Controls over the Development of Large Stores in Japan

Abstract

This paper shows how public policy in Japan has reacted to the location and development of new large stores, and the pressures for large stores. The current policy, introduced in 1979, is attempting to limit the expansion of hypermarkets, large super-markets, discount stores, etc., and provides a mechanism and procedure for the co-ordination of future growth. The structural changes occurring in Europe are also appearing in Japan. Pre-1979 policy controls are examined, as is the 1979 legislation, together with the growth strategies of large stores in the 1980s. The paper concludes by suggesting that it will be interesting to analyse in the coming years whether Japanese policy aimed at controlling large store development is any more successful than the various, largely unsuccessful, attempts at large store control introduced by European governments.