New Zealand cookie maker Cookie Time has opened its first international store in Japan.

Cookie Time has partnered with Japanese supermarket and frozen food operator IceCo to open a store in Harajuku, an upmarket shopping district in Tokyo.

The Cookie Muncher Cookie Bar is designed as a mecca for cookie lovers with a focus on hot cookies and freshly prepared cookie products, along with ice cream and drinks. The store also unveils a new Cookie Bar brand, leveraging the much loved Cookie Time brand to create a premium retail offering. The retail brand puts Cookie Muncher front and centre with pop art style cookies and distinctive speech and thought bubbles.

“Japanese clientele love the brand, the Cookie Muncher and the whole concept of hot cookies and milk. The Japanese tend to gravitate towards unique characters – the Hello Kitty is an example of that and the Cookie Muncher certainly reaches out into that same space,” said Cookie Time GM Lincoln Booth.

The partners plan to open 20 to 30 Cookie Bar stores across Japan over the next three to five years.

Cookie Time is also set to enter Malaysia and Thailand within 12 to 18 months. China is also a prospect market, it says.

Cookie Time opened its first domestic Cookie Bar in Queenstown in 2010.