ADVERTISEMENT

Lunar New Year Department Store Sales Plummet in Japan on Virus

Lunar New Year Department Store Sales Plummet in Japan on Virus

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese department store operators saw duty free sales slump during the key Lunar New Year holiday, one of the first indications of how hard the nation’s retail sector will be hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak in China.

Takashimaya Co. duty-free sales during the seven days of the lunar holiday plunged plunged almost 15% compared with the holiday period last year (the dates of the Lunar New Year change each year). Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings cited concerns over the virus as a reason its duty free sales slumped 10% during the period.

Sales at Sogo & Seibu Co., a division of Seven & I Holdings Co., dropped 15%, while J Front Retailing Co., which operates the flagship Ginza Six complex, saw revenue decline 5%.

Lunar New Year Department Store Sales Plummet in Japan on Virus

Chinese visitors have become a key source of income for upmarket retailers in Japan as the nation’s tourism industry has flourished, helping to make up for a declining population and an increasingly spendthrift younger population.

Read more: Virus set to deal blow to Japan’s goal of 40 million foreign visitors

The drop in tourists from China, who make up almost one-third of arrivals and more than that in spending, could hardly have come at a worse time. Retailers are already dealing with headwinds of a sales tax increase last year, as well as an unseasonably warm winter. Cosmetics maker Kose Corp. last week slashed its full-year profit outlook 19% due to a decline in tourists amid the outbreak.

Lunar New Year Department Store Sales Plummet in Japan on Virus

--With assistance from Shiho Takezawa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lily Nonomiya in Tokyo at lnonomiya@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Yusuke Miyazawa at ymiyazawa3@bloomberg.net, Gearoid Reidy

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.