Otaru played a central role in the economic development of Hokkaido during the early part of the 20th century, with the city’s “North Wall” area becoming a cornerstone for distribution and finance. As a result, Otaru is renowned for its historical buildings that hark back to days gone by.
We are using four typical examples of such buildings – the Former Mitsui Bank Otaru Branch, Former Takahashi Warehouse, Former Arata Trading Company and the Former Mitsui bank of Otaru Branch – to preserve, manage and conduct research into architecture from the early part of the 20^th century. We have also established an art gallery on the site, showcasing works of art and artifacts from our collection that tie in with the same era.

Otaru Art Base consists of the Stained Glass Museum (Former Takahashi Warehouse) alongside was renovated, 「Museum shop(former Arata Trading Company)」, 「Mitsui bank of Otaru Branch」, and former bank of Hokkai-do Takushoku Otaru branch, 「Nitori Museum」consists of the Art Nouveau Art Deco Glass Gallery, paintings, ant sculptures.

Having previously provided support for education, tourism and cultural activities in Hokkaido through channels such as the NITORI Hokkaido Aid Fund, we have established this facility as part of our corporate philanthropy activities in an effort to make an even greater contribution to tourism in Hokkaido. We intend to establish it as a place where people from all over the world can share emotions and inspiration as they experience the very best in culture and the arts.

The chain store industry in Japan has long been regarded as missing something in terms of freedom of choice, individuality and interest. Originally, however, chain stores were supposed to form part of our social infrastructure using specially designed management systems to provide the foundation of prosperous home living for the masses. It was Shunichi Atsumi who first came up with that concept.
Atsumi presided over the Japan Retailing Center, a management consulting organization specializing in chain stores, from 1963 and worked to modernize the distribution industry in Japan, which was lagging behind Europe and the US. He continued with such activities for many years in an effort to improve standards of living for everyone.

We empathize with Atsumi, who dedicated his life to creating genuine chain stores, and have continued to learn about and put into practice the principles behind chain stores, so that we can achieve our dream of “To provide the foundation of prosperous home living to the global community.” With that in mind, we renovated Atsumi’s home in September 2015 and established the Shunichi Atsumi Museum.
Our aim is to share Atsumi’s ideas and principles about chain stores with as many people as possible through the Shunichi Atsumi Museum as part of our social contribution activities.