Fast Fashion: Forever 21 announces Japan expansion plan

April 28, 2010
By Ken Worsley

In a press conference earlier today, Forever 21 Chairman Don Chang told reporters that his firm intends to open ten stores a year in Japan until about 100 locations are in business.

Forever 21 opened its first shop in Japan last April in the trendy Harajuku neighborhood. Tomorrow, it will open its second domestic location, inside the Matsuzakaya department store in Ginza. According to Forever 21, the Ginza shop will be almost double the size of the Harajuku location.

In the press conference, Chang made it clear that Forever 21 intends to branch out of Tokyo and establish shops in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka - a strategy that makes some sense as young people flock to the big cities. In May, Forever 21 will be opening shops in Shinjuku and Funabashi.

While so-called fast fashion retailers have surely been cheapening the image of Ginza (try finding the Brooks Brothers shop, it’s now a Uniqlo), one is forced to wonder whether this trend has already peaked or if it has a few years left in its legs.

In the end it all comes down to margins versus rent and personnel costs, and Forever 21 targets younger shoppers in Japan, possibly the least profitable demographic to go after. Still, there is no reason to believe that these locations cannot be transformed to cater to new growth markets once the current ones fail, should the firms paying rent prove to be flexible enough and be able to move in with the next fake brand (start the brand in the US (with production in China) and bring it into Japan as something supposedly trendy. Lather, Rinse, Repeat).

Filed Under Business, Retail