Business pressure from store closures, rising labour costs and labour shortages

「In the current fiscal year, higher personnel expenses resulting from human-resources measures such as wage base increases and additional holidays aimed at retaining and developing personnel have placed a burden on profit.」

「人材の定着・育成を目的とした賃金ベースアップや休日数増加といった人事施策に伴う人件費の増加」

「In the retail industry, which comprises our main customers, sales have increased as a result of price increases, while soaring procurement prices and higher wages associated with labor shortages are putting pressure on management. This has created a need to improve the efficiency of promotional activities and labor productivity.」

「In the retail industry, our principal client, the recovery in personal consumption and expansion in inbound demand resulting from an increase in visitors to Japan coexisted with higher purchase prices and labor shortages, which were squeezing operations. Consumption was also becoming increasingly polarized, and the economic disparity between regional and metropolitan areas was widening.」

「In the retail industry, our principal client, unit prices rose due to higher prices, but consumer purchasing intent declined because real wages did not increase. Labor shortages and higher logistics costs also squeezed operations.」

「In the retail industry, our principal client, a difficult business environment continued, requiring further ingenuity and responses, due to lower consumer purchasing intent resulting from rising prices, intensified competition across industry and business-format boundaries, tight labor demand and higher logistics costs.」

「In the retail industry, our principal client, the resumption of inbound demand and record heat boosted personal consumption. At the same time, intensified competition across industry and business-format boundaries, lower consumer purchasing intent due to rising prices, and continued increases in costs such as labor and utilities meant that the market environment continued to require further ingenuity and responses.」

「In the retail industry, our primary client base, competition is intensifying across industries, while personnel costs resulting from labour shortages and utility costs are rising sharply.」

「In the retail industry, our principal client, consumers' defensive frugality in response to rising prices intensified further. In addition, the industry continued to face a difficult operating environment due to intensified competition across industries and business formats, rising labor costs resulting from labor shortages, and higher purchase prices and electricity charges.」

「In the distribution industry, our main customer base, structural factors such as stagnant consumption, population decline and labour shortages are compounding one another and becoming major challenges affecting the market as a whole.」

「However, the effects of trade policies in various countries and the slowdown in overseas economies are beginning to spill over into Japan, while uncertainty about the outlook has increased due to measures to address labour shortages and rising delivery costs.」

「Although wage increases spread due to labor shortages resulting from population decline and the declining birthrate and aging population, household disposable income did not increase, and personal consumption did not recover.」

「The distribution industry, our main customer base, remains in a challenging environment due to intensifying competition across business formats as online businesses expand, labour shortages and rising logistics costs.」

「Our main clients in the distribution industry continued to face difficult conditions due to sluggish household consumption, the rise of online shopping and efforts to address labor shortages.」

「In the distribution industry, the company's main client industry, difficult conditions continue due to sluggish household consumption, the rise of online shopping and efforts to address labor shortages.」

「In the distribution market, our core market, shorter operating hours and store closures have occurred amid work-style reforms. The expansion of social insurance coverage, the burden of rising labour costs and labour shortages are also factors putting pressure on management.」