FUKUOKA -- Department stores in Japan, including in this southwestern city, are catering more to affluent customers on the increase due to the rising stock market and other factors, by providing a variety of services at luxury lounges.

Department stores here are also developing services that focus on the well-off among the younger generation, whom they were previously less conscious about, while taking advantage of existing contacts with wealthy customers and eyeing ways to attract inbound foreign customers.

The Daimaru Fukuoka Tenjin store opened "Kujaku Salon Tenjin," a space for high-spending customers, in late October. At about 560 square meters, nearly seven times the size of the space that preceded it, it is apparently one of the largest in southwest Japan's Kyushu region.

Located on the fifth floor of the store's Elgala east building, the lounge is open to customers who spend at least 1 million yen (about $6,660) at the store a year. In addition to handicrafts and other items from different areas of Kyushu on display, the space also hosts a beauty salon. Seminars of all kinds will be held, while the lounge's strength is the flexibility of services to be offered there.

Koji Muramoto, president of The Hakata Daimaru Inc., said enthusiastically, "It is important for us to show how well we can show our presence through events and planning using this spot." The company also plans to establish a home base for artwork in fiscal 2025, with an eye toward younger, affluent clientele in their 30s and 40s.

The facility is currently geared toward domestic customers, but with the increase of foreign visitors to Fukuoka, the operator apparently plans to consider approaching wealthy overseas customers in the future.

Meanwhile, department store Iwataya's main store opened "Lounge S" for the affluent in March 2021. A spokesperson said, "We also offer travels, luxury foreign cars and services related to education and daily life issues," citing newly added menus that had not been available at department stores before. Cosmetics, jewelry, watches and contemporary art are also being enhanced to attract younger wealthy people.

The Mitsukoshi Isetan group, which includes the Iwataya main store, plans to launch an app in the spring of 2025 with an eye on overseas clientele and wealthy customers. The app will apparently analyze the interests of visitors to Japan who have visited its stores, deepening relationships with them through interactive communication.

(Japanese original by Norihisa Ueda, Kyushu Business News Department)