Local News

The Kyushu Department Store Association announced sales results for the 26 department stores operated by 17 companies in Kyushu and Okinawa for February. Sales revenue fell 3.2% from the year-before period to 36.4 billion yen. This is the 27th consecutive year-on-year decline, which makes it the longest consecutive monthly downturn since records have been kept. The previous longest period of decline was from November 1992 to January 1995, following the collapse of the economic bubble. The association says that with prices overall continuing to fall, the sector’s situation will likely remain difficult.