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Japanese retailers are making efforts to increase sales of South Korean cosmetics, as demand soars on the back of the K-Pop boom.
Variety store chain Loft has given more shelf space to South Korean products such as facial masks, foundation and mascara. It started carrying about 40 new products in the fiscal year that ended in March, bringing the total up to around 160. The management says sales in the category rose 46 percent from the previous year.
Nakagawa Mariko, a buyer for Loft, says, “I want to pick up emerging brands and ones that have never been sold before in Japan to cultivate a good selection.”
Convenience store chain Lawson worked directly with a South Korean brand to develop 25 items that it put on sale last month. In addition to K-Pop, another factor driving the trend is the affordability of products for young Japanese consumers.
A trade group says Japan’s imports of cosmetics from South Korea in 2021 came to 62 billion yen, or about 464 million dollars. That puts South Korea nearly at the level of France, which had been a top exporter to Japan for three decades.
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