JapanConsuming

As reported in JapanConsuming for February 2012, use of e-wallets was well up in 2011. Early reports suggested that transaction values would break ¥2 trillion for the first time and the latest news from Nikkei looks to confirm this. The newspaper reported that transaction numbers from just the six leading card issuers hit 2.29 billion [...]

Focus: The old and the single: two burgeoning but still untapped markets That Japan’s population is getting old is not news. Neither is the fact that those who are still young are staying single. What is news is just how quickly these trends are impacting society now, not in some distant future – 10 million [...]

The latest census is now out and emphasises just how fast Japan’s population is ageing and how few young people are marrying and having kids. It also reveals that divorce continues to increase, almost doubling from just 157,000 cases in 1990 to 283,000 in 2003. The number of divorces fell after 2003, but again increased [...]

Modaes, a Spanish fashion journal, is reporting that Fast Retailing has pulled back from the plan to open its next European Uniqlo flagship in Barcelona. It says that plans have been put on hold indefinitely. The company will now focus on expansion in the UK, according to reports, and has blamed the effects of the [...]

A group of 16 industry associations and other bodies carried out a survey recently to confirm that part-time retail workers were actually happy not to receive health insurance or pensions. The Japan Chain Store Association, Japan Department Store Association, Japan Supermarket Association, and 13 other retail industry related bodies carried out its questionnaire survey late [...]

Focus: Online market to hit ¥14 trillion by 2016 The online shopping market is currently the one sure bet in terms of consistent growth year after year. The latest forecasts suggest a doubling in market value by 2016. As important as the market expansion is the way consumers are changing the way they both shop [...]

Focus: Ever dynamic: Japan’s apparel market Apparel consumption by value has halved in Japan since 1991. This massive fall is partially just because people are no longer as frenziedly over consuming as in the 1980s and because more competition and low cost sources have greatly reduced average unit prices – unit consumption of apparel has [...]

Aeon has announced it will acquire  Marunaka and Sanyo Marunaka, two supermarket companies with significant shares in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions. The acquisition will cost Aeon a reported ¥40 billion and is set to go through by November. Aeon established business ties with the companies last year. The news comes just a month after the [...]

Shopping centres: only the best are good enough Shopping centres stormed ahead of department stores and GMS chains from the late 1990s and now dominate retailing as never before, accounting for some 20% of all retail sales. However, both development and sales hit a wall in 2008 as consumption fell and investment in new SCs [...]

Uniqlo announced September same store sales down 10.7%  and sales overall down 5.4%, a substantial fall. Fast Retailing blamed the warm weather for poor sales of Autumn/Winter apparel. Uniqlo closed four stores and opened six during the month. No such worries affected ABC Mart which saw brisk sales of footwear, rising 1.7% like for like [...]