Ryo Asayama

Tokyo

Staff Writer at Nikkei Asia

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Articles

Japan's Aeon seeks growth in central Vietnam with mall opening

Sep 24, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama |Yuji Nitta

TOKYO/HO CHI MINH CITY -- Japanese retailer Aeon has opened a shopping center in the central Vietnamese city of Hue, gaining a footprint in an important growth area. Aeon Mall Hue was packed with families on Sunday, the day after its full-scale opening. Customers flocked to Japanese houseware and apparel brand Muji, domestic cafe chain Phuc Long and other retailers that opened their first locations in Hue.
Japanese department stores lure big-spending executives from new TSMC plant

Jul 7, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- As chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ramps up production at its first Japanese plant, nearby department stores are rushing to lure potentially big-spending executives connected to the project by boosting their stocks of fine wines, designer bags and other luxury items.
Japan's Aeon to hire 4,000 skilled foreign workers by fiscal 2030

Jun 24, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- Leading Japanese retailer Aeon will hire 4,000 skilled foreign workers groupwide by fiscal 2030 amid severe labor shortages in Japan's food service sector, Nikkei has learned. The Aeon group currently employs around 1,500 under Japan's Specified Skilled Worker program, which targets foreign workers with specialized skills in shorthanded industries. They work largely at food-processing plants that supply Aeon supermarkets.
Japan discount chain Don Quijote burdened by rapid Asian expansion

Apr 5, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- Japan's Pan Pacific International Holdings, operator of discount retail chain Don Quijote, faces plunging profits per store in Asia as it toils to replicate its domestic success at rapidly growing operations abroad. Despite the company recording 48.2 billion yen ($318 million) in net profit for the July-December half, up 31% year-on-year and the highest ever for the period, Pan Pacific President Naoki Yoshida struck an apologetic tone on Asia during an earnings conference in February.
Japan's Aeon to even out pay between part- and full-time workers

Mar 20, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- Japanese retailer Aeon will start boosting wages for part-time workers at 40 group companies in fiscal 2024, so that they are paid equally to full-time counterparts for doing the same work. Aeon employs around 400,000 part-timers, more than any other Japanese company. In order to secure and retain talent, it will consider expanding a compensation framework already in place at hypermarket unit Aeon Retail, which offers the same base pay and bonuses to full- and part-time employees.
Japan's Don Quijote parent plans wave of U.S., Asian discount stores

Mar 7, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- The parent company of Japanese discount chain Don Quijote aims to expand its overseas stores more than 30% by 2025, with new locations in the U.S. and elsewhere to capture the inflation-induced demand for bargains. Pan Pacific International Holdings had 105 stores outside Japan as of the fiscal year ended June 2023. The plan is to expand that number to 142 by the year ending June 2025.
Parental leave in Japan: Aeon offers full pay up to child's 1st birthday

Feb 1, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- Aeon, one of Japan's biggest retailers, will fully compensate employees on parental leave starting later this year, Nikkei has learned, in a move meant to encourage more men to take advantage of the benefit. Workers in Japan are entitled to take 180 days of parental leave at 67% of their monthly pay. The allowance is reduced to 50% afterward.
Japan retailers ready for demand surge from TSMC's Kumamoto plant

Jan 1, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- Japanese retailers are gearing up for an expected increase in demand in northeastern Kumamoto prefecture, where a factory being built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, is nearing completion.
With huge new China mall, Japan's Aeon puts fun over shopping

Nov 4, 2023 | asia.nikkei.com | Kohei Fujimura |Ryo Asayama

WUHAN, China/TOKYO -- Japanese retail group Aeon opened a vast new shopping mall in Wuhan on Wednesday, offering experiences to draw in customers who increasingly buy what they need online. The Aeon Mall Wuhan Jiangxia, the company's first opening in China since 2021, has 288,000 square meters of floor space, making it one of the group's largest in Asia.
Shunned by China, Japanese scallops to reach Thailand, Malaysia

Oct 7, 2023 | asia.nikkei.com | Ryo Asayama

TOKYO -- The company behind the Don Quijote discount chain will offer scallops from Japan at 38 stores in Asia starting in November, seeking to find new markets as China maintains a ban on Japanese seafood over the Fukushima water discharge. Pan Pacific International Holdings operates Don Don Donki stores in six Asian markets abroad, including Thailand and Malaysia.