Set to be 30% cheaper than Uniqlo’s already cheap merchandise. Via Mainichi.

Japanese retailer Seiyu will become a subsidiary of Wal-Mart on December 21. As part of the deal, Ed Kolodzieski, former senior vice president and COO of Wal-Mart International, became CEO of Seiyu on Thursday. Both Mainichi and Reuters have full reports.

Hello Kitty is not the only cutesy animal character plastered all over Japan. Miffy, a cartoon rabbit created by Dutch illustrator Dick Bruna, may not rank quite as highly as Sanrio’s character in terms of brand recognition and earnings, but she still manages to make Bruna and friends over ¥40 billion (US $332 million) a year on products not including the picture books where she got her start.

Yomiuri Shimbun recently reported on Miffy, and Wikipedia has a brief article with some links.

As part of their restructuring plan, according to Kyodo News.

Despite signs of economic recovery in recent months (foremost being the Nikkei’s strong performance), retail spending was down 0.3% from last year, with clothing one of the harder-hit retail sectors, reports the Financial Times. This is being blamed, curiously enough, on the failure of the government’s “Warm Biz” campaign — an effort to encourage warm clothing in lieu of turning up the heater at work — to create the same level of success so far as “Cool Biz” did this summer.

An increase of 9.2% in October makes for the third straight monthly rise, reports Kyodo News.

Tokyo’s electronics mecca, the Akihabara district, will be promoted as a global tourist destination by a partnership between communications firm NTT and travel agency JTB, along with a nonprofit organization, according to Kyodo News. Part of the deal includes the planned usage of smart cards to ease the handling of duty-free purchases for foreigners.

Sales are down 1.5% in October from a year earlier, according to Kyodo News.

Holding companies for 7-Eleven Inc, its US convenience chain store; article from Kyodo News.

They’re up 19.5% for the first half of 2005 to ¥354.5 billion, according to Kyodo News.