Jil Sander tests a Tochigi outlet as L'Occitane goes permanent at Sano Premium Outlets

Mitsubishi Jisho Simon, the joint venture between Mitsubishi Estate and US outlet developer Simon Property Group, is staging six store openings at Sano Premium Outlets in Tochigi between August and October 2026, according to a company release. Kashiyama opened August 19 and a Nike Clearance Store followed September 4, both limited-term; Freak's Store opens September 18, also limited-term. Jil Sander and Wind And Sea follow on October 3 and October 15 respectively, both limited-term placements, while L'Occitane opens October 2 as a permanent store.

A rare outing for Jil Sander, and a format bet

Jil Sander's presence is the more unusual entry. The Milan-founded, OTB Group-owned maison — founded in 1968 and running roughly 80 stores worldwide, according to the release — rarely places itself in a Japanese outlet centre, and this one is explicitly limited-term rather than a permanent outlet store, closer to a controlled test of the channel than a commitment to it.

Outlet placements let a maison read demand and clear stock in a controlled setting without touching the pricing or positioning of its full-price flagships — a lower-risk way to gauge a market before deciding whether the channel is worth a permanent footprint. L'Occitane's move in the other direction, from a limited-term presence to a permanent store, is the format's logical endpoint: enough demand at Sano, evidently, to justify holding the space rather than renting it in bursts.

The additions land at a facility Mitsubishi Jisho Simon describes as Kanto's largest outlet centre, with roughly 180 stores and about 90 minutes from central Tokyo — a scale and location that gives the operator room to stage this kind of rotating test without disrupting the rest of the tenant base.