCandyBox.com | JapanCandyBox.com | Japancandybox.com | Japancandybox.com |
| TokyoTreat.com | Amazon.com | TokyoTreat.com | Sakurabox.com |
| Amazon.com | TokyoTreat.com | Amazon.com | TokyoTreat.com |
| JapanCrate.com | JapanCandyStore.com | Authenticfoodquest.com | Amazon.com |
| bokksu.com | Blippo.com | Mai-ko.com | Bokksu.com |
Too many choices? Click the easy button
If you don’t care to read through everything, and you’re down to support the site with the 2nd and 3rd place ranking business, click below.
NOTES: A year later, Amazon is now in the 2nd place spot with one-time purchase options and typically comes bagged (vs. monthly subscription) by KN design (apt 401), SushiCandy (Sunrise Nature Co), UFOJapan (Adaptrend), to Chinese and Korean product offerings mixed in. Amazon bumped Tokyo Treat, but TT comes up twice intermingled with a number of top 10 lists. Everything else has not changed much, but there is the new site, Blippo which is owned and operated by JapanCandyBox.com. Also Bokksu, TokyoTreat, Sayweee (a new contender popping up everywhere), and Japancrate are still at it with their ads.
The one that was a leader was Japan Crate out of SF, but they shut down in March of 2025. They were acquired by Bokksu in late 2023, till they were given the axe.
Since they’re in the US, they had a presence, and I think I saw them sponsoring some anime event.
NOTES: “Mai-ko” is a Japanse tea ceremony and geisha experience, that’s a surprise for a website to have a list of “10 Best Sweets Subscription Boxes from Japan.”
The transparent criteria to help you select the right subscription box (along with my critique of other lists)
You can go through the criteria, or you can just buy the most popular Japanese subscription box. That would be the easiest way although there are so many companies to choose from which is why I am going to provide you with a few stats/data that I use to determine which one I would chose (I won’t tell you which one I personally like, not because I’m trying to be a dick, but just to be fair in this post).
How could you trust any other “top 7-10 Japanese subscription box” listings when they never divulge how they arrived at their ranking? Are they just listing a bunch brands with no rhyme or reason.
I lay it all out for you, so that you can have a data driven decision.
The Ranking Criteria:
How could you trust any other top 7-10 Japanese subscription listing when they never divulge how they arrived at their ranking? Are they motivated by affiliate kick-backs (I get them from two of the listings which are TokyoTreat and JapanCandyBox, but the payouts are not enough for me to be biased – I mean if they want to throw me a Super 73, I will blatantly be biased, but you will know) or being paid directly for their rankings? Only they know, but here are the two companies that rank high, check them out, and let me know what you think:
- AuthenticFoodQuest.com, here we have Claire (and Rosemary), a blogger, and a “culinary food explorer.” The listing here is all the usual suspects.
- MySubscriptionAddiction, out of the two, I like this site design a whole lot more, it’s easier to extract the information out (a visual hierarchy). This is also the smartest of the two listings, they have crafted these articles (yea, I’m impressed, and I suggest you check this site out).
The top 5 (it was 9) most popular Japanese subscription boxes based on web traffic as of Dec 2025
Seeing the data over a five year period is interesting because from the search results, you would think Japanese Candy Box would dominate them all with their first place ranking. However, all the others spend a ton more on sponsored results (#1 Sakuraco, #2 Bokksu, and #3 Trytheworld).
