PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q2–2026Q1) · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
Having climbed out of pandemic-era losses into a 2024-2025 profit recovery, JTC now faces three simultaneous variables: an unusual net income spike in the fourth quarter of 2025, a subsequent reset in the first quarter of 2026, and Japan's scheduled November 2026 overhaul of its tax-free retail system.
Revenue grew sharply for two straight years, from 141.38 billion won in 2024 to 295.71 billion won in 2025, with operating margin stabilizing in the 14-15% range.
Fourth-quarter 2025 owners' net income of 60.96 billion won accounted for roughly 82% of the full-year total, before falling back to 0.92 billion won in the first quarter of 2026.
The debt-to-equity ratio fell sharply from 764.9% in 2022 to 95.6% in 2025, and operating cash flow turned positive at 46.75 billion won in 2025.
Recent reporting indicates the company is stepping up a diversification strategy to raise the revenue share of non-China markets such as Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Japan is set to fully replace its instant in-store tax discount with an airport refund-on-departure system starting November 1, 2026.
JTC is a Japan-based operator of tax-free retail stores for foreign visitors, having started its duty-free business in 1993 in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, before expanding across Kyushu, western and eastern Japan.
The company runs a range of store concepts anchored by its general tax-free brand 'JTC', alongside the premium-goods specialist 'Rakuichi', the daily-necessities chain 'Seikatsu Hiroba', the jewelry brand 'AKA JEWELRY', the experiential cosmetics store 'KOO SKIN', the general shopping complex 'DOTON PLAZA', and the drugstore chain 'Drug Yoshiyoshi'.
Its core customer base consists of group package tourists from Korea, China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia visiting Japan, while it has also been adapting to serve a growing share of independent travelers.
Its revenue structure combines the sale of well-known national brand goods, drawing on accumulated travel and distribution know-how, with the development and sale of private-brand products spanning health supplements, daily goods, cosmetics, and jewelry.
More recently, its entire 'Day Fit' health-supplement lineup received an award from a private quality-assessment body, reflecting efforts to bolster confidence in its private-brand products.
Its competitive landscape partially overlaps with other Japanese tax-free retailers as well as Korean downtown duty-free operators and H&B/drugstore channels that target independent travelers. The company has also stated it is pursuing entry into the duty-free business within Korea to secure new revenue sources.
It listed on KOSDAQ in April 2018, an unusual structure within Korea's retail sector given it is a Japan-headquartered foreign company listed on a Korean exchange.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q1 | ₩87.3B | ₩10.2B | 11.6% |
| 2025Q2 | ₩68.4B | ₩1.7B | 2.5% |
| 2025Q3 | ₩79.6B | ₩6.7B | 8.4% |
| 2025Q4 | ₩60.4B | ₩27B | 44.7% |
| 2026Q1 | ₩42.6B | ₩2B | 4.6% |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ₩11.7B | -₩75.3B | -₩77.2B | −644.9% | −271.4% | 764.9% |
| 2023 | ₩32.1B | -₩13.4B | -₩12.8B | −41.9% | −20.5% | 297.5% |
| 2024 | ₩141.4B | ₩20.6B | ₩19.3B | 14.6% | 23.0% | 222.8% |
| 2025 | ₩295.7B | ₩45.6B | ₩74B | 15.4% | 44.7% | 95.6% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
Annual results show a clear pandemic-era pattern: 2022 revenue of just 11.68 billion won came with an operating loss of 75.35 billion won and a net loss of 77.23 billion won.
In 2023, revenue rose to 32.05 billion won but the company remained in the red, with an operating loss of 13.42 billion won and a net loss of 12.82 billion won.
In 2024, revenue jumped sharply to 141.38 billion won, and the company swung to an operating profit of 20.64 billion won (14.6% operating margin) and net income of 19.28 billion won.
In 2025, revenue more than doubled again to 295.71 billion won, operating profit reached 45.56 billion won (15.4% margin), and owners' net income expanded to 73.99 billion won.
However, the quarterly breakdown for 2025 shows considerable variance: owners' net income was 7.27 billion won in the first quarter, 0.77 billion won in the second, 4.99 billion won in the third, and then surged to 60.96 billion won in the fourth quarter — a single quarter that accounted for roughly 82% of the full-year total.
