The role of medium-sized firms in retail change in Japan

The processes and structures in the retail sector in Japan frequently are characterised as very traditional. Since the decade of slow growth in the 1990s a small group of medium sized retail firms have adopted strategies that have allowed growth in sales and profit. These medium sized firms, that are present in several sub-sectors of retailing, are becoming, through strategies focused on localisation and 'newness', the role models and catalysts for a more general change that is spreading through Japanese retailing