Values and Vision

Management Strategy

plates filled with beautiful dishes andingredients unique to the region, andwithout culture, they are just plateswith nothing on them. Parco has set“increasing local appeal” as one ofits six sustainability themes, and has
declared its contribution to increasing
the appeal of local areas through active
participation in communities and othermeans. We hope to co-create withthe culture of the local community ateach PARCO store, including events incollaboration with local creators andlocal industries, and to prosper together
with the city that is its foundation.

O2

Interview_KAWASE Kenji
Representative Director, President andUtilize diverse values

Executive Officer
Parco Co., Ltd.

Since its establishment, Parco has
been actively introducing cuttingedge culture, mainly fashion, but also
music, art, and theater, and proposing
new lifestyles. Our vision is “Excite,”“Design,” and “Create” to change
the world with excitement beyond
imagination, and our purpose is to“Change the World with Sensibility”
to forge a new era with the next
generation. We hope to realize Parco’s
unique style while looking at the leadingedge of the times and building a better
relationship with society.
In an era when the youth population
increased and various subcultures
were born, youth culture and thecharacteristics of Parco were a perfectmatch, and Parco was able to grow its
business performance centering on
fashion. However, it is more difficult
to categorize the “youth culture” oftoday's Japan than in the past, and it
is important to be aware that there
are “several cultures” with diversified
values. There is a growing tendency
for people to spend time and moneyon “Oshikatsu” to support their favorite

Management StrategySustainability

Governance

Data

Evolve the Origin and Refine Our Strengths

Management Interview_02

Parco’s rolewith values diversifying

Value Creation

idols and characters, and on supportingsocial activities that they can relate
to. Fashion is no longer necessarily
the object of the money spent on
their hobbies. It is also an age of
uncertainty and difficulty in predicting
the future, as is often referred to as
the “age of VUCA*.” As consumers’
values are changing, we at Parco needto reconsider how we contribute tosociety and what strengths we shoulddemonstrate from the starting point.

Highly acclaimed internationallyShibuya PARCO
Shibuya PARCO and Shinsaibashi
PARCO are commercial facilities that
we created with the latest concepts andmethods, but their opening coincidedwith the period of the COVID-19
pandemic, so they did not reach theirfull potential at the start. Since October
2022, when the situation of COVID-19
began to settle down, we have received
the expected evaluations, includinginternational ones, and we are getting
a good response that it is leading tobusiness results. Shibuya PARCO,
which opened in November 2019, wasdesigned to be a store where people

from overseas can also enjoy, with atarget of inbound sales of 30%. After
opening, the COVID-19 pandemic
continued for almost three years, andthe achievement of the target waspostponed, but then, after October 2022,
when border measures were relaxed, itchanged to the post-COVID-19 situation
at once, and the initial target wasgreatly exceeded. Witnessing the large
number of foreign visitors in addition
to Japanese people, I was once again
convinced that Shibuya PARCO is aplace that can be enjoyed by customers
from all over the world. Shinsaibashi
PARCO, which opened in November
2020, is actively collaborating with theadjacent Daimaru Shinsaibashi store
and steadily achieving results.
On the other hand, PARCO stores,
which are located in large suburban
cities, mainly attract customers from awide area of Japan. Each area where
PARCO stores are located has its own
unique characteristics. They can befound in a seasonal festival, the flavorof the local cuisine, or the local culture.
Civilization is measured in certain ways
- technological, material, or efficient but culture varies from region to region.
Culture and specialties are, so to speak,

