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Otsuka Kagu head calls for father-daughter cooperation amid feud

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Otsuka Kagu has been a lost cause since the bubble era. They sell fair-quality quality products sourced cheaply overseas and marketed as "upscale" here. Now that any item can be easily priced over the net, the masses have seen how Otsuka Kagu has been ripping off customers.

Both the father and daughter ignored IKEA and Nitori and they should have opened Otsuka Light, instead of continuing to raise rices and hope that the image would carry them through. Most of the generation who bought from Otsuka are well into their 80s, and their children and grandchildren are enjoying meatballs at Ikea.

The Otsuka showrooms are drab, boring, and if you want to just take a look, you are REQUIRED to register with ID so they can keep your name and phone number.

On one level the employees will be the ones that suffer but I hope the battle brings down both the daughter and the father.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

We have a huge Otsuka leather sofa set I got second hand. It is very high quality, much better leather than in leather car seats. Even with delivery, it was about 75% off the original price, but its well enough made to still look new. It has better leather than you get on a 250,000 yen Ikea three seater sofa.

Otsuka does sell a lot of old-fashioned furniture which is overpriced. Their sales method also strikes me as snooty. However, I think their main problem is that there are fewer young people and fewer young people getting married. Most of them also have far less money than a generation before. The idea of getting married and the parents blowing half to one million yen on "bridal" wardrobes is long long gone. Like Eikaiwa, which peaked over 10 years ago, they have to adapt to a whole new market.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The daughter ouster her father so that she could take over the business. Now, after three years of losses, she wants him back. Perhaps she should step down and let somebody else take over.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Unfortunately, Otsuka-kagu seems to be trying to play both ends - affordable furniture retailer, and high-quality brand-name furniture retailer. This is leading to a dilution of their brand.

I have some Ostuka-kagu furniture - a sofa and a table. The sofa was nice, but started to fall apart a few years earlier than I felt it should, based on the price I spent (brand-name price). The table and chairs have held up well however and still are great after more than 10 years.

They really need to hammer down what their marketing strategy is, then focus on that strategy. You can't be everything to everyone, so pick who you want to be everything to, and be that everything.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wait, let me get this straight - she's asking for her father to come back after publicly insulting him a couple years ago?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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