14 Years Later, These Rare Japanese Air Jordans Are Finally Coming Back
Nike and Jordan Brand have been playing the hits in 2025. A bunch of the most coveted kicks from the past couple decades have made surprise returns to shelves this year, including the Air Jordan 4 ‘Undefeated’ and the ‘Galaxy’ Foamposites, and there are more on the way. (The Scarr’s Pizza Air Force 1s have long been rumored to be among the releases that’ll close out the year.) This weekend, yet another dramatic comeback is going down—this time for a shoe that would’ve required a flight to Japan to own when it first dropped 14 years ago.
Way back in 2011, Jordan Brand opened its now-iconic Tokyo 23 flagship. To mark the occasion, the shop unveiled an exclusive Air Jordan 5. The beloved silhouette came decked out in a maize yellow nubuck leather, with cool gray accents on the tongue, side panels, and lacelets. It featured a Jumpman logo on the back in black to match a black sockliner, midsole, and toe cap, alongside the traditional Jordan 5 “shark teeth” in yellow. For the finishing touch, a black 23 logo adorned the side, stylized to mimic the aesthetic of Japanese kanji.
As with any hyperexclusive Air Jordan colorway, the shoes sold out instantly. The colorway was only made available via the Tokyo 23 store and select Japanese retailers, so tracking down a pair outside of the country proved difficult. This was in the era before the resale market democratized regional-exclusive releases, so it was no small feat if you saw somebody in New York or Toronto or Paris in a pair of these. And once resale platforms did launch, well, you would have had to sell your car to afford a pair, with prices ranging anywhere from $3,000 to $8,500.
For anyone who planned on foregoing a down payment on a house in order to pick up a pair of these, put down your checkbooks. On Saturday, the Air Jordan 5 ‘Tokyo’ is returning, and this time it’s not exclusive to Japan. The shoe has been reproduced with minor changes to the original specs—most notably the yellow nubuck, which appears a bit more saturated this time around. There’s also a sliver of yellow on the outsole so as to both differentiate it from the original and place it in line with an even rarer sample pair from 2011. Pairs are still going to be fairly limited in quantity, but nowhere near as hard to come by as they were back then. Sneakerheads stay winning in 2025.
The Air Jordan 5 ‘Tokyo’ hits SNKRS and select retailers on September 27 for $215.
