OREANDA-NEWS. UNIQLO announces that it has decided to continue running the UNIQLO Kesennuma Store, in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The company initially opened the store as a temporary retail outlet on March 9, 2012, as part of the UNIQLO Recovery Assistance Project. Initially planning to run the store for only a year, UNIQLO has decided to keep it open beyond next month, in response to the overwhelming support of local consumers and the municipal authorities.

UNIQLO began distributing clothing and providing aid in Japan's Tohoku region immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. At the time, many residents of Kesennuma started asking the company to open a store in the area. Last August, the company decided to continue running the UNIQLO Sea Plaza Kamaishi Store, which also opened as a temporary location on March 9, 2012. The stores in Kesennuma and Kamaishi will continue to give area residents that chance to buy basic clothing, while providing new employment opportunities. UNIQLO wishes to take this opportunity to thank its customers for their ongoing support.

The UNIQLO Recovery Assistance Project was launched on March 1, 2012, to provide help and support to people who live in areas that were destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The Project will continue to provide such assistance until February 28, 2015, in hard-hit communities in prefectures such as Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima. UNIQLO is working with a number of nongovernmental organizations to encourage self-reliance, improve living standards, create jobs and rebuild devastated communities. UNIQLO opened the UNIQLO Kesennuma Store in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, under this initiative, as well as the UNIQLO Sea Plaza Kamaishi Store in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. The company also reopened the UNIQLO Haramachi Store in Fukushima Prefecture, which was briefly closed.