I joined Parco Co., Ltd. 33 years ago,but I had little experience in stores,
and I have been working for the ParcoGroup companies for about 15 years.
I am proud to be a rare type of person
within Parco, having accumulated a
lot of experience that is not a “Parco= store” scheme, such as launching
new businesses and being involved incross-sectional projects. When I wasseconded to companies in the ParcoGroup, I thought all jobs, whether atParco or at other companies in theParco Group, were equally preciousand interesting. In my late twenties,
the groundwork was created to actively
embrace new and different businesses
from Parco, and this orientation has
been carried over to my current self.
Last fiscal year, I spent one year atJ. Front Retailing (the holding company),
where I was involved in management
strategy and carried out various tasks
from the perspective of the importanceof “overall optimization.” Since I became
the President of Parco this spring, I havefelt that while collaboration between
Parco and Daimaru MatsuzakayaDepartment Stores in promotion andother areas is progressing, there is room
for more collaboration and value cocreation with other Group companies.
“Overall optimization” does not mean
losing individuality and matching thewhole. Rather, it is important for eachcompany to refine its unique strengths
in order to improve the results of theGroup as a whole. Based on this idea,
I would like to make maximum use of
Parco’s strengths and capabilities forthe development of the J. Front RetailingGroup.
I feel that Parco is a company with ahigh-context culture where employees
are connected to each other throughshared sensitivities and thoughts thatcannot be put into words. Employees
who joined Parco as new graduates
have the strength of having been
nurtured only within Parco, but I also
believe that they have a fragility.
Perhaps I felt this way because, thanks
to the wide range of work I was given
at the Parco Group companies and at J.
Front Retailing, which is different frommost Parco employees, I was able todevelop a bit of an objective perspective
on Parco in addition to my “love forParco.” Last fiscal year, nearly half ofthe employees hired by Parco were midcareer hires. In other words, employee
diversity is progressing rapidly within
the organization of Parco. Parco has
the potential for further growing while
striking a balance between what mustremain unchanged and what can evolve.

As a member of “one universe”
I feel that the J. Front Retailing Group
as a whole should, as an organization,
acknowledge each other’s differences,interact more at the employee level, andget to know each other on a one-on-onebasis. I don’t think the J. Front RetailingGroup should be like Parco, and on
the other hand, if the holding company
asks me if we can tighten regulations
because Parco’s freedom has gonea little too far, I would reply, “Parco’s
free spirit leads to the enthusiasm
and creativity of the employees
themselves, so I want to value that.” As
an organization, we are separate, andwe want to continue to have different
cultures and individualities. That should
also lead to our strength as a group. As
long as we are aware that the J. Front

Retailing Group is a place where people
come into contact with each other andcome together, I think we can become“one universe.” Instead of saying,“I belong to Parco” or “That person
belongs to Daimaru Matsuzakaya
Department Stores,” we consider theentire J. Front Retailing Group to be“us.” That is an important factor that isindispensable in this day and age.
When we take a bird’s-eye view ofJapanese culture, the traditional orauthentic culture represented by thatin Kyoto and other places is a major
attraction of Japan, while the new andvery unique cultures represented bythose in Akihabara and Shibuya are now
very popular worldwide as Japaneseunique attractions. The J. Front RetailingGroup, which has Daimaru Matsuzakaya
Department Stores and Parco as
its operating companies, is a very
unique corporate group with the large
cultures of both. If they are successfully
combined, I think we will be able tocreate great synergies.

Tune Parco’s origin
to the “present”
The origin of Parco, which opened
Ikebukuro PARCO in 1969 to offer a
fashionable lifestyle targeting “21-yearold female office workers,” is to “support
women’s advancement in society,” so tospeak. It could be said that the company
was truly ahead of its time in terms of“diversity & inclusion.” We want to deliver
not an imposition such as the “only rightanswer” or a uniform, but life and culture
with the message that “you can stay as
you are.” I believe that we will be able torealize evolution in the sense of adapting
to the current era while keeping a close
eye on this origin, and that we will beable to envision and implement thenext move while synchronizing Parco’s
value with the social and economic
environments.
Within the J. Front Retailing Group,
Parco will continue to create new value
and contribute to society.

*VUCA: Acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, which refers to a situation where it becomes difficult for society and business to predict the future4243