Musinsa to open first curated store in Tokyo to promote K-fashion

Musinsa CI

Musinsa is set to open its first curated retail store in Tokyo as early as the first half of next year, marking the company’s full-scale entry into the Japanese offline market. Following its expansion into China later this year, Musinsa plans to accelerate the global spread of K-fashion with a physical presence in Japan.

According to fashion industry sources on Wednesday, Musinsa will end its store-in-store operations at the Lotte Duty Free Ginza location by the end of September and begin establishing its own offline distribution network. This will be Musinsa’s first official retail outlet in Japan since entering the market five years ago. The Tokyo flagship is expected to be comparable in size to Musinsa’s Seongsu and Hongdae stores in Korea, spanning roughly 1,000 square meters. It is likely to feature around 100 popular K-fashion brands such as Stand Oil and URAGO, and the company’s own label, Musinsa Standard, may also operate a dedicated space.

The company aims to open additional stores in key Japanese cities such as Osaka and Nagoya next year. That could bring the total number of Musinsa curated stores in Japan to three within 2026 alone.

Since launching “Musinsa Japan” in 2021, the company has built a local presence through its online store, duty-free shop brand zones, and numerous pop-up events. It has also handled exclusive Japanese distribution for Korean brand Matin Kim since November 2024. Martine Kim’s store in Shibuya, which opened this April, generated 320 million won ($234,000) in sales within just four days of opening.

Musinsa’s aggressive move into Japanese offline retail reflects a resurgence in local brick-and-mortar shopping. According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, even at the height of COVID-19 in 2022, about 80 percent of Japanese consumers still made purchases in physical stores. An industry insider noted, “For online-native brands, opening a store becomes a norm once they exceed annual sales of 1 billion yen.”