Japan May duty-free sales up for 3rd month amid weaker yen

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 Chine…READ FULL ARTICLE