The chairman of Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd said on Friday he did not see a recovery in Japanese consumer spending ahead as shoppers had yet to shake off their deflationary mindset, particularly in local economies outside the big cities.
“The recovery still hasn’t come to the regional economies,” Kunio Ishizuka, chairman of the Japanese department store operator, said at a retreat for executives in the resort town of Karuizawa, northwest of Tokyo.
“The impact of 20 years of deflation is big.”
Business at big-city department stores has found support from record numbers of Chinese and other tourists visiting Japan, however, and Ishizuka said he didn’t expect spending among Chinese shoppers to weaken despite falling stock prices and a slowing economy in China.