The Japanese Market Once Again Attracted The Attention Of Luxury Brands.

Luxury goods in China's market has declined sharply, and they have to find another way. Luxury brands are returning to Japan.

Recently, luxury brands

(Versace) announced that it will open a large store in Ginza, Japan, in the autumn of 2015, after Versace closed its direct store in Tokyo in 2009, and once again dropped its target in the Japanese market.

In the global downturn in luxury sales, especially in the Chinese market, the Japanese market once again attracted the attention of luxury brands.

According to CBRE, a large Japanese real estate service company, in 2014, the number of luxury street stores opened in 3 main regions of Tokyo, including Ginza, was 12, the highest in 1979.

CBRE also said that 8 stores announced plans to open stores in 2015.

Consumption is the most active.

After the "ice age" of 2014, the first quarter of 2015 finally relieved the major luxury groups, all of which owes to the Japanese market.

LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group, released its first half 2015 results in July 28th. Its operating profit increased 15% to 2 billion 955 million euros, and its sales in Japan were particularly prominent.

Excluding the impact of exchange rate changes, the two quarter increased 34% in Japanese sales, and became the driving force for the two digit profit growth as a whole.

Hermes grew by 19% in the first quarter of this year, and Japan has become the fastest growing region in the world.

In addition, in the 2014 fiscal year, Japan's global sales contribution to the world's third largest luxury goods group (Kering) brand Gucci and Bottega Veneta accounted for 10% and 14% respectively.

However, Burberry is most encouraged by the Japanese market.

Although the first half of the financial year was completely cold in the Asia Pacific market, the Japanese market rose by more than 30%.

The report showed that the sales of the same store in the whole Asia Pacific region grew slowly, and the sales of the same store in the Hongkong region of China fell more in single digit.

The amazing performance of Japan obviously made Burberry overjoyed.

The group said it will focus on the Japanese market in the future, especially Tokyo and Osaka.

By the end of fiscal year 2017, its sales in Japan are expected to rise to 100 million.

Burberry also plans to pform its Japanese special brand into an international brand, and it is expected to complete this pformation in September.

"At Burberry, we are committed to providing the clearest image of the brand.

This enables our customers to have an uninterrupted experience in Burberry whenever they want to. "

Burberry chief creative officer and chief executive officer Christopher Bailey said.

In fact, since 2011, the number of tourists to Japan has increased by more than two times, which has led to a 3 fold increase in sales of Japanese department stores.

In some shops, the sales contributed by tourists account for 40%.

These data clearly give Burberry more confidence.

In addition to opening several new flagship stores in key cities, the company has decided to advertise in Japan's mainstream newspapers, focusing on publicizing the classic value of Burberry and strengthening the positioning of brand luxury goods.

In January 26th of this year, Jimmy Choo, the luxury shoe brand, announced its first earnings since the London exchange was listed last year.

Earnings reports also show that Japan has performed exceptionally well.

According to Jimmy Choo's listed prospectus, Japan contributed more than half of its sales in Asia, accounting for about 10% of global sales.

According to the insiders, although Japan's economy has been stagnant for many years, it does not prevent Japan from becoming the most active and stable market for luxury consumption in Asia.

Internal and external needs

"Japan has a mature and huge second-hand luxury market, which, to a certain extent, reflects the stable demand for luxury goods in Japan."

A luxury group employee told the International Financial Daily reporter.

Indeed, even when the economic crisis broke out in Japan in 1989, other industries were hard hit by the bursting of the economic bubble, but luxury brands could not survive because of the continued purchase of office white-collar workers.

One of the targets of luxury businesses is obviously the rich class in Japan. According to Nomura comprehensive research institute, Japan's affluent families with more than 100 million yen (5 million yuan) in 2013 reached 1 million 10 thousand households, an increase of 200 thousand in two years.

Another target is Japanese tourists from China.

After all, under the background of weak domestic consumption in Japan, it is hard to attribute all the gratifying results in 2015 to Japanese consumers.

In the second half of 2014, the exchange rate of yen to RMB declined by 20% over the first half of the year, which directly stimulated the enthusiasm of Chinese tourists to go shopping in Japan.

In terms of visa, Japan has relaxed the application conditions for "multiple entry visas". As long as the annual income is above 200 thousand, it can apply for multiple visas to Japan and China within 3 years, and those who have been to Japan before, with an annual income of more than 100 thousand, can apply for such visas.

These policies will send more customers to luxury stores in Japan.

A statistics released by Japan's NHK television station shows that a foreign visitor spends only 150 thousand yen (about 7800 yuan) in Japan, so that the consumption of 10 tourists in Japan exceeds that of a Japanese citizen in a year.

In the first quarter of this year, the average daily consumption of Chinese people exceeded 300 thousand yen.

As of the end of March, more than 920 thousand Chinese tourists poured into Japan this year, according to the Japan Tourism Office.

According to statistics, China's visitors to Japan spend 277 billion 500 million yen in the first quarter, accounting for 40% of global tourists, an increase of 64.4% over the previous year, and the 5 consecutive quarter.

From the specific consumption point of view, compared to food and entertainment, Chinese tourists spend all their money on shopping.

Unlike the Australians who ranked second in the general market, the average shopping cost of Chinese tourists is nearly 180 thousand yen, which accounts for about 60% of their daily consumption.

Even the Japanese Ministry of finance has to admit that the promotion of Chinese tourists to Japan's tourism industry, the 2014 fiscal year report shows that Japan's tourism industry has experienced a trade surplus for the first time in the past 55 years, reaching 209 billion 900 million yen, while the consumption of foreign tourists over 1/4 is from China.