Takashimaya rebuilds its Tamagawa food hall and turns two floors over to a men's sauna and a secondhand 'playground'

Takashimaya Co., Ltd. and Toshin Development Co., Ltd. said on October 15 they will renew Tamagawa Takashimaya S.C. in Setagaya, Tokyo, under a concept they are calling "TAMAGAWA LOCO LIFE," rebuilding the main building's basement food floor and converting two floors of the south building to a secondhand-and-hobby specialty floor and a men-only sauna.

The roughly 7,000-square-metre basement food floor at the main building will be rezoned and rebuilt in phases so it can stay open through construction, the companies said; the first phase opens in March 2027, with a grand opening set for June.

On the south building's 10th floor, Takashimaya will open a specialty floor it is calling an "adult playground," selling secondhand clothing and goods, capsule toys, manga and sauna-related items alongside food and drink, reusing fixtures and materials from the floor's previous use as a dining area. On the 11th floor above it, a men-only sauna covering about 1,000 square metres will open with five sauna rooms, four baths and an outdoor air-bath terrace facing the Tama River; both floors are due to open in March 2027. Takashimaya said the sauna follows its own market research into the Setagaya trade area, which found heavy sauna use among men in their 20s to 40s, though it did not disclose specific figures.

Converting two upper floors most department stores would fill with menswear or lifestyle goods into a sauna and a secondhand-and-hobby floor is a bet on a demographic -- younger men -- that has largely stopped treating a suburban department store as a destination. Tamagawa Takashimaya, which opened in 1969 and says the current work caps a renewal process it began in 2024, is wagering that sauna culture and secondhand goods pull harder than another round of apparel ever would.