President and Representative Director,
MARUI CO., LTD.

It is commonly thought that the retailing industry is currently facing an exceptionally challenging environment due to factors such as population decline and sluggish consumption.

However, I do not agree. I cannot deny that demand for mass production and consumption of goods and services will decline and conventional retailing business models will cease to be effective. Regardless, demand for personalized offerings that allow individuals to express themselves is growing at an accelerated rate among younger people. I therefore feel that retailers can enjoy an incredibly prosperous future if they can develop business models that respond to this demand for living a happy, fulfilling, and self-expressive life.

A key ally in developing such a business model will be direct-to-consumer, or D2C, brands. When negotiating store openings with Western D2C brands, I was struck by how perfectly they matched the sustainable worldview that future generations are projected to embrace. Conversely, these brands lacked experience in operating physical stores and offering customer service as they primarily operate online. With its network of Marui and Modi stores visited by around 200 million customers a year, MARUI is equipped to help compensate for this deficiency. I am confident that this partnership will be effective for creating new businesses for serving future generations.

We are currently pursuing a target of having tenants that offer experience value, such as D2C brands, content providers, and sharing facilitators, represent 60% of all tenants by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. In this manner, we aim to create stores that do not sell but instead offer value that can only be provided by physical stores and that is in tune with the post-digital world.