At least 9 of 34 stores see sudden closures & Valu$ products: What's going on at Japan Home?

In recent months, several Japan Home stores were found to either be closing or turned into Valu$ shops

Is the Japan Home you’ve always walked past seemingly getting less crowded? Or worse, has it shuttered or turned into what looks suspiciously like a Valu$ store?

You’re not imagining it. Stores that were once packed with shoppers hunting for S$2 deals have been thinning out for months.

But now the cat is out of the bag: Japan Home isn’t quietly fading away. Its remaining Singapore stores are being handed over to Radha Exports, the company behind Valu$.

Here’s what’s going on.

What’s really going on right now is moving fast

Between Jun and Jul 2026, Japan Home announced closing-down sales for five outlets—at Hougang Mall, Century Square, Northpoint City, HarbourFront Centre and Buangkok Square—on its Facebook page.

And when the Business Times visited another nine Japan Home stores on Aug 18, it found three had already shuttered, while several others were closed for “stocktaking.” Significant quantities of Valu$ merchandise were also visible inside some of the outlets.

Japan Home is a retail chain store offering affordable homeware, while Valu$ is a chain of stores that operates via a dollar-store concept.

At Japan Home’s Bedok Mall outlet, which remained open, shelves had already been stocked with Valu$ products alongside its own. At the brand’s Waterway Point outlet, staff were spotted wearing Valu$ T-shirts.

Staff at Japan Home outlets described the situation as a “change of management,” with some saying Japan Home had been “sold to Valu$ entirely.”

Some other outlets are also reported to have 50% clearance sale signs up or to have Japan Home’s products cleared out.

A Valu$ store manager told the Business Times that Valu$ is not replacing Japan Home, though the evidence on the ground appears to tell a more complicated story. The outlets in Bedok and Woodlands are confirmed as joint operations, and more are expected to follow, said some Japan Home workers.

The ownership connection makes the transition less surprising than it initially appears.

Singapore-registered Radha Japan, which also operates ACE Fresh and Mr Fix hardware stores, holds approximately 30% of Japan Home Singapore, based on ACRA filings. The remaining stake is held by Japan Home Centre (Management) Ltd, the Hong Kong-based parent of the Japan Home brand.

Meanwhile, Valu$ is operated by DD Pte Ltd, which was founded by FMCG company Radha Exports in 2005. In other words, Japan Home Singapore and Valu$ are not entirely separate businesses—they are connected through the wider Radha group.

Just yesterday, on Aug 20, Japan Home’s website confirmed that it has licensed the operation of its remaining Singapore stores to Radha Exports, the fast-moving consumer goods company behind Valu$. 

The three-year deal takes effect from Aug 19, and is renewable for a further three years—described by the company as part of Japan Home’s “ongoing business development.”

Three consecutive years of declining profits—and now, losses

Before 2024, Japan Home Singapore’s profits had already been declining for three consecutive years. By the financial year ended Apr 30, 2024, revenue had dipped to S$51.7 million from S$53.7 million the previous year.

Then, it tipped from declining profits into actual losses. For the financial year ended Apr 30, 2025, losses after tax from continuing operations almost tripled to S$2.3 million, from S$858,596 the year before.

For Japan Home customers, the most immediate impact is the end of its loyalty rewards scheme. Its website showed that its JFUN & Gold Membership Programme has been terminated with effect from Jul 21, 2026, with no new registrations or renewals accepted. 

Existing members were given until Aug 18 to redeem their J-Fun points, J Cash Rebates, and loyalty rewards, after which unused points and rebates expired.

Japan Home’s online e-shop has also been taken down for maintenance, removing the digital purchasing option for customers who had been using it.

The various states of Japan Home’s outlets all over the island have not been update on its website.

Boasting over 380 branches globally

Founded in Hong Kong in 1991 under parent company International Housewares Retail Company, household retail chain Japan Home was brought to Singapore in 1999 by co-founders Ngai Lai Ha and Peter Lau Pak Fai.