The following quarter, the first of 2026, saw revenue fall back to 42.61 billion won, operating profit to 1.98 billion won, and owners' net income to 0.92 billion won, suggesting the fourth-quarter 2025 spike carried a strong one-off character.
Owners' net income summed across the most recent four reported quarters (second quarter of 2025 through first quarter of 2026) totaled 67.65 billion won, a figure heavily influenced by the inclusion of that outsized fourth-quarter 2025 result.
The balance sheet improved in parallel: equity rose from 26.12 billion won in 2022 to 165.49 billion won in 2025, the debt-to-equity ratio fell from 764.9% to 95.6% over the same period, and operating cash flow swung from negative 8.38 billion won in 2022 to positive 46.75 billion won in 2025.
Separately, for the fiscal year running from March 2025 to February 2026 — outside the period covered in this report — DigitalToday reported on April 15, 2026 that net income fell 92.7% year over year, reflecting roughly 9.5 billion won in asset impairment and about 3.1 billion won in foreign-exchange losses.
A subsequent quarter (March-May 2026) was reported by Newspim on July 31, 2026 to have swung back to operating and net profit, attributed by the company to cost efficiency and revenue diversification; both of these items are provisional media reports beyond this report's confirmed quarterly scope (through the first quarter of 2026) and are noted here for reference only.
Foreign visitor arrivals to Japan have recovered quickly since the pandemic, underpinning base demand for the tax-free retail market, and Korea is regarded as the single largest source market in Japan's inbound tourism mix. The industry's structure, however, is facing a major shift.
Starting November 1, 2026, Japan will abolish the existing system in which stores deducted consumption tax immediately at checkout, replacing it entirely with a refund-on-departure model under which tourists pay the tax-inclusive price upfront and are reimbursed at the airport before leaving the country.
The reform is intended to curb abuse such as domestic resale of tax-free goods, following customs investigations that reportedly uncovered unpaid tax cases running into the hundreds of millions of yen.
In addition, Japan's international tourist departure tax was tripled from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen per person starting in July 2026, and accommodation taxes in destinations including Kyoto have also risen, adding to the overall cost burden of visiting Japan.
Experts anticipate that congestion at airport refund counters is likely in the early stages of the new system, raising the possibility that the convenience of immediate in-store payment will diminish.
On the competitive side, some assessments note that continued yen weakness could keep Japanese tax-free retailers' pricing competitive versus other destinations.
By country, competition for Chinese group tourists has fluctuated alongside shifts in Sino-Japanese relations, and some operators have recently moved to suspend China-focused stores or pivot strategy, making country-mix rebalancing a broader industry theme.
The company has put forward revenue diversification as a core strategy. Per Newspim's July 31, 2026 report on the most recent quarter (March-May 2026), non-China market revenue combined rose 39.3% year over year, with Korea revenue up 36.8% to a record quarterly high, according to the company.
Over the same period, Taiwan revenue also hit a fresh high with 25.9% growth, while Thailand grew 18.0% and other Southeast Asian markets grew 317.7%, per the same report.
The company is pursuing entry into Korea's duty-free business as a new revenue source, and has outlined plans to link its Korean operations with Chinese tourist demand that has reportedly shifted toward destinations like Jeju and Busan amid cooler Sino-Japanese relations.
On the store network, the company has continued opening new-concept locations while also selectively suspending or closing lower-margin, China-focused stores, according to reporting.
Japan's tax-free system overhaul, scheduled for November 2026, is a variable that will require adjustments to store operations and customer service processes and will apply uniformly across the industry.
Experts have also suggested that temporary inconveniences such as airport refund-counter congestion are likely in the early stages of the new system, making shifts in tourists' in-store purchasing patterns a key point to watch over the following quarters.
JTC's history of moving from heavy losses in 2022-2023 to a profit-recovery phase in 2024-2025 means that profitability metrics can look quite different depending on which recent window is used for measurement.
In particular, the outsized owners' net income recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025 remains embedded in the trailing four-quarter total, so multiples calculated on that basis can be skewed by what appears to be a one-off factor.
