Many high-end stores closed down in top malls
The number of foreign visitors to Japan plunged 87% in 2020 to a 22-year low as the country mostly closed its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan National Tourism Organization data showed on Wednesday.
The number of foreign arrivals, which include tourism and business arrivals, fell to about 4.1 million last year from 31.9 million in 2019. It was the lowest annual figure since 1998.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen stores closed in Tokyo’s high-end Ginza Six mall this week as the coronavirus pandemic kept big spending foreign tourists and other luxury shoppers away from an upscale shopping district famous for brand-name boutiques.
Ginza Six said on Wednesday that around 15 stores, including Italian fashion house Moschino, cosmetics brands Shiseido and Shu Uemura, as well as Salon des Parfums selling Annick Goutal and other fragrance brands, have shut in the past few days.
The retail complex opened in 2017 with around 240 stores, mostly in the luxury category and catering heavily to foreign visitors, with a large service centre offering tax refund processing and luggage storage in addition to a dedicated bus bay.
Until the pandemic closed Japan off to most tourists last year, the retail complex was a symbol of the Ginza district’s revival as a popular destination for Asian tourists. Ginza had struggled with deflation and shoppers’ shift to other areas such as Omotesando until an inbound tourism surge in the past decade.
While Japan has not seen COVID-19 outbreaks on the scale of some other major economies such as the United States and Britain, infections have been rising steadily and the government declared a second state of emergency earlier this month.
The continued travel ban, particularly the absence of Chinese tourists during next month’s Lunar New Year holiday for a second year running, is also expected to deal a blow to Tokyo retailers, said Atsumi Gamou, head of Japan Tourism Agency.
Global travel bans have kept foreign visitor numbers at 1-2% of year-ago levels since last April, according to data from JTB Tourism & Consulting.
Department stores in central Tokyo, heavily dependent on tourists in the past several years, have been hit particularly hard. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings’ same-store sales fell more than 30% in 2020, with sales for its Mitsukoshi Ginza store down over 50%. (Reuters)