As the retailer celebrates 50 years in business, CEO Takenori Osawa shares the lessons learned.
Back in 1976, Midwest was a tiny retail space in the suburbs of Nagoya. Today, it’s one of Japan’s most influential multi-brand stores, or select shops, as they’re known locally. The backbone of fashion retail in Japan, select shops are multi-brand stores that feature a highly curated range of brands; familiar names include Beams, United Arrows, and Dover Street Market.
This month, Midwest celebrates its 50th anniversary. Midwest is an independent family business, passed through generations. Presiding over it today is CEO Takenori Osawa, a front-row regular and one of Japan’s most respected buyers. His son, Ren, is head of menswear buying. “People often ask about the meaning of the name Midwest, but it doesn’t really have one,” says Osawa. “Mid is a reference to always wanting to be in the center of fashion, and I grew up in the west of Nagoya. It’s as simple as that.” I meet the 58-year-old at his three-story store in Shibuya, central Tokyo, where the racks are filled with Rick Owens, Mihara Yasuhiro, and a raft of upcoming names that remain refreshingly under the radar. Today, Midwest stocks around 100 labels and operates three stores in Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo, attracting a loyal base of hardcore fashion enthusiasts. As many multi-brand retailers falter, Midwest is still growing and profitable, with sales increasing by approximately 10-20% year-on-year over the past few years. This summer, it plans to open a footwear-only store in Nagoya, as part of a large luxury development in the city, with an adjacent event space for pop-ups. Expansions of its Tokyo and Osaka stores will follow in 2026 and 2027, respectively. For the 50th anniversary, the store is hosting a charity event at its stores across Japan in June and July, with designers submitting archive pieces. Proceeds will be allocated to future support programs for younger designers through Japan Fashion Week. As well as local brands like Van Jacket, Midwest was an early supporter of international designers, especially Belgian brands such as Maison Margiela, Raf Simons, and Dries van Noten, when they rose to prominence in the ’90s. Kris Van Assche was another: “Midwest was particularly important for the development of my brand, and they supported me in their three locations,” says Van Assche. They also know how to draw a local crowd. “They invited me over to Japan for their 30th anniversary. I remember a huge crowd waiting for me in front of the store. It was incredible.” Founded by Osawa’s father, Masaru, Midwest is one of the earliest and most successful examples of the select shop model. Masaru, who is currently the chairman of the business, took “no days off for a full decade” when he founded the store, opening from 10am to 11pm every day without a break. A young Osawa remembers sleeping under racks of designer clothes while his father entertained the fashion enthusiasts who would stop by after work. “They’d serve alcohol and coffee, and people would just chat and buy things,” he says. “We were sourcing items that were quite expensive even back then, and that you couldn’t find in Nagoya or anywhere else.” “Midwest is one of those rare places that truly respects a designer’s vision and genuinely supports young designer brands,” says Viviano Sue, whose label Viviano has been stocked by Midwest since 2023. The events, talk shows, and pop-ups the store often hosts are a major boon. “It has helped increase our visibility while also creating meaningful opportunities for sales,” he says. Burnishing the Japanese market An influx of tourists to Japan in 2024 and 2025 shaped the strategies of many luxury retailers in the country, who began hiring more English and Chinese-speaking sales staff to cater to demand and boost sales. Chinese tourists visiting Japan dropped by 45% in December 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Japan’s transport ministry. Many retailers in Japan were affected by the decline in Chinese visitors. But Midwest, which currently attributes 65% of its sales to domestic customers, does not advertise to tourists and has avoided the woes of some of its competitors. “I hear that many stores are shifting their sizing and buying strategies entirely to accommodate tourists, but they’re all having a really hard time right now,” says Osawa. The Osawa family also owns its Tokyo store directly, reducing rent pressure and giving the company more financial resilience than similar businesses. “That way we can invest a little more money in designers, so we can grow together,” he says. With the weakening of the yen driving up the price of import brands, Osawa has been looking closer to home and has allocated more of its buy to domestic designers. Rising homegrown names on the racks include Masu, Fetico, and Pillings. “During Covid-19, I wasn’t traveling abroad and didn’t want to buy things I hadn’t seen in real life,” he says. “I was researching new Japanese brands to understand what kind of young designers were emerging, and realised there was a lot of talent here.” A tendency to look down on homegrown labels in Japanese fashion causes many retailers to prioritize international brands, but Osawa says this is shifting. “I really feel that Japanese designers have incredible potential right now,” says Osawa. “There are quite a few shop owners who look down on domestic brands. I’ve always disliked that. Now that the level of Japanese designers has risen, I really feel that we should be pushing them more.” “There are many