Local News

The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry reports that aggregate sales for 29 department stores and 367 shopping centers in Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture for the month of February slid 7.3% from the year-before period to 111 billion yen. This marks the seventh consecutive year-on-year decline for these sales figures. While there was one fewer day in February this year than last year, which was leap year, the decline was still the largest ever recorded by the bureau.