It opened its first three stores in Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio, and Bugis Village, and eventually grew to a peak of 34 outlets in Jun 2026. Globally, it boasted over 380 branches, including locations in Macau, Cambodia, Eastern Malaysia, and Australia.

Inspired by Japan’s 100-yen shop concept, Japan Home aimed to source affordable housewares, sell them at accessible prices, and make shopping for daily necessities.

For weeks, the Singapore situation played out almost similarly to the way Hong Kong’s did a year earlier: closures without a clear explanation, staff giving conflicting accounts, and a company staying quiet.

Back in Jul 2025, concerns about a possible shutdown of Japan Home in Hong Kong circulated on social media, after several customers reported seeing 50% discounts advertised across branches as part of renovation clearance sales. Adding to the speculation, shoppers at multiple locations also spotted “lease expired” notices posted in stores, according to reports covered by on.cc and HK01.

However, chairman Ngai Lai Ha stepped forward to confirm that claims that JHC was facing a complete closure were unfounded, and its financial operations remained stable, with sound liquidity and prudent capital management. Instead, it was merely undergoing a name change from JHC (日本城) to JHC (真好城) in an attempt to expand procurement of affordable, high-quality, and value-for-money items while introducing a competitive pricing strategy to provide greater value to customers.

Despite denying closure rumours, the financial performance of Japan Home’s parent company told a more difficult story. International Housewares Retail Company issued a profit warning in Jul 2025, forecasting a 51% to 57% decline in annual profits compared to the prior year’s HK$100 million (S$16.21 million). 

The group mainly attributed the decline to weak consumer sentiment, changing purchasing behaviours, and, more pointedly, competition from mainland Chinese e-commerce platforms, which have collectively led to a 5.6% year-on-year decrease in revenue. That said, it still remains profitable, making HK$47.727 million (S$7.73 million) for FY 2024/25.

Feeling the pressure of Chinese rivals

Japan Home’s value proposition was always about price and convenience: affordable, decent-quality housewares that one could pick up at a mall near where you live. And that model had no real challenger for most of the 2000s and 2010s. 

Then Taobao, Pinduoduo, Shein, and other similar Chinese e-commerce platforms gained popularity, offering the same or similar products available directly from Chinese manufacturers and delivered to customers’ doors, often for significantly less.

The group explicitly cited this specific competition from mainland e-commerce platforms as a key driver of its revenue decline. 

A physical housewares store like Japan Home minimally charges you for the rent, the staff, and the logistics of getting products from a factory in China to a shelf in Tampines. 

But ordering from an online platform charges you for a fraction of that since they don’t have to deal with the high rental, operational, and manpower costs prevalent in Singapore’s retail scene. When the price gap becomes too obvious to the customer and the ordering process becomes frictionless, the heartland housewares store would naturally lose its market share.

Surviving Singapore’s increasingly brutal retail scene

Japan Home’s difficulties aren’t happening in isolation. Singapore has seen a broader retreat of Japanese-style affordable retail over the past year:

For instance, Isetan at Tampines Mall closed in Nov 2025 after 30 years, leaving the brand with a reduced Singapore footprint. 

Moreover, budget-shopper favourite Daiso has closed three Singapore outlets in 2026 alone—at 100 AM in Jan, Sembawang Shopping Centre in Apr, and Tampines 1 in Jun. 

It’s pretty evident that these Japanese brands built on affordable, middle-market physical retail are squeezed from below by e-commerce and from above by mall rental costs that haven’t adjusted to lower footfall.

For Singapore shoppers who grew up with Japan Home as the default stop for a cheap chopping board or a new set of dish towels, the transition marks the end of a special kind of heartland retail.

Whether Valu$ can fill that space under the Japan Home name for the next three years or whether this 100-yen concept will join other precedents of Japanese retail in Singapore and downsize or bite the dust is a question only time can answer.

Featured Image Credit: Goody Feed

...