Many retailers from Japan, including Miki House, Akuruhi and Uniqlo, are rushing to do business or open new stores in Vietnam due to the popularity of Japanese goods among Vietnamese consumers.

Shoppers visit a Miki House store. Many retailers from Japan, including Miki House,
Akuruhi and Uniqlo, are rushing to do business or open new shops in Vietnam
– PHOTO: THY HA 

Miki House, a Japanese children’s clothing and product company, on February 25 opened its first store in Vietnam. At the shop, located at the Akuruhi Tower commercial center in HCMC’s District 1, clothes for children from newborns to six-year-olds are sold for VND1-VND40 million each.

Senda Hiroshi, international sales manager of Miki House, said that the launch of the first Miki House shop followed the results of a survey showing that many Vietnamese tourists had bought Miki House products when traveling in Japan. These visitors also expected to be able to purchase Miki House’s products on the local market.

Miki House chose Akuruhi Group as its exclusive distributor for the Vietnamese market as it has 20 years of experience in trading Japanese products, according to Hiroshi.

Akuruhi chairman Phan Thanh Tan said that it took Akuruhi three years to persuade its partner to sign a cooperation agreement. If the first shop gains ground on the local market, the firm will soon open two more shops in HCMC and some others in Hanoi in the coming months, Tan added.

Apart from Miki House, Japanese global apparel retailer Uniqlo has announced it will open its first store in Hanoi City following the launch of its first store in HCMC in early December last year. Uniqlo’s second store in Vietnam, which is set to be located at Vincom Center in Hanoi’s Dong Da District, will be launched on March 6.

Koyama Noriaki, vice chairman of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, the parent company of Uniqlo, reported that Uniqlo plans to expand its reach on the local market this year by opening at least three stores in Hanoi and hitting the target of operating 20 Uniqlo stores nationwide.

Aside from the first Matsumoto Kiyoshi pharmaceutical and cosmetics store set to open its doors in HCMC in late March this year, Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd, the company that runs the Muji chain of household goods stores, had earlier announced that it will enter the Vietnamese market in 2020.

In addition, the Akuruhi Tower commercial center, which specializes in supplying high-class Japanese goods, was inaugurated in mid-February.