Department stores in Japan are struggling to survive. Last year saw many more of them closing down. Since peaking at 311 in 1999, the number of department stores in the Japan Department Stores Association began falling following the bankruptcy of department store operator Sogo Co. in July 2000. The number stood at 206 at the end of 2019, and 11 are scheduled to close down this year, meaning the figure is set to drop below 200.
The situation surrounding department stores may worsen further if they continue with the recent trend of being too dependent on consumption by foreign tourists because the wealthy population in Japan is aging. Department stores are struggling basically because they are not properly responding to customers' needs. Therefore, many of the stores are in the process of trial and error, searching for a solution.
One notable example in this respect is the Daimaru Umeda department store in Osaka. Part of the store's fifth floor was renovated and reopened on Nov. 22 last year as "michi kake," a new section for women. Its concept is to support and affect women like michikake, or the waxing and waning of the moon.
The section's 17 shops offer customers products and services that are suited to each of the four different periods in a woman's monthly life cycle, which the michi kake planners have named moya-moya (confused), kira-kira (sparkling), yura-yura (swaying) and donyori (dismal).
Among the shops are Daylily, the flagship store of a Taiwan brand specializing in Chinese herbs and tea for women; Dear Dahlia, a South Korean beauty brand for vegans; and Musee Shop, a beauty-care item shop run by hair removal salon Musee Platinum. Emily Week, which has drawn attention for selling cloth sanitary pads, inner wear, aroma products and other merchandise designed for women to get through their menstrual periods in comfort, has opened its first Kansai-region branch shop.
The shop list also includes Iroha Shop, which is operated by Tenga Co. The shop focuses on a theme that has rarely been brought up at department stores: women's sexual activities. Various sex-related products are available at the shop, such as a mouthwash for use beforehand, balms for easing irritation after, and even self-pleasure items for women.
Women's menstrual cycles and sexual activity were somewhat taboo areas for department stores because they were regarded as inappropriate to the chic and elegant image department stores have traditionally assumed. However, listening carefully to what ordinary women really wanted probably brought about the idea of michi kake quite naturally, or so I think.
Last year, the short manga series "Tsukiichi! Seiri-chan," in which the central character is a manifestation of period pain, caused a stir when it won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. A film adaptation of the work titled "Little Miss Period" was released in November, which also became a talking point.
In collaboration with the manga, the "michi kake" organizers created a reversible badge bearing the image of the Seiri-chan character on one side and the section's promotional message on the other. The section's sales clerks can choose to wear the badge showing the Seiri-chan side when they are on duty during their periods, if they wish to let customers know. The floor's website says, "In Japan, women's periods and sexual activity have been seen as something you should hide or feel ashamed of. We made the badge to support women worried about those things and to ease their distress."
The badge has caused a furor on the internet, coming under fire on Twitter. Many people asked what was the point of sales clerks informing customers about their periods.
Is "michi kake" a manifestation of a department store's eagerness and struggle to respond to ordinary people's real opinions and customers' real needs? Or is the attempt going too far? I will keep watching the attempt to see how it fares.
Miura is the editorial adviser of WWD Japan.
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