The story
Founded by Takuya Okada on Feb 21, 1969.1
JUSCO (ジャスコ, Jasuko) is the acronym for Japan United Stores Company, a chain of "general merchandise stores" (or hypermarket) and the largest of its type in Japan.
The company was legally incorporated in September 1926 as Okadaya (founded in 1758). In 1970, Okadaya merged with Futagi and Shiro to form Jusco Co., Ltd. The employees voted to name the company "Japan United Stores Company". The various Jusco companies are subsidiaries of the Aeon supermarket chain. The Jusco name was adopted from a company founded as a kimono silk trader in 1758. Renamed Aeon in 1989, it operates stores throughout Japan under Jusco and other names and also has a presence in Malaysia, Hong Kong, mainland China and Thailand.
Aeon took over the Japanese operations of Yaohan in December 1997.
On August 21, 2001, the company became Aeon Co., Ltd. The largest Jusco (also the largest single-building shopping center in Japan) opened in 2005 in Mito. On August 21, 2008, the corporate structure changed. Aeon Co., Ltd. became a holding company while Aeon Retail Co., Ltd. took over the retail operations formerly held by Aeon Co., Ltd.
As of March 1, 2011, all Jusco and SATY stores under the Aeon umbrella in Japan changed their names to Aeon while all the Jusco stores and shopping centres in Malaysia have been fully re-branded into Aeon since March 2012. The Hong Kong and Mainland China subsidiaries officially changed their name to Aeon on 1 March 2013.
On July 28, 2026, an Aeon Mall in Kashima, Kumamoto partially collapsed after an explosion caused by an earthquake. Seven people were killed in the collapse and an additional five people had to be rescued from the wreckage.
From Wikipedia’s article on Aeon (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5