In addition to its regular newspaper, which comes out from Monday through Friday, Women’s Wear Daily publishes several additional supplements. I wrote the following two stories for WWD Intimates on a legwear shop in Tokyo’s Harajuku and the recent trend of tattoo tights in Japan....

Japanese department store operators have a reputation for being some of the most rigid companies around, so it was quite unusual that, after many repeated requests, I was granted a fairly long interview with the CEO of the country’s largest department store group, Isetan Mitsukoshi...

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...

Japan’s Cabinet Office announced today that the country’s second-quarter GDP was down only 1.3 percent compared to last year, a significantly smaller drop than most economists expected. The following story delves into the numbers a bit further, and was published in the online...

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...

Once again, Japanese retailers from fast-fashion companies to department store operators have seen their sales increase. July was a good month for many retailers due to the hot weather, which boosted sales of summer items. The following story was published online in Women’s Wear Daily...

Last Friday, innovative Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garçons opened yet another new concept store in Tokyo’s Gyre Building. Good Design Shop is the result of a collaboration with interiors store D&Department, of which Kawakubo herself is a fan. The following story ran in the...

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,...

Today Fast Retailing, corporate parent of fast-fashion giant Uniqlo, released its financial results for the nine months ended May 31. Although its profit dropped significantly, the company said that for the most part, this was not to do with the recent earthquake and tsunami here. The...

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...

We’ve been seeing more and more good news for Japan’s economy in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. In June, major retailers such as Isetan Mitsukoshi and Uniqlo reported increases in sales at their domestic stores. The future is still uncertain, but this is a...

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...