Apple Inc is to reopen its biggest stores in Japan from midday tomorrow, bringing its physical retail network back online in one of its biggest markets.
Shuttered after the COVID-19 outbreak forced a series of restrictive measures across the country, Apple’s stores in the shopping districts of Omotesando, Ginza and Shibuya are all reopening their doors, with the biggest and latest outlet in Marunouchi business district joining them.
All 10 of Apple’s stores in Japan are to be open, after the company tentatively resumed sales at two of them a week earlier.
Photo: AP
Japan has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better than most countries, lifting its state of emergency in stages last month and sending students in Tokyo back to school at the beginning of this week.
Apple has already reopened stores in Australia, Austria, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland, as well as some stores in Italy and the US.
It announced another 100 US stores would resume operations last week, although more than half of them are offering curbside pick-up services only.
In a statement confirming the original Japan openings, Apple said that stores would require temperature checks at the door, social distancing and the use of masks by customers and staff.
This is in line with requirements among local Japanese retailers such as Montbell, which turns away customers without masks.
Separately, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook said that protections for people are “still not universally applied,” as he discussed discrimination and inequality in the US in an internal memo to employees.
Cook, who has spoken up for human rights and against inequality, made the comments on the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has sparked protests and riots across the country.
Many Apple employees have raised concerns about discrimination, according to the memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
Cook said that the company would be donating to a number of groups, including the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit focusing on racial injustice.
The iPhone maker would also match for employee donations two-for-one this month.
“We have to re-examine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt, but too often ignored,” Cook said. “George Floyd’s death is shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a ‘normal’ future, and build one that lives up to the highest ideals of equality and justice.”
With protests taking place in cities across the country on Sunday, the company said that it had temporarily shuttered the majority of its US stores, citing the “health and safety” of its employees.
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