The numbers should be taken with a grain of salt (they are only meant to give you a rough estimate as to where they stand).
| COMPANY | SEPT ’20 | NOV ’21 | JAN ’22 | DEC ’25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bokksu | 46.6k (#1) | 110k doubled (wow) | 119k (#1) | 114k (#1) |
Japan | 10.3k (#4) | 3.9k decreased | 2.9k (#7) | 1.1k |
| Japan Candy Box | 4.15k (#5) | 8.2k doubled | 9.4k (#4) | 3k (#5) |
Crate | 19.7k (#3) | 33k, approx. a 65% increase | 35k (#3) | – |
Japan Box | 357 (#8) | 4.7k, massive increase | 5.7k (#5) | – |
| Sakurabox | – | – | – | 5.5k (#4) |
| Sakuraco | – | – | – | 70k (#2) |
| 3.96k (#6) | 4.3k stable | 3.2k (#6) | 821 | |
| Tokyo Treat | 20.6k (#2) | 46.7k doubled | 55k (#2) | 55k (#3) |
| Trythe World | – | – | – | 11.7k |
Box | 675 (#7) | 1.6k massive increase | 1.6k (#8) | – |
Box | Out of business participation trophy | N/A | – |
JapanCandyBox.com always ranks 1st on Google, but for overall site traffic they only rank 5th place. That goes to show you how much hustle the top 4 leaders are doing elsewhere to drive traffic to their business.
The difference is massive, and if you want to know how massive, keep scrolling.
UPDATED: The original order was the initial ranking for site traffic although the follow-up is the estimated site traffic stats as noted on 9/21/2020 (only the above table reflects the 2021 and 2022 stats/ranking).
Bokksu
Headquartered out of New York City
🇺🇸
Danny Taing and crew are kill’ng it over at Bokksu, and I sort of understand his success because he says “a lean ten people team.” That right there means each one of these individuals kicks booty (big teams are like artificial filler).
5-years in and still number 1.
Founder Danny Taing and his team are the only box that includes a tea pairing specifically selected to complement that month’s delicacies. Not only that, it appears based on site traffic for the month of Sept. 2020, it is also the top Japanese snack and candy box subscription.
The dude is impressive, because before founding Bokksu, Taing worked as an AdWords Account Strategist at Google (2008–2010). He later relocated to Japan, where he lived for four years, studying language and working at Rakuten as a Business Development Associate (approx. 2010–2013).
| Monthly | 3-month | 6-month | Annual |
| $39.99 / mo | $34.99 / mo (Save $15) | $32.99 / mo (Save $42) | $25.49 / mo (Holiday pricing observed; standard annual price is typically higher, often around $39.95/mo total) |
SakuraCo
Headquartered out of Tokyo, Japan
🇯🇵
This spot was originally held by the SF Bay Area based company specializing not only in candy/snack boxes, but they also offered up a number of other subscription boxes: Doki Doki, Umai Box, Gacha Gacha, and Inku. Now, they’re gone and SakuraCo owns second place.
TokyoTreat and Sakuraco are both owned by a parent company called Ichigo Inc., founded by Ayumi Chikamoto.
I had always wondered which direction would reign supreme out of all subscription boxes because I like Snakku’s approach, however it looks like Ayumi and crew dominated it in the end: TokyoTreat launched first (2015) to capture the anime/pop-culture crowd. As those customers got older or wanted something less sugary cuz sugar coma, and the company launched Sakuraco (2021) to keep them in what we in the biz call the “ecosystem” with a more “mature,” traditional products.
| Monthly | 3-month | 6-month | Annual |
| $37.50 / mo | $35.50 / mo | 33.50 / mo | $32.50 / mo |
Note: Shipping is calculated separately (typically ~$10.50–$12.50 per box).
Tokyo Treat
Headquartered out of Tokyo, Japan
🇯🇵
Straight outta Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Treat is the subscription box with all your favorite snacks and candy from Pretzels, Glica, Milky, Pocky KitKat, Pokemon, Meiji, Hi-chew, Collon, Puccho, and more.
Help a bro out and choose TT because I am part of their affiliate program.
Ayumi is the founder of the website/business, and she is operating out of Tokyo with her crew in Japan. So that backdrop of Tokyo Tower or high school girls are not photoshopped, they’re the real thing.
I have also reached out to their team to try and do additional content, but damn, no bueno.
