Seibu Shibuya to Close Wed., Ending 58 Yrs of Shaping Youth Culture

Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Sogo & Seibu Co.'s Seibu department store in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward will close its doors for the last time Wednesday, bringing an end to its 58-year history of shaping youth culture.

The Seibu Shibuya store was opened in April 1968 by the late Seiji Tsutsumi, head of the now-defunct Saison Group. It attracted many customers with luxury-brand shops such as Hermes, which were rare in Japan at the time, as well as a rooftop amusement park. It helped promote cutting-edge fashion through its “Capsule” sales area, which featured products by young designers, and helped spark Japan’s “DC brand” boom, a craze for designer labels, in the 1980s.

However, the store’s earnings deteriorated following the collapse of Japan’s economic bubble.

Sogo & Seibu said in March that the Shibuya store would close after it was unable to renew its lease agreements with the rights holders of the land and buildings housing the store.

The store’s A building, which mainly offers foods, cosmetics and women’s clothing, and B building, which has clothing stores, will close. Meanwhile, the Loft building and the Movida building, the latter housing a Muji household goods shop, will remain in operation but not under the Seibu name.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]