Japan - Retail Sales





Japan: Retail Sales

Mnemonic WRT.IJPN
Unit Bil. JPY, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 15.66 %
Data Jan 2024 13,118
Dec 2023 15,553

Series Information

Source Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) - Japan
Release Monthly Report on the Current Survey of Commerce
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 1/31/1980
End Date 1/31/2024

Japan: Consumer

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Consumer Confidence Feb 2024 39.1 38 Index, SA Monthly
Retail Sales Jan 2024 13,118 15,553 Bil. JPY, NSA Monthly

Release Information

For Japan, the "Current Survey of Commerce" is conducted to clarify trends in business activities of establishments engaged in trade (including department stores, chain stores, supermarkets, other large-scale stores and convenience stores). Commercial Sales figures include all retailers; large-scale figures only include supermarket and department store figures.

Indexes

Active:

  • Industry classification: JSIC
  • Measurement: Fixed-base value index relative to 2020 (Index 2020=100)
  • Adjustments:
    • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
    • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start dates:
    • 2002m1
    • 2005m1
  • Geo coverage:
    • Country
    • Prefecture (IJPN_^^)
    • City (IJPN_^^^)
  • All concept-geo pairs exist: No

Predecessors:

  • 2015=100 - 2002m1 to 2023m1 ("_15")
  • 2010=100 - 2002m1 to 2016m12 (no specifier)
  • 2005=100 - 2002m1 to 2013m1 ("05")
  • 2000=100

Levels for wholesale

  • Industry classification: JSIC
  • Measurements:
    • Billions of Japanese yen (Bil. JPY)
    • 100 millions thereof (100 Mil. JPY)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: As early as 1980m1
  • Geo coverage: Country

Levels for retail

  • Industry classification: JSIC
  • Measurements:
    • Billions of Japanese yen (Bil. JPY)
    • Millions thereof (Mil. JPY)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: As early as 1980m1
  • Geo coverage:
    • Country
    • Prefecture (IJPN_^^)
    • City (IJPN_^^^)
  • All concept-geo pairs exist: No

For this survey, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commissions prefectural governments, through the survey-takers, to request the surveyed establishments to fill in questionnaires, which are then collected. The Ministry also directly request the head offices of the department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, large-scale specialty retailers for home electric appliances, drugstores and the home improvement stores to fill in questionnaires and then retrieve the data from them.

Moody's Analytics supplements

For the retail level, we compute a seasonally adjusted (SAAR) counterpart.

Yes. Data are revised when new data becomes available.

The index base year is advanced every fifth year.

Growth figures for retail sales values published by the source are calculated differently from the growth rates based on the corresponding indexes, so small discrepancies are possible.

Due to a benchmark update conducted by the source, there exists some discontinuity in the value series reported for retail sales and wholesale sales between February and March 2020. This results in a level shift which needs to be accounted for by multiplying data up to February 2020 by specific coefficients. The corresponding coefficients are reported in the appendix of monthly data reports published by the source. See pages 135-137 of this report for September 2021, for example.

Further reading

At the source:

  • For more information, refer to the source file.
  • 28 Mar 2023, Phillip Thorne - Rebased from 2015 to 2020: Properties, Moody's Analytics supplements.