2 days ago
Mid-Year Gift Sales Campaigns Begin at Department Stores; Rice Dishes among Bonuses Offered to Shoppers
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Customers examine products at a corner for mid-year gifts at the Nihombashi Takashimaya department store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo.
Department stores have now started their mid-year gift sales campaigns. As consumers have become tighter with money due to surging prices, these stores have begun to offer a greater variety of food sets that allow consumers to enjoy the taste of luxury hotels and restaurants at home.
With the recent trend of rice prices spiking, some stores are also offering various rice dishes, including ones served at long-established ryotei Japanese-style restaurants, and giving away rice as a bonus to customers who purchase summer gifts.
Products at affordable prices
Nihombashi Takashimaya department store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a corner for mid-year gifts on June 5. As a special feature called 'Puchi Zeitaku,' (Petit luxury), it is offering limited products, such as the popular dim sum served at the Chinese restaurant of high-class hotel The Peninsula Tokyo, priced at ¥8,640 after tax; and chirashizushi, a kind of sushi including with various ingredients, from a long-established sushi restaurant, priced at ¥5,940 after tax. In celebration of the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, it is also offering Osaka foods, such as a set of takoyaki and okonomiyaki.
'We want people to enjoy cuisine from famous restaurants at affordable prices despite the current uncertain economic situation,' said an official in charge.
The Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a gift center on June 4. Among the gifts on display is a boxed lunch containing snow crab prepared by the long-established ryotei restaurant Nadaman Co. The store also has a variety of dishes from around the world, such as wines and cheeses imported from France, Italy and other countries, so that customers can enjoy a taste of the feeling of traveling abroad. These products can be purchased at physical Mitsukoshi and Isetan stores as well as online.
Products for personal use
In the past, it was common for company employees to send mid-year gifts to their superiors and others. However, as growing numbers of people are abandoning traditions like this which they see as empty formalities, the market for mid-year gifts has been shrinking. According to the Yano Research Institute, the market for mid-year gifts in 2025 is expected to be ¥580 billion, down ¥39 billion from the previous year and a nearly 20% decrease from 2020.
On the other hand, people tend to spend more money on gifts for close friends and relatives, so there is high demand for luxury gifts. In particular, Western confectionary, such as ice cream and cakes made by famous patissiers which can be purchased only during this time of the year, are popular even for people to buy for themselves. 'Department stores are strengthening their lineups of high-end items — Some of these products are priced at over ¥10,000 yen each,' explained a member of the research institute.
Giving away rice to customers
Department stores have also started offering products and services in response to this year's rise in rice prices.
Matsuya Ginza in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, opened a mid-year gift corner on Wednesday. Anticipating high demand for rice dishes, the department store prepared a lineup of 'Gohan Gourmet' rice products from a Kyoto-based long-established ryotei restaurant, including okowa, or glutinous rice steamed with red beans or other ingredients, and ankake-don, or rice covered in a thick starchy sauce.
Sogo & Seibu Co. is offering two cups, or about 300 grams, of vacuum-packed Koshihikari rice from Nagano Prefecture to the first 10,000 customers who purchase products worth a total of ¥15,000 or more after tax at its mid-year gift centers in all stores. This is the first time that the company has given rice as a present to its customers. 'We hope to please those who will give gifts to others,' said an official of the company.
