Message from the President

Driving the Growth of the Reuse Industry as a Leader in the New Stage of Expansion

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all shareholders for your continued understanding and support of the BOOKOFF Group’s business activities.

As activities continue for achieving the goals of the medium-term management policies ending with the fiscal year ending in May 2028, many new stores were opened in the BOOKOFF operations in Japan, Premium services business and Overseas business for more growth. We also took steps to prevent the reoccurrence of the type of fraudulent activity that happened in the BOOKOFF operations in Japan. Another notable event was the recruitment of the people we will need for the growth of business operations.

In BOOKOFF operations in Japan, our core business, the main objective based on the medium-term management policies is to provide customers with the best possible reuse experience. To accomplish this, there were many steps during the past fiscal year to prepare for a variety of initiatives involving progress in two ways. One is providing more merchandise, centered on books, linked to local market needs. The other is making BOOKOFF ultra-convenient and ultra-interesting. We are opening and replacing BOOKOFF stores, including the addition of comprehensive and large-format BOOKOFF SUPER BAZAAR stores, with larger selections of trading cards and hobby goods. Enlarging digital services, mainly by using the official smartphone app, is another activity. At the end of May 2025, there were more than 9.32 million app members. Due to these activities, the number of people using BOOKOFF stores has recovered to the level prior to the pandemic.

In the Premium services business, the number of hugall stores and one-stop purchasing consultation desks increased in Tokyo’s 23 wards. This growth demonstrates the steady progress this business is achieving with increasing the awareness of merchandise reuse services among people who are not accustomed to selling their personal possessions. We have started rebranding our purchasing locations to the Rehello brand and are aiming to increase the volume of merchandise in this business with measures that include using linkage with the Rehello EC website for the sale of merchandise that was purchased.

In the Overseas business, growth continued at BOOKOFF in the United States and Jalan Jalan Japan in Malaysia and Kazakhstan as these operations added more stores.

The occurrence of fraudulent activities has created serious concerns for shareholders during the fiscal year that ended in May 2025. We have implemented measures to prevent this type of problem from happening again.
Customers are continuing to use our services, resulting in the growth of sales and earnings. Furthermore, we have made progress concerning the sales and earnings targets in the medium-term management policies.

The BOOKOFF Group is now advancing to a “new growth phase.” Based on our mission of “being a source of an enjoyable and prosperous life for many people,” we are dedicated to operating as a corporate group that is a source of value for customers as well as for employees, investors and society. We would like to play a role in achieving sustainability for ourselves and for society in two ways. First is growth by operating many types of businesses centered on “reuse.” Second is more use of “reuse” which supports creating a recycling-oriented society in which resources are reused in effective ways.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Yasutaka Horiuchi

President and CEO