Taiwan’s Eslite to open store in Japan next year
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s iconic bookstore chain Eslite will open its first store in Japan next year with a Japanese partner.
It will be the first time for Eslite, which has already expanded into Hong Kong and mainland China, to venture into a non-Chinese-language market.
The new store will be located in a new commercial building in Tokyo’s Nihombashi shopping district that is now under construction.
Eslite Spectrum Corp, which runs the group’s bookstores and other retail outlets, has teamed up with Japanese real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan Co to operate the new store with a new business model.
While the Taiwanese group will license its brand to the Japanese firm and provide consulting services, Mitsui Fudosan will hire Japanese bookstore chain Yurindo Co to actually manage the store.
Eslite was established in 1989 and its stores are known for their cozy and relaxing ambience, with some also selling clothing and accessories.
Mercy Wu, chairwoman of Eslite Spectrum and daughter of the group’s late founder, told a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday that her side entered into talks with Mitsui about four years ago and finally sealed the deal in the first quarter of last year.
“We hope the cross-culture ventures will bring valuable time to everyone who visits the store,” she said, adding that “she hopes the group will have more stores open outside Tokyo in the next three to five years.’’
The reason that Eslite opted for such a unique mode of partnership, Wu said, was that on the one hand her company needs someone in Japan that speaks the local language and understands the Japanese market well.
On the other hand, Mitsui Fudosan was searching for a partner that is “new” and “foreign” to the Nihombashi area, where the company has its roots and which it is seeking to revive.
Mitsui Fudosan managing-director Hiroyuki Ishigami said he was glad that the Eslite Group identified with his firm’s efforts to revitalise the Nihombashi area under the principle of preservation, restoration and innovation.
Commenting on the Taiwanese partner, Ishigami said Eslite “is not just a bookstore, but a treasure of Taiwan.”
“The bookstore chain is a shelter we have been looking for where a wondering heart can anchor,” he added.
Kentaro Matsunobu, senior managing director of Yurindo, said his company “hopes the partnership will become a turning point in the bookstore business.
“The partnership is a new step forward,” he said.