Faced with a possible plateau in its expansion in the States, Wal-Mart has begun to push aggressively for expansion here in Japan, the world's second-largest retail market. With its partner Seiyu, they'll be opening several "Wal-Mart Seiyu" super-centres from 2006. There are doubts about how successful the expansion drive will be, with most of the discussion centring on so-called cultural differences (resistance to discounting, preference for plenty of warm-fuzzy sales assistance, etc). Cultural stereotypes are the favourite device for journalists with deadlines to meet and little intellectual curiosity. In fact, a lot of Japanese want the existing Wal-Mart outlets to be more American. And analyses of why the French Carrefour chain had to pull out from Japan indicate that it wasn't French enough, especially in its product lines. On top of that, the many, many Japanese-owned discount outlets here (100-yen shops, 99-yen shops, Don Quixote, etc) already are very popular and have few staff.
Whether Wal-Mart will be successful depends heavily on getting Japanese to drive to its supercentres. That's in fact already happening in many Japanese cities outside of the top tier of urban centres (Tokyo, Yokohama, etc). A lot of hollowing-out is going on in downtown cores in the regions, where driving is nearly essential. One can expect a Wal-Mart expansion to exacerbate the trend towards the suburbanization of business. On the other hand, Japan's comparatively high gas prices (about YEN 130/litre) and the prospect of fuel-cost increases might restrict Wal-Mart's ability to expand in the manner and on the scale that it has in the States.