TOKYO - Duty-free sales at Japan's department stores in May rose 16.7 percent from a year earlier to around 49.66 billion yen ($300 million), up for the third straight month, helped by the yen's weakness and higher prices for luxury items, industry data revealed Thursday.
The number of duty-free shoppers dropped 6.3 percent to 503,000, decreasing for the seventh consecutive month. Excluding China, both sales and the number of paying customers jumped for those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, according to the Japan Department Stores Association.
However, the number of Chinese customers fell roughly 30 percent in the reporting month, amid a diplomatic rift between the two countries caused by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's controversial remarks on Taiwan.
Still, sales to Chinese visitors have been recovering, with the decline capped at around 5 percent, the association said.
Japan-China relations have been strained since Takaichi said in parliament last November that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" that could prompt a response by the Self-Defense Forces in support of the United States.
Excluding duty-free sales, domestic department store sales increased 7.4 percent in May, rising for the 10th consecutive month, aided by a more favorable calendar than the previous year and strong sales of high-end items such as jewelry and watches on the back of rising stock prices and a weaker yen.
An association official said, "People become more willing to spend as their asset holdings grow," adding that the psychological impact of higher stock prices is significant.
Overall sales at 172 stores operated by 68 companies climbed 8.3 percent from a year earlier to 468.39 billion yen, marking the fifth straight month of year-on-year growth, the association said.
