I’m going to Japan this summer on an exchange thing. I’m visiting a school for a few days and need small gift ideas for the homeroom class. I need 36 bags with around 8 small items in each. What would they like? The hard part is, it can’t say made in japan or china. Also, any ideas where I can get stuff in bulk? I’m considering some Elvis bookmarks. Thanks.
Oranges. They’re a delicacy over there. 
A party supply store, maybe? A lot of that stuff might be made in Mexico.
No, not really, though many fruits are – but that’s painstakingly-grown-to-near-perfection-right-here-in-the-land-of-the-rising-sun fruit. None of that cheap foreign crap. Besides, good luck getting that past customs.
What age are the students?
You can get pretty much anything here nowadays, so indeed picking something original and surprising might be difficult.
Skip the Elvis bookmarks. Where are you from? America? Can you get something with your native flag such as these? Stickers would also be cheap. You can many of the same chocolets in Japan, but they don’t have some things like Milk Duds. Japanese universally hate licorice, so including a small piece will help convince them we’re strange. 
I’m curious - why do you say this? Is it because you want to bring something from a faraway land? Because it would be considered tacky or socially frowned upon?
Some Bacula of authentic North American wildlife.
Knowing Japan, those should go over pretty well. 
Best thing I’ve found is something that is distinctive to your home location (which will be far away and exotic to them).
From here in Minnesota, I’ve given:
Foods:
- Minnesota grown wild rice.
- Maple syrup or candy from Minnesota-tapped maples.
- Turkey from Minnesota-grown turkeys.
- cranberries from Minnesota bogs.
- Honeycrisp apples (invented at Univ. of Minn) and grown here.
Clothes: - anything with a logo or writing on it: Univ of MN Gophers, Mn Vikings or Twins t-shirts or caps.
- typical swede flannel plaid shirts.
- red flannel long winter underpants (with the flap in back).
Other - miniature toy canoes made from Minnesota birch bark.
- miniature copies of the carved post at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
- ‘peace’ pipes made from Minnesota Pipestone rock.
- pictures or mementos from Minnehaha Falls (6 blocks from my home).
- picture book of Minnesota sights.
- obscure local cookbooks (“Minnesota Lutheran Women’s Cookbook”, etc.)
- half-dozen examples of weekly newspapers from small rural Minnesota towns.
- Minnesota State Dept. of Natural Resources guidebook & map showing all the Minnesota State Parks, and the facilities at each one. (Free, they gave me 2 dozen, and recipients loved them. Spent weeks looking at them, comparing to their countiy’s parks, and writing stories about which one they’d visit first.)
They really liked the connection to my home, especially the ones I could tell something about. (Walking to Minnehaha Falls, holding a cousin’s wedding near the Headwaters of the Mississippi). Teachers seemed to use these at starting points for questions: how long is the Mississippi in kilometers? If it flowed north from Lands End, how far would it go? How big is it compared to the Thames? And the cost didn’t seem to matter – many of the things they liked best were quite cheap.
I’m guessing yes for all of the above. First, you want to have something from the native country, especially for school children. The frown on those made in China would be because cheap presents are often made in that country, and Japanese tend to want “authentic” trinkets. I’m not sure how strong this demand is in other countries. The request for nothing from Japan is probably left over from when Japan was a source of said cheap products.
Depending on the ages of the children and what you want to spend, something like English-language comic books or children’s books might work well.
Do they have Halloween in Japan?
If not then something halloweeny might be of interest to them being a foreign custom and fun holiday and all. At the party supply store you can get little plastic pumkins with the typical triangle eyes type face on them and then put a little bit of candy that they might not have overthere in them.
Maybe some type of cowboy/western type thing. My German teacher told us that German’s liked our whole cowboy era since they did not have that type of era in their history. So maybe little plastic cowboy’s riding on horses or little party style plastic cowboy hats.
A good friend of mine took a roll of Sackajawea (sp?) dollar coins to give out as gifts when he went there on business. They were a huge hit with his Japanese colleagues.
The students are around 13 and 14 years old. Also to answer other questions, the people sponsering the trip have strict guidelines on the no made in Japan or China stuff. Also I’m from Tennessee, so I have some local things to put in. Thanks for the help.
13 or 14, eh? I guess Jack Daniel’s is out of the question (though the school staff may like that quite a bit).
Pins or buttons may be a good bulk gift idea, especially ones of Tennessee, the state flag, local landmarks, local pro sports teams, etc.
Woosh!
(It’s a Seinfeld reference.)
I brought some Canadian Club for my boss when I first came, only to find out they sold the same bottle here for half the price… in vending machines.
I, like, totally missed that one. Is it from the episode with Kramer’s hot tub?
The poster could bring us some Jack Daniel’s though.
From Tennesse? Most Japanese are familiar with the English word “volunteer” that having your state’s nickname on something would be good.