TOKYO — Tens of thousands of Japanese households remained without power on Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.4 quake struck shortly before midnight, throwing a swathe of northeastern Japan into darkness, severing key transportation links and killing four.

Companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp. raced to assess the impact, with any supply chain disruption likely to add pressure to strained global output of smartphones, electronics and automobiles.

The temblor revived memories of Japan’s biggest quake, of magnitude 9.1, which struck on March 11, 2011 in the same area and which includes Fukushima prefecture and a nuclear power plant crippled by a tsunami and meltdown. It left a Shinkansen bullet train service indefinitely suspended, and at least one major highway to the region closed for safety checks.

“This one felt different (to the 2011 quake), it was huge. I had to hang on to something to stay upright,” said Aoi Hoshino, who owns a bar in Fukushima and had customers when the quake struck.

One of her customers shrugged off the initial tremors, but when the biggest one hit, he stood up and shouted, “This is a big one!” she recalled.

The damage was minimal, save a few framed pictures and cups that fell, thanks to rails Ms. Hoshino had added to shelves to stop bottles from falling in the event of an earthquake.

“For a while my hands wouldn’t stop shaking,” she said.

Parts of building facades tumbled into streets in some areas. Television footage showed a steep tiled roof crumpled over a parked, crushed car and workers examining cracked highways.

About 300 km (186 miles) south of Fukushima, areas of the capital Tokyo lost power immediately after the quake, though most regained it within three hours.

But some 5,775 households serviced by Tohoku Electric Power Co, Inc. in the northeast remained without electricity as of noon local time (0300 GMT) on Thursday, though the firm said it expected most will have supply restored later in the day.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said four people had died and that the government would be on high alert for the possibility of further strong tremors over the next two to three days.

At least 107 people were reported injured, several seriously, with 4,300 households also still without water by mid-morning. Residents of one Fukushima city formed a long queue to fill up plastic tanks with water for use at home.

Renesas, a major supplier of automotive chips, said it had suspended production at two semiconductor plants and partially stopped output at a third.

Among them is its Naka plant in Ibaraki prefecture just north of Tokyo, which supplies semiconductors to auto companies worldwide that have already had to curb output because of chip shortages resulting from COVID-19-related disruption.

The quake, initially measured at magnitude 7.3 but later revised to 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, hit at 11:36 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) just off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 kilometers. The 29 km deep 2011 quake and tsunami off Fukushima — commemorated across the country less than a week ago — left some 18,000 dead.

A tsunami warning was issued but canceled early on Thursday morning. Some areas reported a rise in the sea level but no serious damage was immediately reported.

The 2011 disaster also set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. No abnormalities were reported at any nuclear power plants after the latest quake, though authorities earlier said a fire alarm had been triggered at a turbine building at the crippled plant.

Manufacturers said they were trying to gauge the potential damage to their facilities in the region.

Toyota canceled the day shift at two factories after workers evacuated during their evening shift on Wednesday. The automaker said it will decide on Thursday’s evening shift later.

To cover the area affected by the Shinkansen outage, ANA Holdings, Inc. and Japan Airlines Co, Ltd. added extra flights to northern cities. There were no forecasts of when regular rail service might be restored. — Reuters

SEOUL — As COVID curbs cut travel and duty-free shopping, South Koreans are driving a luxury goods boom at home that has left Chanel barring nearly a third of would-be shoppers to stop bulk buyers snagging $10,000 bags for resale with markups of 20% or more.

The storied French fashion and luxury company told Reuters it has seen traffic to its boutiques in South Korea skid since it began screening for customers it believed might be stocking up purely to flip to others in the resale market.

“We were able to identify them (bulk buyers) after having analyzed their buying patterns. Since this policy was implemented, the traffic in our boutiques has decreased by 30%,” Chanel told Reuters in a statement. It didn’t disclose exactly how it deemed those customers to be potential bulk buyers, and the privately owned business doesn’t disclose sales numbers by country.

Chanel’s strategy, implemented since July last year, came as global demand for luxury goods was picking up after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. South Korea is the world’s seventh-biggest luxury goods market according to Euromonitor, and the research firm estimates it was one of only two of the top seven markets by revenue — the other being China — to see sales grow last year from 2019 levels.

Supply at brands like Chanel, though, is tightly controlled, preserving exclusivity and boosting appeal with no online shopping option beyond cosmetics, perfumes and some small accessories. Such is the appetite in downtown Seoul that long queues form before dawn outside department stores as shoppers brace for what’s known as an ‘open run’ — a sprint to Chanel’s doors at opening time.

“I arrived … at 5.30 a.m. for an open run and I was notified that there were more than 30 people in front of me,” a shopper told Reuters in front of a Chanel boutique in Seoul. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of privacy concerns, he said by the time he entered the store — nearly 10 hours later — the item he wanted was sold out.

Reflecting such red-hot demand in the resale market, a Chanel medium classic flap bag was sold at 13.5 million won ($11,031) — 20% more than its standard retail price — in January on KREAM, a platform offering everything from sneakers to tech and luxury goods that is an affiliate of tech giant Naver Corp.

KREAM, an acronym for ‘Kicks Rule Everything Around Me’, was launched in 2020. It told Reuters its monthly transactions exceeded 100 billion won in December, and said South Korea’s resale market is worth more than 1 trillion won — nearly $820 million — even at the most conservative estimates.

‘QUEUE MANAGEMENT’
While resale platforms like KREAM offer a range of brands, Chanel, like Swiss watchmaker Rolex, is a particularly sought-after brand because of its status among couples in South Korea as one of the most popular wedding gifts, and frequent price increases of its most iconic handbags.

Chanel increased prices of some handbags, accessories and seasonal ready-to-wear earlier this month in Asia and Europe, including by 5% in South Korea — where prices have just been raised for the fifth time in nine months, according to Chanel Korea.

In tandem with its screening for bulk buyers, Chanel said it has implemented a “queue management system”: Clients are asked to give their contact number and reason for visiting the store so that they can be informed via text messages when they will be able to enter the boutique.

Brand experts and consumers are divided on the impact of the new buying pattern on Chanel.

“Consumers are voluntarily doing free ads for Chanel — camping outside (boutiques), doing open runs, posting their experiences on social media,” said Lee Eun Hee, a professor of consumer science at Inha University.

“I think all those phenomena have helped Chanel draw younger customers and make a big chunk of money off it.”

Still, some consumers say long queues and waiting lists have put them off.

“I just gave up buying a Chanel product long ago,” said a Seoul resident in her 30s, declining to be named due to privacy concerns.

“It’s too difficult to buy one, with some 300 people usually on a waiting list, and by the time it’s my turn, there is no product left. This really puts me off and I don’t want to be at the center of this craziness.”

Not giving up any time soon are the bulk buyer-resellers.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, some resellers told Reuters they’re hiring “line standers” for a fee of up to $125 a day to stand in queues or enter stores on their behalf.

One reseller in his 30s told Reuters he’s been reselling his purchases at usually more than 20% profit — and it can be far more profitable when inventory level is low.

He said he sold a Chanel flap card holder recently on secondhand marketplace app Karrot for nearly 1 million won, 40% above its retail price — five minutes after it went up for sale. — Reuters