business

More than a dozen stores close in Tokyo's high-end Ginza Six mall

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Investors in Ginza Six included Japanese department store operator J.Front Retailing, trading house Sumitomo Corp and the real estate arm of U.S. private equity firm L Catterton

Such private equity firms and their vulture capitalism, neoliberal strategies left Japan relying on the low wage, unsustainable business model of depending on Chinese tourists.

They will reconsolidate but in this case I feel for the staff of these shops that will be out of work in this economy.

19 ( +23 / -4 )

it is really sad to see nice &up-market deparment stores disappear.

i m really fond of those stores in ginza.. Ginza is one of my favorite locations in tokyo/japan for shopping &killing time..

it is really poignant ..

-10 ( +5 / -15 )

Shops are closing, people are losing jobs...damned...that is really sad.

I will continue to support my favorite Mom and Pop Izakaya in my neighborhood.

I dont want them to close down too, so I am trying my best to support them.

At least I am doing something to help.

14 ( +17 / -3 )

Monty

We two may have very different opinions on how to handle the pandamic but I do agree people should try their best to support local businesses. I hope the Izakaya you are going can pull it through.

Having travel to Japan 7 times in the past 10 years Japan is my most favourite holiday destination. It saddens me to see people working in the tourism sector suffering. I sincerely hope the situation in Japan will get better soon and reopen its borders (at least to Australia). There are many places in Japan I want to visit or re-visit again.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

Ginza 6 was a miss conception from the start in a badly designed building. And the arrogance from staff, clearly only caring to take care of the Chinese tourists was shocking and arrogant. We, the resident clients were ignored. At one point I was even asked if I could speak Chinees. Not Japanese. Chinese. Now, my wife gets weekly calls to return and me also regular emails but no thanks, wait for the return of the Chinese tourists.

as I said Ginza six is a bad mix of a few top brands with many overpriced want-to-be brands. No thought went into strategy it was all about taking the money quickly from the Chinese. The restaurants are also below the quality the concept would make you expect.

The major brands will now close too, they do not want to be in a half empty building, and anyway, it never worked there for them.

24 ( +26 / -2 )

I totally agree with robert maes for sure.

To see Ginza Six go down is fascinating to me in that they did not care about the locals at all the the arrogance of the staff was abundant. Karma.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

I’m more concerned about small family businesses going under and shutting down. These will reopen when the tourists come back.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

This story mentions only shops selling high-end clothes and cosmetics, but you cannot have nearly 40 million inbound tourists without lots of people depending on them for income. It's just one anecdote from another country, but it was reported the other day that travel to Australia may be off until "the end of 2021". Even when travel does restart, it will take time to recover to previous levels. Tough times for many are likely to continue.

https://www.timeout.com/news/australia-travel-restrictions-border-closures-latest-news-010621

6 ( +6 / -0 )

When they say "closed" do they mean closed down or closed for the SOE?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

All selling stuff that nobody needs. Move on.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

@Yoshisan88

Don't worry, I guess after summer or probably from August, you can come back again to Japan.

At that time vaccine should be implemented and the Corona Situation should be much much better.

Even my company starts already to plan overseas business trips for me from August.

And that we have different opinions about handling the pandemic, is normal. And to hear different opinions makes discussions interesting, right?

If everyone have the same opinion, that would be strange and also boring.

Welcome to Japan again soon, Man!

0 ( +4 / -4 )

This is only the beginning. There are many more thousands of businesses on the brink of bankruptcy as I type this and the number is growing.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Good riddance. As other have noted, Ginza Six was a shining symbol of everything wrong with the modern neo-liberal global capitalist order, with unsustainable business models that involve millions of tourists flying in carbon-belching planes to artificial locales that destroy the character and culture of the local residents. They are virtual neo-colonies of both mind and soul. I hope many more such places close.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

robert maes:

Ginza 6 was a miss conception from the start in a badly designed building. And the arrogance from staff, clearly only caring to take care of the Chinese tourists was shocking and arrogant. We, the resident clients were ignored. At one point I was even asked if I could speak Chinees. Not Japanese. Chinese. Now, my wife gets weekly calls to return and me also regular emails but no thanks, wait for the return of the Chinese tourists.

Hong Kong went through this phase a few years ago. These top brand shops, jewellery shops and also drug stores (believe it or not) would cater exclusively to rich mainland tourists to the point where they wouldn't even let locals inside some of the shops. You'd even get quicker service if you spoke Mandarin instead of the local Cantonese language. Then came the the backlash. And when the money and tourism dried up, nobody shed a tear for the jewellery shops closing down.

I personally hate this materialism and have absolutely zero interest in top brand bags, clothes and jewellery. I'd rather support businesses which cater to the ordinary, average folks (except MacDonalds).

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Business in Japan is often based on rushed opportunities.

Look at the Tapioca drinks story.

With the increase of tourists and the Olympics, some businesses only relied on that cash inflow. True for Ginza Six and also many hotels that have burgeoned. Covid came, and we know the story.....

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Pukey2

By the way sorry but can not resist the joke, not personal. What happened to Pukey1 ? Did it sink ?

my wife is 4th generation HK citizen and I been going to HK for35 years since I was 17?and lived there twice for 2 and 3 years. You are right. At the end of democratic HK the real HK’ers did not go to half of the stores as they were treated 2nd rate citizens even by their own.

We do like luxury brands and items but we buy to last. Most of all we want to be respected by the sellers. We know we pay 80 % for the brand and we can accept that but I will not pay one yen if disrespected to anyone

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

robert maes:

By the way sorry but can not resist the joke, not personal. What happened to Pukey1 ? Did it sink ?

Simple. One day, I just couldn't remember my password!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

MontyToday  07:29 am JST

Shops are closing, people are losing jobs...damned...that is really sad.

I will continue to support my favorite Mom and Pop Izakaya in my neighborhood.

I dont want them to close down too, so I am trying my best to support them.

At least I am doing something to help.

Your mom and pop izakaya is getting 60,000¥ per day to close early. That's likely more than the small izakayas make in the last few hours of a day. I don't think you need to worry about them. The big chains get nothing and they're the ones closing.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

First of all, shop lots at Ginza 6 are not great. Even restaurants美味しくない。Its natural they have to pack and go.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

No Chinese tourists = Bankruptcy

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Don’t base economic growth on the fickle tourism industry.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Gutted

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I like the Ginza stores because they speak Japanese first and then English and then Chinese just like Yodobashii camera does. The staff are super helpful and polite.

If you go into a store with a zoro attitude, you should be respected the same.

Japan is fantastic

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

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