TOKYO —

Fast Retailing Co, the operator of the UNIQLO casual clothing store chain, plans to boost sales of its manga and anime T-shirts overseas, hoping to ride a wave of popularity for Japanese pop culture abroad.

The Japanese clothing maker in March started selling T-shirts with characters from legendary manga series, such as “Makoto-Chan” and “Tiger Mask,” published on the Shonen Magazine and Shonen Sunday weekly magazines to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the two comic magazines for boys.

T-shirts with characters from “Mobile Suit Gundam,” a televised anime series, and other popular manga comics and anime strips will appear on store shelves shortly, the company said.

Fast Retailing hopes to boost sales of the manga and anime T-shirts by luring more overseas customers who seek after Japanese pop culture as “Japan Cool.”

In France, Fast Retailing on Monday opened a time-limited T-shirt shop at Galeries Lafayette, a major department store in central Paris.

UNIQLO’s adult-size T-shirts are priced between 1,500 yen and 1,900 yen in Japan.

In 2008, the company aims at selling more than 12 million T-shirts worldwide. It operates UNIQLO shops in Britain, France, Hong Kong, mainland China, South Korea and the United States in addition to Japan.

JCN

2 Comments

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  japanyesterday at 03:02 PM JST - 18th April

  a reseller's dream come true. hope uniqlo does not turn into one of those hypebeast street brands, the name is getting bigger and bigger in the US

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  some14some at 03:41 PM JST - 18th April

  I personally wish Uniqlo Good Luck otherwise tax payer's fund may be required to bail out Manga Venture !

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