Japanese Report on North American Department Stores
[Report on an Inspection Tour of Department Stores in the United States of America and British Canada] Hokumai gasshukoku oyo hide ryo kanada ni o keru depatomento sutoa shisatsu hokoku ka
Notes: A report of a three-month tour of department stores in the US and Canada. The first half provides reports for each of the fifteen cities visited, including Portland, Seattle, Detroit, Kansas City, Montreal, Boston, and Los Angeles (plus Tokyo, for comparison, before the authors returned to Osaka). The second half describes equipment, clerk training, customers, advertising, and commerce.
Following the First World War, chain and department stores expanded rapidly in the United States. Business leaders in Japan, whose retail economy was growing apace, became very interested in American stores and how they were run. The authors of this report may have been connected to the textile industry. In 1923, Itoi Kunihara described his experience in the US in an issue of the East-West Textile World (Tozai orimono kaisha) magazine, published in Tokyo.
For reference see Timothy Yang's A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan, which describes similar tours made by representatives of Hoshi Pharmaceuticals of American chain and department stores.
This report has no imprint or colophon. It was likely printed for private distribution, with no holdings recorded in OCLC.
[2], 4,66; [2],8, 111 plus an inserted folding chart.
Edition + Condition: First edition. A good only copy, with loss at the top and bottom of the spine and wear to the corners of the unprinted wrappers.
Publication: [Osaka?]: (n.p.), [1922?].
Item No: #361858
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