Department Store Sales In Japan Fell 12.2% In February

The Japanese Department Store Association said that in February, the sales of duty-free virus in the 91 department stores fell 65% to 11 billion 20 million yen, and the number of duty-free consumers decreased 68.3% to 134 thousand compared with the same period.

The Japanese department store association pointed out that in January 2020, duty-free sales increased by 20.9% to 31 billion 690 million yen compared with the same period in April. The growth of the data mainly benefited from the Chinese Spring Festival earlier this year, which made the number of visitors to Japan advance to January.

In February, the average price of tourists visiting Japan was 82 thousand yen (about 5451 yuan), an increase of 9% over the same period last year. The most popular products for overseas tourists are: beauty products, luxury goods, food, women's clothing, groceries, women's clothing. Consumers with the largest number of tax rebates are from mainland China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Japanese department store duty-free sales declined sharply, not only because mainland China banned travel group travel in January 27th, but also in Hongkong, Taiwan, Korea and other Asian regions.

In addition to the decline in overseas tourists, the reduction of domestic consumption by Japanese local consumers has also depressed consumer demand. In addition, warm winter also leads to unsalable goods in winter.

According to the statistics of Japanese department stores (75 companies / 206 stores), sales of Japanese department stores fell 12.2% to 366 billion 100 million yen in February, down 5 consecutive months. Due to the expansion of the new crown virus epidemic, customers and sales both at home and abroad continued to decline. According to statistics, the total number of store customers in February dropped by about 10% compared with the same period last year.

Department store operators such as Mitsukoshi Isetan Holdings, Takashima Ya (Takashimaya), pine house (Matsuya), H2O Retailing, J Front Retailing and so on were all affected by the new crown virus epidemic, including duty-free sales, and total sales decreased by more than 10%, respectively:

Three Yue Yi Shi Dan fell 15.3% compared to the same period

H2O Retailing (excluding Osaka Koo shoshun department store, Kobe sakhun Kosaka) fell 14.3% year on year

Matsuya fell 31.6%

Takashima Ya fell 11.7%

J Front Retailing (big pine sakamoya department store) fell 21.8% year-on-year

The February sales report released by the Japanese Shopping Center Association showed that the sales volume of existing shopping centers fell by 3.3% over the same period last year. The association points out that despite the positive factors such as longer operating days and more holidays, it is difficult to counteract the negative impact of consumers on reducing outdoors.

According to the data released by the Japanese government's Tourism Bureau, the number of visitors to Japan fell 58.3% to 1 million 85 thousand and 100 in February 2020, declining for five consecutive months, a "rare low level in recent years".

Regionally

The number of visitors to Japan in mainland China fell by 87.9% to 87 thousand over the same period, partly due to the advance of the Chinese new year, but still more affected by the epidemic, such as the prohibition of tour groups, the reduction and outage of flights, the suspension of cruise ships, and so on. The number of visitors to Japan in Hongkong dropped by 35.5% to 116 thousand compared with the same period, and the number of visitors to Taiwan in Japan dropped by 44.9% to 220 thousand.

Affected by the worsening relationship between Japan and South Korea and the double effects of the epidemic, the number of visitors to Japan dropped by 79.9% to 144 thousand.

The number of visitors to Japan in Southeast Asia dropped by 24.9% compared with the same period last year, while Malaysia decreased by 27.4% compared with the same period last year, while India decreased by 27.2% compared with the same period last year.

The number of visitors to Europe and the United States dropped by 20.8% compared with the same period last year, while Canada dropped by 26.8% compared with the same period last year, while the United Kingdom decreased by 21% compared with the same period last year, while Germany's year-on-year decrease of 18.6% and Italy's year-on-year decrease of 20.3%;

The Japanese government's Tourism Bureau said that the number of visitors to Japan in some countries has increased since the outbreak of the epidemic in February has not yet been widespread in Japan. The number of visitors to Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and Russia has reached a record high.

In a hearing conference held in March 21st, the Japanese government pointed out that the sales volume of national department stores in March is expected to decline 40% compared to the same period, which is the biggest decline in history.

Note: the current 100 yen is about 6.6 yuan.