MATSUE--Tears, memories and nostalgia were the order of the day at the Ichibata Hyakkaten department store here as customers came one final time on Jan. 14, which closed after 65 years in business.

With the closure, department stores are now non-existent in Shimane Prefecture, along with Yamagata and Tokushima prefectures. 

Located in front of JR Matsue Station, the store had been the face of the prefectural capital, but was forced to close due to poor sales and a string of tenant withdrawals because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On its last day of business, the store was visited by many customers who were sad to say goodbye to their favorite shopping destination.

The sky was cloudless and blue as shoppers gathered one after another at the main entrance, well before the store even opened at 10 a.m.

As soon as the doors opened, the customers trudged to their desired sales area, which was lined with red tags indicating price reductions.

Fumiko Tako, 81, a Matsue resident, had joined the line 30 minutes before the store opened.

“It was a convenient place with everything,” she said, while browsing inside the store she had become accustomed to. “Today I plan to buy food and clothing.”

On the first basement floor, shoppers wrote their memories and words of gratitude on message boards set up near the food section.

A 55-year-old woman, a government worker in Matsue, wrote a message and said, “Ever since I was a child, I always went to Ichibata to buy good things like clothes and shoes.”

Morimasa Kakiuchi, 79, who works in the signage business, wrote a message that this would be the start for the store. “I always came to Ichibata to buy gifts. I hope it will make a comeback.”

It was an emotional day for the staff as well.

Ikuko Hamamura, 57, manager of the menswear and jewelry department, had worked at the store for 37 years.

“I almost cried when I thought that I would no longer be greeting customers in front of the escalator in the morning," she said.

She added, “Talking with customers has cheered me up. I have nothing but gratitude for our customers.”

Just after 6:30 p.m., the store closed. Employees lined up in front of the main entrance.

Kaname Nishikoori, the department store president, told them in a speech, “I think Ichibata Hyakkaten was the only place where you could feel city life and was the very essence of a city in a rural area.”

“As a source of culture and information, I think it made a small contribution to the development of the region,” he said, thanking the employees.

When the shutters were lowered shortly after 6:50 p.m. as the many customers looked on, a chorus of “thank yous” erupted.

The store opened in 1958 at a location near the prefectural government’s office building. It moved to the current location in 1998, seeking to attract more customers.

However, due to the declining population, the opening of large retail stores in the suburbs, and the rise of online shopping, sales peaked at 10.8 billion yen ($74.4 million) in fiscal 2001 and declined year by year since then.

In addition, tenants, mainly apparel stores, withdrew one after another during the pandemic, and sales in fiscal 2022 fell to 4.3 billion yen, 40 percent of the peak level.

According to the Japan Department Stores Association, there were 180 department stores nationwide as of November 2023, down 26 percent from 10 years ago, when the figure was 242. As many as 17 prefectures have only one department store that is a member of the association.

The store’s parent company, Ichibata Electric Railroad Co., will continue to own the land and building after the closure, but no decision has been made on how the building will be utilized, and it is expected to remain vacant for the foreseeable future.

The departure of the younger generation of customers is also believed to be a factor in the closing of the store.

Miyu Kamitani, 21, who works in the tourism industry, said the closing of the store “doesn’t really ring a bell.”

To her, the store’s image is “for older people.” She took the bus to and from Matsue Station when she was a high school student. But even then, she only visited the store a few times a year.

With its prime location, she hopes that the site will become a facility offering a bowling alley and karaoke parlor, or a building lined with top designer brand shops.

“I hope it will be a place where people can dream of buying things like that one day,” she said.

(This article was written by Koichi Hotta, Masahiro Kakihana and Kenji Kimoto.)