Japanese firms snap up retail spaces in Hong Kong, making the most of city’s low rents and residents’ fondness for country’s brands
- Hongkongers love Japanese food and the rents are lower now, chef and founder of restaurant Sushi Fujimoto says
- Hong Kong government agency InvestHK is in the process of facilitating some new brands amid ‘a good number of enquiries from Japan’: spokeswoman
More Japanese brands and retailers are likely to occupy shops in Hong Kong this year, drawn to the city’s more reasonable retail rents, as well as Hongkongers’ affection for anything related to the land of kawaii and sushi.
Over the past two years, Japanese businesses have been the most active among foreign firms in terms of leasing retail spaces, according to data compiled by JLL.
In 2023, for example, a third of all foreign entities that rented shops in the city were Japanese, followed by retailers from mainland China with 24 per cent, the property consultancy said. In 2022, more than half of retail leasing transactions among foreign firms were from Japan.
As of February this year, Japanese retailers were still the most active in taking up retail space in Hong Kong, making up 40 per cent of all foreign firm tenants, JLL said.
