This winter, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings will open a small store on the first floor of the Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris (101bis, quai Branly-75015 Paris) as part of its Cool Japan initiative. The store will be 87 square meters and is scheduled to open within the year. It will be used to market "Japan Premium" content based on "this is Japan," a new corporate message the company has been promoting since 2015, and as an antenna shop for gathering information on opening small stores in mature European and American markets, which the company is considering for the future.

The company, which is a primary investor in the Cool Japan Fund, which was established in 2013, opened a limited-time pop-up store in New York called "NIPPONISTA," which was planned by a team of young female employees in February 2013. This winter, when the company remodels its Malaysian LOT10 store, it will promote excellent Japanese products and services throughout the entire building, centered around its "JAPAN SENSES" initiative. The company plans to expand its business by positioning "Creating new value overseas through Cool Japan" as one of its mid-term overseas business strategies.

To cater to inbound tourists in Japan, this fall it will open a downtown duty-free store focusing on luxury brands, cosmetics, and Japan premiums on a single 3,300-square-meter floor on the eighth floor of the Mitsukoshi Ginza store. This is because inbound sales at the store have reached 15% of total sales. "Because sales exceed 15% of the department store's major categories, we decided that it was necessary for the store to cater to these customers. We have not yet set a company-wide inbound sales target," said Taiyo Onishi, Representative Director and President of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings.

In conjunction with the opening of the downtown duty-free store, Mitsukoshi Ginza store will undergo a complete restructuring to become a global store, with the store aiming to increase sales from 74.4 billion yen in the previous fiscal year (ending March 2015) to 100 billion yen in the long term. The restructuring will aim to roll out Japan Premium throughout the store, provide global sales services, and retain foreign customers.