Ginza×CSR・CSV Vol.17 Isetan Mitsukoshi LTD Mitsukoshi Ginza Store

Making Ginza Terrace a district park

• ─ What are the features of Ginza Terrace that includes the 9th floor outdoor terrace and indoor space?
• For the renovation, we wanted to make Ginza Terrace into a district park and consider it a public space that can be used as a part of the Ginza district. We also built a nursing and diaper changing room so that people can use the department store’s indoor space as a public place as well as the outdoor terrace. There is also a day care room that people can use when shopping at the department store, of course, or other stores in Ginza. It’s been used by about 2800 people so far.
• ─ The outdoor terrace is lush with greenery.
• The 9th floor terrace garden which has wooden tables and chairs and benches has a total area of about 1400 square meters, about half of which is covered in greenery like grass and seasonal plants, and it is free for public use. By increasing the amount of greenery in the city, we can create a place for visitors to rest and even supply nectar for bees, enriching the environment. We have also installed solar panels covering 360 square meters of the terrace wall. That energy is used to power three of the department store’s elevators.

• ─ I understand that the outdoor terrace also has a farm.
• We invite fourth-graders from Kyobashi Tsukiji Elementary School to the rooftop terrace farm to teach them about food and biodiversity. In spring, they plant seeds of herbs like rosemary and mint and vegetables like eggplant and sweet potato and do everything up to and including the harvest. Some of the herbs that are harvested are used in our 9th floor restaurant, the Minoru Diner. We also installed a garbage disposal machine and recycle wet refuse from the department store to use as fertilizer.
• ─ So you have established a cycle in the department store from cultivating plants from seeds, using the crops and even recycling the leftover waste.

Sharing the appeal of production areas from Ginza

• ─ You also help improve the environment and community through campaigns and events.
• Ginza Fashion Week that will be held for the 7th time this fall began in 2011 and is held twice a year. Based on the concept of “revitalizing Ginza and Japan with fashion,” we hold this event together with Matsuya Ginza and Printemps Ginza.
  
  In the past, each store has held its own merchandising activities and events based on a common theme around something like fiber or production area, sharing the appeal of the materials and techniques. But now the entire department store, not just the women’s department, participates to make a lively event. We plan on having each store develop their own, unique styles even further in the future.
  
  The other stores are our rivals, but raising our efforts through competition and collaborating to revitalize the district will actually increase the number of visitors to Ginza and bring in more customers to each store.
  
  There is also the Japan Senses campaign that all stores in the Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Group participate in, mainly in spring and fall. By creating collaborations with excellent traditional techniques and creators from around Japan, we reconsider Japan’s unique traditional techniques and aesthetic sensibility and convey them to our customers.
  
  This fall, we plan on introducing the excellence of Tohoku production areas and fashion and folk art, such as Yamagata weaving technology, Iwate “Nambu” ironware and thick homespun sheep’s wool and Akita “Mage-wappa” bent woodware, based on Tohoku as the theme.

• ─ Next year is Ginza Mitsukoshi’s 85th anniversary. What type of viewpoint is needed to further increase the appeal of Ginza as a district?
• Ginza is Japan’s greatest commercial cluster, offering excellent veteran specialty shops, new stores like flagship shops of foreign brands, theaters and galleries. It also receives many visitors from overseas, so, especially in the Ginza department store, we try to offer high quality services considering the district as “the world’s Ginza.” When expanding and renovating in 2010, we also set up an information desk for foreign tourists and duty-free counters on the second floor. Next fall, we plan on setting up duty-free shops around the city.
  
  I believe that, by continuing to offer a globally focused product selection and sales services and carry out initiatives to reduce the burden on the environment, we come closer to being a global department store in the true sense. And collaborating and coexisting in harmony with the district, rather than carrying out such initiatives on our own, is surely necessary for increasing the number of visitors from around the world even more.