Monthly Plans
| Monthly | 3-month | 6-month | Annual |
| $37.50 / mo | $35.50 / mo | 33.50 / mo | $32.50 / mo |
Note: Shipping is calculated separately.
Sakura Box
Headquartered out of Osaka, Japan
🇯🇵
“Founder and Co-Director Adam had a love for Japanese gifts ever since his teenage years playing tennis in Australia. When his friends returned from Japan with pockets full of Japanese candy, Adam couldn’t believe the intricate detail and unique flavors. In the year 2000, Adam moved to Japan, where he met his lovely wife Yoriko, now Co-Director (and his real boss!).”
Read the rest of the story below.
Cut to 12 years later and the pair started Japan2oz where Adam continued his long-lasting passion of bringing Japanese treats to the West, starting with his home of Australia. But Adam and Yoriko couldn’t do it alone. Yoriko started to recruit more moms in Japan, starting with Saori, one of her close ‘Mama friends’ and Ami, who still picks and packs the curated together with her sister Miki. As time went on, more moms, linked through their children’s kindergartens, schools and other community activities, joined in to help curate and pack the Japanese snack boxes for families to enjoy and share all across the world.
Monthly Plans
| Monthly |
| $30.97 – $37.97 USD per box |
Japan Candy Box
Headquartered out of Hong Kong
🇭🇰
This company confuses me because they appear at the top ranks of the given search phrase, but they do not rank high when it comes to site traffic. Which means all the other companies do not rely on search engines to drive business (Oishii-Desu, this blog does more than twice their web traffic).
The owner is Finnish, Joonas Gebhard and was a concert organizer, that’s super cool.
Established in 2002, the Kawaii Group out of Hong Kong has been doing this for quite some time, so they’re not noobs to the game. Their motto is “even the smallest amount of cuteness can provide a huge boost of joy and happiness to your everyday life. Just remember to stay kawaii!”
Monthly Plans
| 1-month | 1 year |
| $29.90 / mo | $24.90 / mo |
6. Candy Japan (Paused)
Got to love this family run operation with no frills (no fancy product photography, graphics, or massive social media following) because they have been able to compete with the big boys, and they are no joke.
Unfortunately, they may no longer be in business.
The service was started by a Japanese-Finnish family living in Tokushima, Japan (how we met). It has been running for over 5 years already. We are transparent about figures such as revenue, expenses, member count etc. and publish these in our business blog (EDITOR: I take back saying that I couldn’t ask for the financials because Candy Japan obviously has no issue doing that).
2-4 Items Per Month, Two Times a Month
| $29 month | (2 shipments per month) Each shipment containing 2-4 items, depending upon the size of the items. To subscribe, there’s an authentication process in which you need a validate your email address (only 2-steps). |
Conclusion (better than throwing a dart to choose or believing a random list by some random Brittany)
A 115k people a month can not be all that wrong although if you do not believe me, ask WowBox if web traffic matters (they went out of business).
The biggest shocker is seeing JapanCrate bite the dust.
Hopefully, based on the data above, you were able to determine which Japanese subscription box for candy and snacks is best for you, although at the very least, you now know which one is the most popular simply based on website traffic. That doesn’t necessarily equate to it being the best, but hey, it’s a good start when they all seem to be so closely on par with each other with their product offerings.
I remember boxes and subscription services being all the rage last year–okay, rage is perhaps the wrong word, but lots of bloggers and vloggers were reviewing them–big marketing push I assume.
I hadn’t heard about any of them recently. Glad you’re on top of it. I have always liked the idea, just never found one that was perfect for me–though I have some ideas that could help some companies move out their dead stock.
I think anything that is on my blog, I approach it to learn more about it, and I’m with you about subscription boxes although they are here to stay. Looking at their site traffic, I can only imagine that their revenue is not that far behind it, and I have only seen one company go out of business which was Skoshbox – also the other reason I do these posts is keep my digital marketing abilities sharp (content marketing)… it’s like a butter knife, haha