101-557: Uniqlo Co., Ltd. ( 株式会社ユニクロ , Kabushiki-gaisha Yunikuro ) ( US : / ˈ juː n i k l oʊ / YOO -nee-kloh ; Japanese pronunciation: [jɯnikɯɾo] ) is a Japanese casual wear designer and retailer. It is known for its LifeWear philosophy of providing consumers with high-quality everyday clothing with attention to detail. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. A Yamaguchi -based company, Ogori Shōji (which, until then, had been operating men's clothing shops called "Men's Shop OS")
202-698: A cot–caught merger , which is rapidly spreading throughout the whole country. However, the South, Inland North, and a Northeastern coastal corridor passing through Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore typically preserve an older cot–caught distinction. For that Northeastern corridor, the realization of the THOUGHT vowel is particularly marked , as depicted in humorous spellings, like in tawk and cawfee ( talk and coffee ), which intend to represent it being tense and diphthongal : [oə] . A split of TRAP into two separate phonemes , using different
303-492: A duty-free deal for Lotte, Shin was accused of donating ₩ 7 billion ( US$ 6.12 million) to a non-profit controlled by incumbent President Park Geun-hye 's close friend Choi Soon-sil . On February 13, 2018, Shin was fined ₩ 7 billion ( US$ 6.12 million) and sentenced to 2.5 years incarceration. He was jailed immediately following the sentencing. Following his conviction, Shin stepped down as Chief Operating Officer of Lotte Group's Japanese-based holding firm but remained on
404-520: A pronunciations for example in gap [æ] versus gas [eə] , further defines New York City as well as Philadelphia–Baltimore accents. Most Americans preserve all historical /r/ sounds, using what is known as a rhotic accent . The only traditional r -dropping (or non-rhoticity) in regional U.S. accents variably appears today in eastern New England , New York City , and some of the former plantation South primarily among older speakers (and, relatedly, some African-American Vernacular English across
505-762: A captive beluga whale named Bella, currently held in the Lotte World Aquarium Attraction in Seoul . In 2016, Lotte Corporation announced that they would no longer acquire new beluga whales after two of Bella's companions, Belli and Bellu, died in their care. In 2019, Lotte Corporation pledged that they would release Bella from captivity. As of 2023, the Lotte Corporation has come under increasing criticism for keeping Bella in solitary captivity for an extended multi-year period following their announcement. The corporation has also been criticized by civic groups for
606-616: A complex phenomenon of "both convergence and divergence": some accents are homogenizing and leveling , while others are diversifying and deviating further away from one another. Having been settled longer than the American West Coast, the East Coast has had more time to develop unique accents, and it currently comprises three or four linguistically significant regions, each of which possesses English varieties both different from each other as well as quite internally diverse: New England ,
707-447: A consonant, such as in pearl , car and fort . Non-rhotic American accents, those that do not pronounce ⟨r⟩ except before a vowel, such as some accents of Eastern New England , New York City , and African-Americans , and a specific few (often older ones) spoken by Southerners , are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived as sounding especially ethnic, regional, or antiquated. Rhoticity
808-553: A lack of updates or cohesive plan for retiring Bella to a sanctuary. In June 2016, the police conducted a probe into Lotte Corp for a possible slush fund and embezzlement. The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office reported that 240 investigators raided 17 Lotte offices, including its central Seoul headquarters and the homes of founder Shin Kyuk-ho , Chairman Shin Dong-bin and other key executives, with 15 more offices being raided just
909-741: A major focus opening flagship locations in Rome and Edinburgh . By August 2023, the company forecasts it will operate 3,747 stores worldwide. Uniqlo opened its first Australian store in Melbourne in April 2014. It expanded into Queensland the following year, with the introduction of two shops in Brisbane . Uniqlo opened a shop in Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne , Victoria, the largest shopping centre in
1010-586: A merger with the THOUGHT ( caught ) set. Having taken place prior to the unrounding of the cot vowel, it results in lengthening and perhaps raising, merging the more recently separated vowel into the THOUGHT vowel in the following environments: before many instances of /f/ , /θ/ , and particularly /s/ (as in Austria, cloth, cost, loss, off, often, etc.), a few instances before /ŋ/ (as in strong, long, wrong ), and variably by region or speaker in gone , on , and certain other words. Unlike American accents,
1111-605: A new label, +J collection, which won the 2011 Brit Insurance Design Fashion Award. Shiatzy Chen was approached by Uniqlo to produce a capsule collection of ready-to-wear pieces to launch in November 2010. Uniqlo first opened its roadside store in Japan in 1985 and it has now many roadside stores in Japan and five other countries in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia. On 2 September 2009, Fast Retailing announced that
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#17328550896591212-621: A new peak, with over 500 retail stores in Japan. When Uniqlo decided to expand overseas, it separated Uniqlo from the parent company, and established Fast Retailing (Jiangsu) Apparel Co., Ltd. in China. In 2002, their first Chinese Uniqlo outlet was opened in Shanghai along with four overseas outlets in London and Basingstoke England. On 1 November 2005, Fast Retailing transferred the business related to clothing manufacturing and retailing to Sun Road Co., Ltd.,
