Japan Tourism Corporation IPO approved for KOSDAQ

JAPAN/KOREA. Duty free retailer Japan Tourism Corporation (JTC) has received approval from the Korea Stock Exchange (KRX) to be listed on its KOSDAQ market, a trading platform for small-cap companies.

The Beppu, Japan-headquartered company plans to use the funds it will raise through the IPO to open new duty free shops.

Japan Tourism Corporation operates 24 stores with a total area of 41,602.81sq m

In announcing the listing last week, the company stated: “JTC will strive to continuously provide the invaluable service to our customers with our ultimate goal of becoming an innovative tourism group.”

JTC’s stores particularly target group travellers, and most are located along major Japanese tourist routes.

The company also has stores in Japan’s Kyushu region, which attracts many cruise ship customers and shopping tours.

JTC currently operates 24 duty free shops in total spanning 41,602sq m: four in each of Fukuoka and Nagasaki; three in Tokyo; and two in each of Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Okinawa and Osaka. It also operates one store in each of Oita, Nagoya and Yamanashi.

The company has a registered capital of JPY631,410,000 (US$5.8 million). Its store concepts include Koo Skin, Japan Tax Free Shop and AKA Jewelry. It also owns skincare brand Plusbk.

 

JTC lists some of its strengths as building relationships, being able to quickly respond to customer trends and needs, and fostering talented professionals

“Our company came up with a point of sale product line-up consisting of several tens of thousands of products to ensure one-stop shopping for group travellers with limited time for shopping,” said Executive Director Michiharu Akiyama.

“This method was successful due to the clear division of roles that maximised the strengths of individual members, which in turn brought synergy to the organisation beyond comparison with our competitors.”

Stating his vision for the future, CEO Chulmo Ku commented: “The 2020 Tokyo Olympics serves as a catalyst for Japan’s popularity. We look forward to many more tourists visiting Japan, and we want to share with people our warmth and gratitude through our tax free shop and other businesses in tourism.

“We’d like to deploy an attractive pre-departure duty free shop in Japan which will be visited by not only tourists visiting Japan, but also those Japanese customers scheduled to fly out of the country. We would thus grow into a company that will compare to the world’s first-rate companies in the tourism industry.”

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