Airport Duty Free and/or Other Stores

I'm looking to purchase some sweets (or maybe cosmetics) as gifts for my friends during my trip to Japan this summer. But I don't want to be carrying food around and prefer not to have to stress out about shopping on the day of my departure.

Is there a way to order things from duty free or other airport shops online and pick them up at the airport when I leave Japan?

Alternatively, if I can pre-order them online then have them sent to my hostel on the day before my departure would also be ok.

Are there even such services?

where do you depart from?

If you are leaving from Narita 2 (the only airport I�fve ever been through in Japan) then there are great cosmetic and souvenir supplies right there, after security etc .....you could leave it until you depart.....we often do that, and use up our Yen.
There are also lots of souvenir type stuff: eg Biro(pen) sets with Ukiyoe wrappers/key rings/usual souvenir stuff......and it has loads of food options: sweets/sembei etc
I think the shop is actually called Akihabara.....
However, if your friends like chocolate, then I really suggest you head to a combini towards the end of your trip and buy up on all the varieties of Meiji chocolate. It is superb. We bring back heaps of it, and its never enough......
And combinis/110\ shops eg Daiso have loads of inexpensive but well crafted souvenirs...check them out as you go around, and buy up towards the end of your trip

I have no idea what other airports would have available.

I've also been through narita, try to check in earliest as possible and shop around after securities, plenty of cosmetics and many sweets, remember to get some kit kat's, many flavours available that are not available outside of japan.

I'm still at the planning stage, but I'll probably either be departing from Narita or Kansai International... although there is an off chance I may depart from Haneda, but that's not too likely.

I'll be looking for food items mostly I think. It's hard to gage the type of cosmetics or crafts others would like.

I went an did some more research on Google and found that online ordering/reservation is actually available at Narita (not sure about Kansai International yet).

Apparently, there's a whole bunch of shops called Fa So La, which also operates Akihabara AusTF mentioned, in Narita. And you can make reservations for their times online, but the online reservation is only available in Japanese at https://fasola-shop.com/ . Unfortunately, they don't have a very good selection of foods. They have a lot of cosmetics.

Duty Free Japan also has this online reservation service at https://duty-free-japan.jp/en/ . And they're located in Narita, Haneda and Kansai International.

I learned the hard way that there are places that sell sweets all over Japan in the train stations.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn this until much later. Pretty much what you get in one place you can almost find everywhere. I went to Inari Shrine in Kyoto and bought some things that I thought were specialty to the area (Mochi's that were in a triangle with red or green bean). They told me it was made special for hte area.

But when I was in Osaka, Tokyo I found those same things. It didn't say Kyoto on it, but it was the same thing. I ended up spending alot of time shopping for treats but it was all available in one place.

Save yourself the trouble and if you are looking for treats, just buy it at the airport. It's the same price, no need to comparison shop.

Unless it's KitKat.... They purposely sell them in regional areas so you have to go there to buy them. I only saw three citrus ones in Okayama, edamame in Ichinoseki, etc. Some varieties are only available in a small region to foment travel to that area. The staple varietiee (strawberry, green tea, wasabi, etc.) are everywhere, but some are only in small regions.

I got rum, green tea, strawberry and pudding flavor from natrita.

I disagree with the Kit kat but good reason to bring it up.

I saw the Yokohama special cheesecake at a train stn (I don't know where but the bus tour company dropped us off to take the shinkansen to go back to Tokyo). I didnt buy it but I found it at Haneda,

I bought the kove ones and roasted tea but I think I also saw them elsewhere. It was disappointing they didn't have more flavours at the satellite shop in Seibu in Ikebukeuro.

Ummm... are there any information out there about the speciality KitKats that can't be found at the satellite store at Ikebukuro?

i found the following kitkat flavours - Houjicha and kobe pudding from the kansai airport, hokkaido red bean/wasabi/strawberry cheesecake/rum&raisin from Narita Airport, blueberry cheesecake(Mt Fuji) in Nagoya Airport Also found pumpkin kitkat at Don Quijote in Ginza during halloween time.

Blueberry cheesecake was also at Narita. But this was in November of 2013. Not sure about now

I was at Narita in September. I found blueberry cheesecake, strawberry, and sakura.