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Business trends

Cracks emerge in Japan's brick-and-mortar economy

Population decline hits even big chains like Uniqlo, Nikkei analysis shows

TOKYO -- Retailers and restaurants in Japan are shrinking their chains as a combination of e-commerce and population decline forces changes to business models that had relied on constant new openings to drive earnings growth.

The country now has just under 118,000 retail and restaurant locations, down 1% from the total at the end of 2018, a Nikkei analysis based on trade group data finds.

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