Japan’s department stores see June uplift

Japan department stores saw higher sales in June, which was welcome news after they had fallen in the previous month, the sector’s industry body has said.

Japanese department stores saw a welcome sales rise last month.

Sales rose 1.4% year-on-year on a comparable basis at the 229 stores operated by the 80 companies that are part of The Japan Department Stores Association.

Those 80 firms accounted for turnover of ¥472 billion last month.

Department stores have faced major challenges in recent years but June’s figures offered some cause for hope, especially as sales had fallen 0.4% in May after rising 0.7% in April. April’s increase  had been the first for 14 months.

The June rise also helped the three-month average to a 0.7% increase, the first growth in 18 straight quarters.

The Japan Department Stores Association cited a number of reasons for the increase, from the start of the summer clearance sales (which had been switched from July to June) to high-spending foreign tourists and a return of confidence among more affluent local shoppers.

In fact, sales to foreign visitors rose a massive 41.4% to ¥18.4 billion.

It was the second consecutive month that such sales rose more than 40%.

The Association said cosmetics was one of the key categories to benefit and Chinese tourists were out in force.

However, there was bad news for the fashion sector as clothing sales fell year-on-year, despite the added impetus of lower prices.

That said, the clothing that did do well was warm weather fashion as high temperatures and a relatively dry rainy season boosted demand and expensive items such as watches and jewellery were popular too.