By Yu Kanke · Last verified 2026-10-29

Junk, Explained by the People Who Sell It

Kitamura's own Shinjuku junk-floor staff published a buying guide. It is the clearest explanation of junk in Japanese retail — and it says almost everything the English web is missing.

Last verified: 2026-10-29. Source: Kitamura's ShaSha article (2024-01-17), linked at the bottom.

What "junk" means in Japanese shops

Kitamura's staff define it plainly: junk (ジャンク) is a Japanese-English term for items that cannot be used as they are. On eBay the equivalent label is "For Parts" rather than "Junk", and such items are bought either as decoration or as donors for a repair.

The important part is where junk sits in the shop's own grade ladder. At Kitamura:

> 新品同様(AA)、美品(A)、良品(AB)、並品(B)と続き、ジャンクコーナーには”難あり(C)”の一部商品や故障品(D)が主に陳列されています。

> The scale runs AA, A, AB, B — and the junk corner holds some of the C (難あり) items and the D (故障品) items.

So junk is not one grade. It is a shelf that collects the bottom of the scale plus the dead. RE Camera handles the same problem by making J its own grade and excluding it from warranty (see the grades comparison).

Kitamura also states the obvious but important part: junk items cannot be returned or exchanged.

The two body checks the staff actually recommend

1. Is it fully mechanical or battery-dependent? With no battery in the camera, wind the lever and fire. If the shutter fires, it is a mechanical camera. Mechanical bodies have fewer parts that fail, which is what makes them the safer junk purchase. (Some mechanical bodies still need a battery for the meter only.)

2. Open the back and fire at several speeds. Watch the shutter through the open film gate as you change the dial. Low numbers should open and close slowly; high numbers fast. If the timing does not track the dial, the shutter needs a service — which the shop will not do for junk.

That second check is the one most overseas buyers never perform, because the listing is a photo set rather than an open back.

The three lens checks

1. Hold it toward a light. Haze shows as a milky film, fungus as a web-like growth. The staff say to avoid heavy haze or fungus outright: it flattens contrast and makes focusing hard.
2. Check the aperture blades. On mounts that expose an aperture lever (Nikon F among them), work the lever and watch the blades. A lever that feels heavy with slow blade response — the staff call it 粘り, "stickiness" — is a lens to skip.
3. Confirm the mount. Obvious, and the most common mismatch.

What makes a junk item a good buy

The staff's example is the useful one: a body whose self-timer does not work but everything else does. If you never use a self-timer, a fault like that is priced as a defect but is not one for you.

That is the whole game. Junk is not "cheap broken gear"; it is gear whose specific fault you can live with, bought at a price that reflects a fault you do not care about.

The article's own purchase illustrates the other side: a Pentax SL with unstable slow speeds and crumbling light seals, and a Super Takumar 55mm f/1.8 with heavy dust and a little fungus — both bought for ¥1,100 each including tax. The foam was replaced after purchase. Cheap, and only cheap if you know what you are taking on.

A sane junk checklist for overseas buyers

Terms for each of these are in our fault glossary. If you are buying junk to export, remember that the shop's no-return policy applies and that the warranty does not cover it.

Sources

• カメラのキタムラ ShaSha「【初心者必見】新宿 北村写真機店 ジャンクフロアスタッフが教える「ジャンクカメラとレンズの見るべきポイント」｜35mmフィルム一眼レフ編」(2024-01-17) https://www.kitamura.jp/shasha/article/junk-camera-20240117/
• Kitamura ネット中古「商品の状態について」 https://www.net-chuko.com/static/public/buy/pop/item-status.html
• RE Camera「コンディションランク」 https://re-camera-shop.com/guide/conditionrank/

Shop policies and staff advice are as published on the dates above. Junk items are sold as-is.

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