Southeast Asia offers a blank slate for Japan’s biggest name in bookstores and video rentals, a business that is being made history by Netflix and other streaming services.
The name Tsutaya immediately conjures up the iconic latticed facade of the Tokyo bookstore in Daikanyama T-Site, designed by Klein Dytham Architecture.
Both the ‘TSUTAYA’ brand and Tsutaya Books have become an all-encompassing Japanese pop culture platform, operating in more than 1,400 branches around the world.
Although the Malaysian iteration of the shop isn’t quite as scenic as the Daikanyama stronghold, this local outpost is still outfitted with all the comfortable trimmings of a modern bookstore for you to curl up and get lost in the pages of a book.
The 31,000 sq ft of space will house a bookstore, café, specialised merchandise and activity areas which will be a curated lifestyle destination.
“We look forward to launching our first South-East Asia bookstore at Pavilion Bukit Jalil and we cannot wait for Malaysians to experience the Tsutaya brand for the first time,” Tsutaya Books Malaysia head Hideyuki Uemoto said in a statement.
“In line with our vision to cultivate culture and lifestyle, we hope to create a space for families and children who love books, design, and art to grow, explore and thrive together at Tsutaya Books,” he added.
Created to be the brand epitome of “Tsutaya”, each Tsutaya Books carries a distinct personality, offering a unique concept in elite areas where no two stores are alike, such as the iconic T-Site at Daikanyama, Shibuya, and Ginza Six in Tokyo. Since then, both “Tsutaya” and Tsutaya Books have become an all-encompassing Japanese pop culture platform, operating in more than 1,400 branches around the world.
“It is an honour to have Tsutaya Books opening their first-ever South-East Asia store in Pavilion Bukit Jalil, it has surely elevated our offerings from our current solid tenant line-up for the mall,” Kuala Lumpur Pavilion Sdn Bhd CEO of Retail and Pavilion Bukit
For book lovers, Tsutaya Books’s opening in Malaysia adds to the excitement of major Asian bookstore chains opening in Kuala Lumpur.
Last month, the Eslite Spectrum Corp, a major bookstore chain in Taiwan, announced it is scheduled to open a store in Kuala Lumpur in 2022 as part of its strategy to expand its network outside of Taiwan. The Kuala Lumpur outlet, reported to be at The Starhill in Jalan Bukit Bintang, will be Eslite’s first store in the South-East Asian market.
