Fukuoka Mitsukoshi repositions as a "glocal" department store, handing its upper floors to Kyushu's largest Animate and @cosme stores

Iwataya Mitsukoshi said on 3 August it has settled the first confirmed tenants for the autumn 2027 remodel of Fukuoka Mitsukoshi and the adjoining Lasic Fukuoka Tenjin specialty-store complex in central Fukuoka, in what the company called the second report on a renovation it has been carrying out in phases since spring 2026. Animate, the nationwide anime, comic and games retailer, will open on the 8th floor on 24 October 2026, and cosmetics retailer @cosme STORE is planned for the 6th floor on 30 June 2027 — both, the company said, taking the largest sales floor of their kind anywhere in Kyushu.

The two openings sit inside a wider repositioning of the roughly 38,000 sq m complex at 2-1-1 Tenjin, the release said. Iwataya Mitsukoshi is recasting Fukuoka Mitsukoshi's lower floors around what it calls "high-sensitivity, quality consumption" — built on culture, traditional arts and refined everyday living, part of the store's evolution into what the company terms a "glocal department store" — while Lasic's upper floors are being reworked around "community consumption," aimed at connecting younger shoppers with people who share their interests. Construction is proceeding in stages, the company said, and the complex stays open to customers throughout.

Animate, which already runs 125 stores across all 47 prefectures, will bring several formats to Kyushu for the first time inside the new store, including a character-branded latte and cafe concept, a paid exhibition space, and a convenience-store-styled shop for Cygames merchandise, the release said. @cosme STORE will build its assortment around user-review data from the @cosme beauty website, spanning drugstore to prestige brands, with in-store consultations from beauty staff.

The pairing points to which lever Iwataya Mitsukoshi is really pulling. Handing two of its most visible floors to operators built around fan communities, rather than adding another apparel or accessories tenant, is a Product-and-Presentation bet that footfall now follows shared enthusiasm as much as merchandise — and it fits a broader pattern of Japanese department stores leaning on anime, character and beauty specialty tenants to draw a younger, more frequent-visiting crowd that their own core departments struggle to reach alone. Splitting the building's identity this cleanly is also, in our reading, a hedge: it lets the department store keep its traditional proposition intact for its existing base while testing a very different model just a few floors up.

Iwataya Mitsukoshi said further tenants and floor-plan details will follow, so the shape of the full remodel — including what happens to the floors between the two anchor tenants — is still to come.