Cloudiest Tokyo summer in 129 years hits Japan retailers

Bloomberg

Japan’s unusually long and cool rainy season dampened demand for apparel, furniture and other goods, with some retailers already reporting steep drops in merchandise sales.
Shimamura Co, a chain of affordable clothing shops, reported that same-store sales through July 20 fell 18 percent from a year earlier. Many of Shimamura’s customers reach the company’s 1,433 locations in Japan via bicycle, rather than cars, so rainy days tend to have an outsized impact on revenue, a spokeswoman said.
So far, Tokyo has seen only about 50 daylight hours in July, among the least since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1890. There was one less Sunday this year compared with July 2018, and rain and overcast skies also kept people at home.
Given that Japan’s retailers, especially Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co, are sensitive to seasonal weather trends, they will probably report weaker monthly sales in the coming week, according to Michael Allen, an analyst at Jefferies.
“All apparel retailers are likely to have suffered,” Allen wrote in a report, adding that the average temperature from July 1 to 25 was 22.7 degrees Celsius, compared with 28.3 degrees a year earlier.
Right On Co, an apparel company with 495 shops and a web store, reported a 5.9 percent decline in same-store sales through July 20, pointing to weak demand for summer clothing. Furniture retailer Nitori Holdings Co posted a 5.6 percent drop in same-store sales through the same period, as fewer people bought bedding and other seasonal products. The Meteorological Agency declared an end to this year’s rainy season for the Kanto area — which includes Tokyo — a month later than last year’s unusually short season.