Daimaru opens new store near Tokyo Station

Daimaru opened a new department store Tuesday featuring about 50 Western and Japanese-style confectionery shops on its first floor in the new GranTokyo North Tower adjacent to JR Tokyo Station.

Customers check out confectionery on the first floor of the new Daimaru department store in GranTokyo North Tower near JR Tokyo Station on Tuesday. KYODO PHOTO

Unlike other department stores whose cosmetics and miscellaneous goods usually occupy the first floor, the new Daimaru outlet boasts confectionery shops in a bid to attract travelers at Tokyo Station, the firm said.

The store opened at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes ahead of schedule, due to the large number of customers who lined up from early morning.

The cosmetics section, now on the second floor, has been expanded to 43 brand shops. This is the most for a Tokyo department store and targets nearby office workers.

"We've boosted the food and cosmetics sections to provide a wide selection of merchandise to suit the tastes of young people as well as venerable brand goods, and the store turned out to be the one we designed," Daimaru President Ryoichi Yamamoto said.

The store, next to Daimaru's previous location on the Yaesu side of the station, has 13 floors above ground and one below. Its floor space now totals 34,000 sq. meters, compared with 31,500 in the old store.

Daimaru will increase the floor space to 46,000 sq. meters by 2012 by integrating the old store after renovating it.

J. Front Retailing Co., a holding company created through the September merger of Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Holdings Co., is trying to attract as many customers in Tokyo as possible as the two companies have had a relatively low profile in the metropolis.

J. Front has positioned the new store, built by East Japan Railway Co., as a key part of the company's foray into the Tokyo area ahead of its complete renovation of Matsuzakaya's store in Ginza by 2012.

Osaka-based Daimaru and Nagoya-based Matsuzakaya continue to operate a total of 26 department stores under the holding firm while retaining their separate names.