Isetan-Mitsukoshi will close its Mitsukoshi department store in Chiba in late March 2017.
This is the latest in a stream of announced and recent closures in the sector. Seibu will close two more stores before the end of the current financial year, and Hankyu Hanshin is also closing a store in Sakai.
Isetan-Mitsukoshi’s large store portfolio and its relatively high prestige status suggested it might hang on to most stores and use the cash-flow as the basis for expansion into specialty retail. Now that seems less likely and other, low-turnover regional Mitsukoshi stores could face a similar future.
For more detailed news and analysis on Japanese retail, visit JapanConsuming.com