No one imagined Marie Claire would disappear from bookstores. However, in 2009, it sadly closed its doors after 27 years of history.

Relaunching a discontinued magazine requires strong motivation and confidence in success. When it was launched by Chuokoron-Shinsha (now Chuokoron-Shinsha) in 1982, the magazine license and the product licensing business bearing the title were developed as a set. Even after the magazine's closure, the brand business, estimated to generate over 20 billion yen annually, continued, with Marie Claire-branded merchandise being sold.

Marie Claire Album Co., Ltd., the parent company, contacted Katsuhito Tai, the last editor-in-chief of Chuokoron-Shinsha before moving to Kadokawa Shoten, to find a way to resolve the strangeness of the licensed magazine, which started in Japan and now boasts the world's largest circulation of any women's magazine, not being published in Japan. We contacted Katsuhito Tai, the last editor-in-chief of Chuokoron-Shinsha before moving to Kadokawa Shoten. "When we first heard from France, we knew how demanding fashion magazines can be, so we didn't think it would be enough to simply revive them. That's how we came up with the current format," says Editor-in-Chief Tai.
Instead of selling the magazine in bookstores, we distributed it for free by inserting it into the Yomiuri Shimbun, the parent company of Chuokoron-Shinsha. After extensive simulations, the idea was to print 480,000 copies and distribute them in parts of Tokyo and parts of regional cities where the wealthy reside, with advertising, primarily for luxury brands, as a revenue source.
"When we proposed this business model to Marie Claire Album, the president in France was hesitant and unsure of the decision, so we consulted with the founder and current chairman, Mr. Montmort, and he said, 'This is the only way we can revive it in Japan,'" says Editor-in-Chief Tai.
And so, in July 2012, the magazine was relaunched after a three-year hiatus under the new name "Marie Claire Style." The maximum tabloid size required for a newspaper insert is 52 pages. Cover interviews, product-focused columns, fashion pages, and beauty pages make for a rich and satisfying experience. Product introductions are presented in a format that is linked to the web for even more variety. For the web, the magazine works with MODE PRESS, which has a contract with AFP, and posts 10 to 15 topics per day. However, Editor-in-Chief Tai believes that print media offers an overwhelming advantage when it comes to advertising luxury brands. Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of American Vogue, shares this view. "Today, clients are appealing to consumers by using the story behind the brand and clever imagery to convey the brand's emotion. However, while the web has the power to disseminate information, its weakness is that it lacks the visual appeal of print media. In the future, when video imagery becomes more important, the web's true value will be tested," he said, somewhat pessimistically. When asked about future developments, they responded to requests from readers who knew about Marie Claire Style but couldn't get their hands on it because they didn't subscribe to the Yomiuri Shimbun. This year, they will sell the magazine at a price of 200 yen at newsstands along Tokyo's Ginza Line. They commented that this is merely a trial run and that they don't expect it to lead to bookstore sales. They also plan to increase circulation from the current 500,000 to 600,000. Their current challenge is to expand the business by increasing the publication frequency from 16 issues per year to 20 (for example, by publishing a men's edition). Editors have traditionally sought out themes that readers need, and once they've found a hit, they've rehashed the same themes every year, changing themes in different ways, to the point that they've become perpetually monotonous. In other words, the editor-in-chief's job was to strike gold. It seems that the current era requires editors to have the ability to come up with ideas that will lead to business success. First half complete. In the second half of the year, plans call for Vogue Japan, Harper's Bazaar, and Numero Tokyo.