Recent decisions by major retailers including Seven & I Holdings Co. and Takashimaya Co. to forego the release of earnings guidance due to the coronavirus outbreak highlights the seriousness of Japan's consumption slump.
Convenience stores, supermarkets and drugstores, exempt from the government's business closure requests, are among the small number of companies benefiting from changing consumer behavior as people spending more time at home stock up on frozen and processed foods as well as basic necessities.
But analysts say the new consumption pattern won't lift the economy out of a slowdown and that questions remain about how effective the state of emergency through May 6 will be in containing the coronavirus.