The company currently pays no cash dividend, so dividend-yield-based comparisons do not apply. The shares have traded at a level carrying a premium to book value, which can be read as reflecting both expectations for continued profit recovery and the volatility seen in recent results.
Going forward, how much stability is confirmed in quarterly earnings is likely to be the key variable in interpreting valuation.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
Revenue and operating profit both grew substantially for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025, while equity and operating cash flow improved in tandem, stabilizing the balance sheet.
The debt-to-equity ratio fell sharply from 764.9% in 2022 to 95.6% in 2025, indicating the company has moved well away from the capital-impairment risk of the pandemic years.
A notable feature of recent quarterly results is a rising share of non-China revenue.
Per company disclosures, Korea and Taiwan revenue each hit record quarterly highs, while Southeast Asian revenue also grew substantially, suggesting some traction for a strategy aimed at reducing reliance on any single-country tourist base.
Some assessments note that continued yen weakness can highlight the price appeal of shopping in Japan for foreign visitors, a factor cited as supporting store traffic alongside the broader recovery in Japan's tourism market.
Owners' net income surged to an unusually high 60.96 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2025, then fell back sharply to 0.92 billion won in the first quarter of 2026.
The scale of this quarter-to-quarter variance makes it difficult to gauge the business's normalized profitability from annual or trailing four-quarter figures alone.
Reporting has noted instances of the company suspending China-focused stores amid reduced Chinese group tour demand tied to cooler Sino-Japanese relations, underscoring a business structure whose results remain sensitive to shifts in the political and diplomatic standing of a single source country.
The impact of Japan's nationwide shift to a refund-on-departure system starting in November 2026 on store operations and customer purchasing patterns has not yet been tested.
Experts have flagged expected confusion, including congestion at airport refund counters, in the early stages of implementation, making the effect on in-store revenue a matter that warrants monitoring.
As Japan's tax-free system is fully overhauled from an instant in-store discount to a refund-on-departure model, experts have flagged expected confusion such as congestion at airport refund counters in the early stages. How reduced in-store payment convenience will affect tourists' purchasing behavior remains uncertain.
Japan's international tourist departure tax was tripled from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen per person starting in July 2026, and lodging taxes in destinations including Kyoto have also risen, increasing the overall cost of visiting Japan. This could affect the share of tourists' total travel budgets available for shopping.
The company experienced large-scale asset impairment during the pandemic years, and more recently additional impairment losses tied to asset revaluation have also been reported.
Given a business structure still reliant on group tourists from a limited set of countries, the possibility of further impairment triggered by changes in external conditions cannot be ruled out.
The date Japan fully transitions to a refund-on-departure tax-free system; the effect on store checkout processes and tourist purchasing patterns should be monitored.
JTC's next quarterly results (covering June-August 2026) are expected around this time; whether the recently reported cost-efficiency and revenue-diversification trends continue should be checked.
During the autumn foliage peak season, the extent of any recovery in Chinese group tour demand and whether growth in the Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia revenue mix is sustained should be examined.
JTC's subsequent quarterly results (covering September-November 2026) are expected around this time, offering a first look at how the initial two months of the tax-free system reform affected actual performance.
JTC has moved decisively out of the heavy pandemic-era losses, posting a clear recovery in both revenue and profit through 2024 and 2025, alongside improving equity levels and a declining debt-to-equity ratio.
That said, the sizable swing between an unusually large fourth-quarter 2025 owners' net income figure and a much smaller first-quarter 2026 result highlights considerable quarter-to-quarter variance that should be factored into any reading of the numbers.
Recent reporting indicates the company is intensifying a strategy to reduce reliance on Chinese group tourism and broaden its revenue base toward Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Southeast Asia, while also reportedly exploring entry into Korea's own duty-free business.
On the industry side, Japan's scheduled November 2026 shift to a refund-on-departure tax-free system is a structural variable applying across the sector, and its effect on store operations and tourist purchasing patterns will be worth watching.
Rising total travel costs from a higher international departure tax and increased lodging taxes in major tourist destinations are additional factors to track.
Taken together, following the direction of profit recovery, the extent of quarterly volatility, and the impact of the upcoming regulatory change over the next several quarters appears to be a reasonable approach to assessing the company's trajectory.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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