Japan's shopping centres rebound 4.9% in July, and the city centre pulls further ahead of the suburbs
Existing shopping-centre sales rose 4.9% year on year in July, reversing June's 1.6% fall — the first decline in 51 months. Weather did most of the work in both months, but the gap between city-centre and suburban centres widened to 4.4 points.
Sales at Japan's existing shopping centres rose 4.9% year on year in July, the Japan Council of Shopping Centers (JCSC) said in a release dated 25 August. The figure reverses a 1.6% decline in June, which JCSC's own prior release recorded as the sector's first fall in 51 months.
Both months turned on the weather. The first third of July brought stalled fronts and an approaching typhoon, according to JCSC, but temperatures climbed once the rainy season broke in the middle of the month, and midsummer goods moved — helped, the association said, by the rebound from June's poor weather and low temperatures. Summer clothing, UV protection and cooling products led. JCSC also recorded the other side of the same heat: some centres reported shoppers staying in rather than coming out.
The more durable story is where that growth landed. Central-area centres grew 8.0%, peripheral-area centres 3.6% — a gap of 4.4 points. JCSC attributes the centre's lead to new tenants opening, in-mall events and inbound visitors; the periphery's gain came largely from events and from the mid-month temperature rise coinciding with the sale season. In June the same split ran the other way in severity, with city-centre centres still growing while suburban ones fell hard. July is the version where everyone grows and the centre still wins.
By region, Kinki led at 6.3%, followed by Chubu at 5.8%, Kanto at 5.3% and Kyushu-Okinawa at 5.0% — the last achieved despite the 28 July Kumamoto earthquake, which JCSC said closed some centres outright.
The category detail reads as one long note about temperature. Fashion moved on short-sleeved and sleeveless summer clothing plus functional UV and contact-cooling wear; variety goods on handheld fans, parasols and sunglasses; food service on summer-only menus as the school holidays brought in younger and family customers; food on souvenirs at centres near tourist destinations, with supermarkets strong on doyo-no-ushi-no-hi. Set against the other July figures — department stores extending a seven-month run, restaurant sales up 6.8%, chain stores essentially flat at 0.1% — the pattern is consistent: the more of a format's basket turns on the season, the more July gave it back.