OKUNO Retail (株式会社オクノ・リテール), Hokkaido men's clothing retailer, special liquidation in 2025

What happened

Why it happened

• A retail business that never recovered its street: post-COVID foot traffic kept falling, and the company had no way to pull people back to men's clothing sold among leaving tenants.
• Taken over in 2020, at the worst moment: OKUNO Retail inherited the business at the start of the pandemic, so it started its run already fighting a structural decline in foot traffic.
• The landlord decided the building was worth more gone: when parent Okuno scheduled demolition in fiscal 2025, the clothing business had no future, and winding up was the exit.

Aftermath

OKUNO Retail was established in 2011 in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, to operate a men's clothing retail business. It took over the men's clothing operations in 2020, but customer traffic continued to decline after the COVID-19 pandemic and tenants began withdrawing, worsening management to the point of no recovery. Operations were suspended, and on 7 April 2025 the Asahikawa District Court issued a special liquidation commencement order with liabilities of about ¥900 million. The parent company, Okuno, planned to demolish the building in fiscal 2025.