Matsuya's July sales inch up 1.1% at its Ginza-Asakusa flagships, as tax-free cosmetics and luxury goods keep accelerating

Matsuya's Ginza and Asakusa department stores posted combined sales up 1.1 per cent year on year in July, the company said in a preliminary sales report, as tax-free cosmetics and luxury-goods sales kept accelerating far faster than the flagship total.

The two stores diverged sharply: the Ginza store alone grew 1.3 per cent, while the Asakusa store fell 3.1 per cent, according to the disclosure. Matsuya attributed the softer Ginza growth to a tough comparison against July last year, when the store was still riding sustained footfall from promotions tied to its 100th-anniversary celebrations — the store turned 100 in May 2025 — and from Louis Vuitton's Ginza boutique reopening after a major renovation in mid-June 2025, which the company said had driven steady sales among its VIP clientele.

Tax-free sales told a different story. Cosmetics rose about 14 per cent and luxury shoes and bags, a category Matsuya called a particular strength of the Ginza store, rose 4.4 per cent, both accelerating as yen weakness kept pulling in overseas shoppers, the company said. Sales to domestic customers outside the tax-free counter grew a comparatively modest 2 per cent. Matsuya is due to publish its confirmed July figures on August 10.

The gap between a barely growing flagship total and double-digit tax-free cosmetics growth points to the same split showing up across central Tokyo's department stores this summer, where inbound and tax-free spending is carrying more of the load than everyday domestic sales. Asakusa's decline is the detail worth watching for Matsuya specifically: a fall at a tourist-heavy store, even as tax-free categories accelerated elsewhere in the group, suggests its own visitor mix may be behind the drop as much as softer domestic demand.