News On Japan

Foot Locker to make $360 million Japanese acquisition

Aug 12, 2021 (iclg.com) - Japanese streetwear and footwear boutique Text Trading Company KK (Atmos) has agreed to be taken over by United States footwear giant Foot Locker for USD 360 million.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Foot Locker engaged DLA Piper to act for it on the transaction, which Foot Locker hopes will help grow its reach and market position in Japan. Atmos owns the Atmos brand, a premium footwear retailer with a multi-channel offering and existing relationships with sellers in the footwear market. DLA Piper partner Erik Wulff, who also headed up the firm’s advisory team on the transaction, said in a statement that the deal will support Foot Locker’s “growth strategy in the growing Asia-Pacific market and expand on its impressive brand portfolio”. Foot Locker plans to pay for the acquisition using existing cash reserves. Atmos has 49 physical shop locations globally, with 39 of them in Japan, which is the world’s third-largest economy. As well as increasing its strategic presence in Japan, Foot Locker hopes that it can leverage its premium offering via the acquisition. In fiscal year 2020, Atmos generated revenues totalling approximately USD 175 million, with over 60% of this coming from online channels.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

As of 9 p.m. on July 5, Typhoon No. 9 had become a large and extremely powerful storm near the Mariana Islands, moving west-northwest at 20 kilometers per hour. It is forecast to shift slightly northward around Wednesday, July 8, and approach Okinawa and the Sakishima Islands around Friday, July 10, while maintaining very strong intensity and a broad storm zone, raising the risk of significant impacts from wind, waves and rain.

Heavy rain continued across northern Kyushu, with some parts of Fukuoka Prefecture recording 120 millimeters of rainfall in the 24 hours through 3 p.m. on July 5.

A fossil discovered in Osaka has led to Japan’s first finding of its kind, raising the possibility that a giant marine predator believed to have swum in the seas around the Kansai region about 70 million years ago was a previously unknown species.

Former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn said the automaker is in a "state of emergency" and signaled he would be willing to return as chief executive officer, arguing that only a true decision-maker in the CEO role could rescue the company.

The entire Negishi Housing Area in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, has been returned to Japan for the first time in 79 years, ending its use as a residential district for U.S. military personnel and their families.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A temple in Yamagata, Gifu Prefecture, reported the theft of 11 Buddhist statues and other items on the morning of July 6, prompting police to investigate the case as a burglary.

A senior figure believed to be one of the top executives of the Prince Group, described as one of Asia’s largest criminal organizations, has been rearrested in Tokyo on suspicion of violating Japan’s Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act by unlawfully handing over his residence card to others, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

The growing abuse of over-the-counter drugs among young people in Japan reflects not only easy access to medicines but also loneliness, social media influence and a shortage of places where troubled youths can be safely seen and heard, according to a discussion among an addiction specialist, a former overdose user and a recovery worker with experience of drug and alcohol dependence.

An Indian restaurant in a shopping street in Yokohama's Nishi Ward was destroyed by fire on Saturday morning, with 34 fire engines and other emergency vehicles sent to the scene.

Recent symptoms such as fatigue and irritability may be signs of menopause, a condition often seen as a women’s health issue but one that also affects many men, especially those in their 40s and 50s who face growing responsibilities, declining recognition and physical changes that are difficult to discuss.

A female music teacher at a municipal elementary school in Tokyo’s Kita Ward has told officials she was drying private clothing in a music preparation room where a fire broke out last month, injuring 11 pupils and others.

A 10-year-old boy who went missing from a special needs school in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, was found submerged in a waterfall on July 2 and later confirmed dead.

Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.