designers who get a lot of support from Midwest,” says Shinpei Goto, designer of Masu. “In the retail industry, it’s the only store that possesses the presence of a major corporation while still maintaining the warmth of an independent shop. It’s totally unique in that respect.” Osawa acts as a de facto consultant for many of the Japanese brands Midwest stocks. “It’s a two-way street: we buy their products, but we also learn a great deal from them. I’ll give them advice when we’re out for drinks, maybe suggesting that certain products might sell better in different materials,” he says. The biggest mistake that emerging designers make? “Delivery delays! That happens quite often. I tell that it’s really no good if they don’t get the timing right, because it makes it harder to sell.” The Midwest buying philosophy Osawa says his buying philosophy is based on a three-way principle: “It’s about the designers, our company, and customers all being happy. It’s not about the designer making money alone or the retailer making money alone. Customers who buy on sale might be happy, but the retailer makes no profit, and the brand suffers too,” he says. Midwest commits to a high full-price sell-through rate, achieving 70% sell-through at full price and 90% at sale price, for the few items it does place on sale. “We believe that is one of the reasons we’ve been able to continue for 50 years.” Midwest also buys its orders in full. “We scrutinize our products very carefully when we’re sourcing them, and we’ve never had that loose, consignment-based business mentality.” The customer demographic is broad, says Osawa, but “the people who are buying are mostly in their 30s and 40s.” Attracting young customers is always a focus. “Something I always pay close attention to, no matter the era, is attracting attention from younger people,” he says. “Customers don’t age with the brand. People get married, have children, or get busy with work, and their hobbies change. You absolutely have to add newness, and I’m always very concerned about cultivating new customers.” One way the brand does this is through regular pop-ups. “Pop-ups are an important part of our strategy. In Tokyo, we usually invite customers and industry people, serve drinks, and have a kind of reception,” says Osawa. The launch parties bring in around 200 people each time. “That’s how we, in our own small way, promote the brand.” The buying approach is intuitive. “I often decide whether to buy something or not based on the passion and energy of the brand I feel at a runway show,” says Osawa. “I think that’s probably where my perspective differs a little from other companies, but I want to do things that others can’t do.” In addition to regular pop-ups, the store has held talk show events; the most recent in 2024 attracted 2,500 guests across five talk sessions. The real-life focus means that 78% of Midwest’s sales happen in-store. Midwest’s investment in its shop floor staff is also significant. So far, the company has taken around 50 of its staff to Paris Fashion Week throughout its 50-year history and encourages team members to attend runway shows and showrooms in Japan. “In larger companies, it’s often only buyers who get to attend industry events like fashion weeks or trade shows, but we try to take our staff to shows as much as possible,” says Osawa. “We invest in giving them a more authentic experience.” As well as making staff feel valued and ingratiating them into the inner circles of the industry, these experiences confer authority and knowledge that come in handy when clinching a sale. “The staff really get emotionally invested, and we learn a lot about the designers’ work,” he adds. This, in turn, gives Midwest’s customers the impression that its staff have bonafide insight. “Being able to casually share that kind of information with customers is what sets us apart from other retailers.” A commitment to community Osawa is also serious about maintaining friendships with the designers he buys; many of the store’s collaborations and pop-ups are brokered over dinner and drinks. “A lot of designers would tell me that the work they were putting out was sometimes misunderstood, so we started creating opportunities and spaces where they could come and hold talk sessions in front of customers at pop-ups.” The Midwest annual Christmas party is also a legendary event — last year, the great and good of the Japanese fashion industry joined a giant karaoke party, with Osawa acting as MC. The year before, he dressed up as Santa Claus. “Something I really admire about Midwest is how they bring the Japanese fashion community together,” says Sue. “It’s quite rare to see so many designers from different backgrounds gathering in one place like that.” Osawa also credits the business’s longevity to an adventurous customer base in Japan who, immune to industry trends, will always look to more avant-garde brands and designers doing something different. Brands like Rick Owens and Mihara Yasuhiro that have a strong design language sell particularly well. “We’re not a huge company, but I think that there’s always been a certain number of people who like the zone we operate in,” he says. “If we can continue to capture those people, we’ll be able to survive.” That approach to commerce is good news for the designers, too, who feel less pressure to keep their collections safe or diluted. In a risk-averse retail landscape, that approach is rare. “Knowing that a store like Midwest exists allows for bolder creations,” says Goto. “It gives you courage.”
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