Japan’s largest cosmetics company, Shiseido, today announced its financial results for its fiscal first quarter, which ended on June 30. Because of declining sales, particularly in Japan, the company posted a loss. The beauty market in Japan has been saturated and largely stagnant for...

Today Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings released its results for its fiscal first quarter, running from April through June. Both sales and profit rose, but the company expects its full-year net sales to fall slightly. The following write-up on the results appeared online in Women’s Wear Daily...

Despite drawbacks related to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, we have recently been seeing a lot of Japanese companies reporting increases in sales and profit, which is great news. The latest of these is Kao Corporation, which today reported that, despite its own forecast to the contrary,...

Onward Holdings, which owns a host of Japanese fashion and apparel brands, while also acting as distributor for several international brands, announced its first quarter financial results today. As expected, the figures, which take in account the period of and just after the recent earthquake...

Japanese department store operator Takashimaya today announced its financial results for its fiscal first quarter, running March through May. As expected, its revenue was greatly affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but the retailer did say that business is already rebounding. The...

A week after downgrading its net profit forecast for the 2010 fiscal year, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings released its financial results today. The figures were in line with those predicted by the company last week, but the retail giant also noted the serious situation that Japanese companies are...

Just a week before it’s due to release its full-year results for the 2010 fiscal year, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings announced today that it has cut its profit guidance for the same period by over 12 billion yen. The summary below was published in the online version of Women’s Wear...

Japanese cosmetics, home and health care company Kao Corp. posted its full-year financial results today, reporting a profit gain of over 15 percent. The corporation, which owns such brands as Kanebo, Bioré and Molton Brown, said that its sales increased slightly, despite a loss incurred by...

Both department store operator Takashimaya and retailing group Onward Holdings announced their full-year financial results for 2010 last Friday, with Takashimaya notably predicting a nearly 40 percent drop in its profit for the coming year even while it posted growth for the past year. The...

After posting a loss for the same period last year, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings swung back into profitability for the first nine months of its 2010 fiscal year, despite a drop in sales. The story below was published online on Women’s Wear Daily (WWD), and can be viewed here (subscription...

Because the beauty industry in Japan is widely seen to have reached a plateau (and many sub-sectors are actually shrinking), most Japanese cosmetic companies are now looking to other countries in Asia to grow their business. Kao Corporation, which posted a slight increase in sales and larger...

Dropping sales and slowing growth in Japan continue to plague Fast Retailing, parent company of fast-fashion giant Uniqlo, which announced recently that its net profit for its first quarter of the 2011 financial year fell nearly 35 percent compared to last year. The following story was...