Kintetsu's Abeno Harukas flagship grows for an eighth straight month as the rest of the chain shrinks

Kintetsu Department Store Co., Ltd. (株式会社近鉄百貨店) said its Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Main Store (あべのハルカス近鉄本店) -- the department store occupying the lower floors of Abeno Harukas, Japan's tallest building -- posted its eighth consecutive month of year-on-year sales growth across every department in October, even as the chain's company-wide sales fell 2.6%, according to the company's October 2026 sales flash, dated November 2.

Sales at the Abeno Harukas store rose 9.6% year on year (10.8% on a handling basis, which adds in sales handled on consignment for tenant boutiques). The store credited two floor renovations completed during the month: a children's clothing floor that reopened in early October and "started strongly, well ahead of plan," and a confectionery floor renovated in late October that also outperformed, the company said. A run of promotional events added to the footfall: regional-promotion fairs the company calls the Harukas Nippon Expo (ハルカス・ニッポン博覧会), with instalments themed on Miyagi and Niigata prefectures this time, and a Belgium Fair (日本・ベルギー友好160周年記念 ベルギーフェア) marking the 160th anniversary of Japan-Belgium relations, plus an event marking the first anniversary of the close of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, held in the store's ninth-floor event hall (大阪・関西万博閉幕1周年記念イベント). In womenswear, sweaters and outerwear sold well as temperatures fell late in the month, the company added.

The rest of the chain told a different story. Company-wide sales fell 2.6% (0.8% on an existing-store basis, which strips out last year's results at the Nagoya store, closed February 28, 2026). Among Kintetsu's other locations, Kamiomachi (上本町店) rose 9.2% and four smaller stores also grew -- Ikoma, Wakayama, Kusatsu and Yokkaichi, each up between 1.2% and 4.0% -- while Higashi-Osaka fell 2.6%, Nara fell 4.8% and Kashihara fell 0.9%, the flash showed.

Nationwide department-store sales rose 3.4% year on year in September, the most recent month on record, according to METI's Current Survey of Commerce; in the Kinki region -- Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Shiga, Wakayama and Fukui -- growth was a much thinner 0.4% in August, the latest regional figure available. That gap between a firm national trend and a soft regional one fits Kintetsu's own split better than either number alone: Higashi-Osaka and Nara's declines track a Kansai market that is growing only slowly, while Abeno Harukas's 9.6% is well clear of even the stronger national pace -- a result of its own renovations and events, not a rising tide.

Kintetsu's flash draws two store networks moving in opposite directions: a flagship in Japan's tallest building compounding growth for eight straight months on the back of floor renewals, against a suburban network where more stores fell than rose in October. Whether the confectionery and kids'-wear renovations keep paying off once this run of fairs and anniversary events rolls off the calendar is the more interesting question than October's headline number.