Western Japan's biggest department store to battle for potential market (4)

The reports said the total sales of department stores located in Osaka rose by 0.6 percent in 2011 over the previous year due to openings and expansions. They added that competition is expected to heat up further after next April, when another commercial facility, with a 44,000-square-meter floor space, will complete construction on the north side of the Umeda district.

But considering that total sales of department stores in Japan declined to 6,152 billion yen (about 76.82 billion U.S. dollars) in 2011 from 9,710 billion yen (about 120.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 1991, the reports cited some economists as saying that such a recent building and renovation rush among major Umeda department stores is a sign of overestimated demand, and that stagnant population and per capita consumption growth will make competition too intense for them.

However, Makiko Taguchi, an H2O Retailing Corporation spokeswoman, told Xinhua that the renewed Hankyu store is in fact anticipating potential demand as a result of combined sales that feed off the other Umeda department stores, thus bringing more shoppers to the area. She did admit, though, that the competition between the area's stores will become tougher.

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