Tobu Utsunomiya's Ohtawara store closes after 24 years as the lease runs out

The building on National Route 400 in Ohtawara first opened in April 1999 as the Ohtawara store of Ueno Department Store. Tobu Utsunomiya Department Store took over the site and opened its own Ohtawara store there in September 2002 — about 12,200 square metres of selling space over three floors.

Sales fell from their peak as competition with suburban shopping formats intensified. On 1 November 2025 the company announced that the store would close on 31 August 2026: the building's lease contract expires at the end of February 2027, and the facility's ageing had revealed that a renewal would demand heavy capital investment. The operator chose not to re-sign.

Around 50 employees are to be reassigned to the Utsunomiya main store, which continues operating together with the Tochigi city-hall store — the chain shrinks to two locations. No successor tenant had been announced at the time of the closure notice, leaving a three-floor retail shell whose owner group is expected to move relatively quickly on the next use.