Google announces its first store outside the US, opening in Omotesando this summer

Google said on 1 June that it will open Google Store Omotesando this summer, its first directly operated store outside the United States. The store takes the first floor of Tokyu Plaza Omotesando, the building known as Omokado, in Tokyo's Omotesando and Harajuku district. Google has not given an exact opening date beyond the season.

According to the company, visitors will be able to handle and buy Pixel phones, Google Nest devices and Fitbit wearables alongside Google and partner-brand accessories, pick up online orders in person, have Pixel devices repaired on site, get help setting up a new device, join workshops and try what Google calls its latest AI experiences, all with dedicated staff on hand.

The word Google chose signals what is different here: directly operated means a store Google itself owns and runs, not one run by a partner or reseller on its behalf. Owning the floor gives Google control over how Pixel, Nest and Fitbit are demonstrated, serviced and sold that a wholesale relationship does not.

Google framed the store as a way to give the company's long-standing Japanese customer base direct, hands-on access to what its products and services can do, rather than treating it as just another retail channel.

Place is doing most of the work here. Omotesando and Harajuku already host Apple's own Tokyo flagship and a run of luxury-maison stores built for browsing and trying products in person; putting Google's first international directly operated store on the same stretch puts hands-on Pixel and Nest demonstrations, plus in-person repairs and setup help, in direct competition for the same foot traffic and the same reputation for experiential retail.

Google has yet to name an exact opening date beyond "this summer," so what remains open is less whether the store opens than how it performs once it does: whether repairs, setup help and workshops give Google's own channel an edge in a corridor built on service and theatre, or whether the products still do most of the talking regardless of where they are sold.