TOKYO - Japanese supermarket chain Daiei Inc said Friday it will change its brand name of all its stores in the greater Tokyo area to "Food Style" by 2030 under a strategy shift of its parent company to deal with intensifying competition, effectively taking down the household name used for over 70 years.

Daiei, a subsidiary of the retail giant Aeon Co, will continue operating under its current name while merging with its subsidiary, food supermarket operator Kohyo Co, on Sunday in an effort to streamline its operations.

Daiei currently operates 62 outlets in the greater Tokyo area, 30 of which highlight the Daiei brand. In the Osaka region, it has 187 outlets, 40 of which clearly display the Daiei brand identity. The company has also used other store names, such as "Gourmet City" and "Foodium."

The Daiei name will also be largely phased out in the western region by 2030, according to the company.

Prominent business figure Isao Nakauchi created Daiei, which opened its first store in Osaka in 1957. Daiei later became the first Japanese retailer to achieve 1 trillion yen ($6.4 billion) in sales thanks to its store expansion policy.

But the collapse of Japan's asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s hit the company hard, leaving it saddled with massive debt. In an attempt to turn its business around, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeon in 2015.