1313-636: A nice day , for sure); many are now distinctly old-fashioned (swell, groovy). Some English words now in general use, such as hijacking, disc jockey , boost, bulldoze and jazz , originated as American slang. American English has always shown a marked tendency to use words in different parts of speech and nouns are often used as verbs . Examples of nouns that are now also verbs are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, hashtag, head, divorce, loan, estimate, X-ray, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, bad-mouth, vacation , major, and many others. Compounds coined in
1414-475: A process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in Britain. English thus predominated in the colonies even by the end of the 17th century's first immigration of non-English speakers from Western Europe and Africa. Additionally, firsthand descriptions of a fairly uniform American English (particularly in contrast to
1515-657: A series of other vowel shifts in the same region, known by linguists as the " Inland North ". The Inland North shares with the Eastern New England dialect (including Boston accents ) a backer tongue positioning of the GOOSE /u/ vowel (to [u] ) and the MOUTH /aʊ/ vowel (to [ɑʊ~äʊ] ) in comparison to the rest of the country. Ranging from northern New England across the Great Lakes to Minnesota, another Northern regional marker
1616-831: A store in Stuttgart (2016), Cologne , Düsseldorf (2018) and Hamburg (2020). By 2021 the company operated ten stores in Germany, six of which were in Berlin. Uniqlo opened its first Indian store New Delhi in October 2019 and in November it opened in Gurugram , following the company's announcement about the same on 9 May 2018. The company will set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India. First flagship store in Mumbai opened on 6 October 2023 at Phoenix Marketcity and
1717-514: A survey, completed in 2003, polling English speakers across the United States about their specific everyday word choices, hoping to identify regionalisms. The study found that most Americans prefer the term sub for a long sandwich, soda (but pop in the Great Lakes region and generic coke in the South) for a sweet and bubbly soft drink , you or you guys for the plural of you (but y'all in
1818-453: A variation of American English in these islands. In 2021, about 245 million Americans, aged 5 or above, spoke English at home: a majority of the United States total population of roughly 330 million people. The United States has never had an official language at the federal level, but English is commonly used at the federal level and in states without an official language. 32 of the 50 states, in some cases as part of what has been called
1919-401: A week later. After news of the investigation broke, between June 10 and June 14, Lotte Group firms lost over ₩ 1.21 trillion ( US$ 1.06 billion) in market value. By October, its value had fallen by 15.8% to ₩ 7.75 trillion ( US$ 6.77 billion) compared to its June 9 figure of ₩ 9.26 trillion ( US$ 8.09 billion). Lotte Chemical Corp also withdrew from bidding for Axiall Corp in the wake of
2020-575: A wholly owned subsidiary that operated golf courses through a company split (absorption-type split) , and became a holding company . On the same day, Sun Road changed its name to Uniqlo Co., Ltd. 2005 saw more overseas expansion, with stores opening in the United States ( New York City ), Hong Kong ( Tsim Sha Tsui ) and South Korea ( Seoul ), their South Korean expansion being part of a joint venture with Lotte . As of year-end 2005, in addition to its overseas holdings, Uniqlo had around 700 stores within Japan. By 2006, sales were $ 4 billion. By April 2007,
2121-642: Is also associated with the United States, perhaps mostly in the Midwest and the South. American accents that have not undergone the cot–caught merger (the lexical sets LOT and THOUGHT ) have instead retained a LOT – CLOTH split : a 17th-century distinction in which certain words (labeled as the CLOTH lexical set ) separated away from the LOT set. The split, which has now reversed in most British English, simultaneously shifts this relatively recent CLOTH set into
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#17328550896592222-637: Is also home to a creole language known commonly as Hawaiian Pidgin , and some Hawaii residents speak English with a Pidgin-influenced accent. American English also gave rise to some dialects outside the country, for example, Philippine English , beginning during the American occupation of the Philippines and subsequently the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands ; Thomasites first established
2323-573: Is called "Uniqlotown" for Orchard Road. Uniqlo ( 유니클로 ) generated more than 2 billion won ($ 1.7 million) in one day's sales on 11 November 2011 when it opened Asia's largest flagship store in central Seoul . The sales figure was the highest ever set by a fashion outlet in Korea. Uniqlo earns over US$ 1.2 billion in annual revenue with 134 shops in South Korea. Lotte owns 49% of Uniqlo's Korean subsidiary. American English American English , sometimes called United States English or U.S. English ,
2424-526: Is common in most American accents despite being now rare in England because, during the 17th-century British colonization, nearly all dialects of English were rhotic, and most North American English simply remained that way. The preservation of rhoticity in North America was also supported by continuing waves of rhotic-accented Scotch-Irish immigrants, most intensely during the 18th century (and moderately during
2525-553: Is located in Songpa-gu , Seoul and Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. in Shinjuku , Tokyo. It is controlled by the founder Shin Kyuk-Ho 's extended family. Lotte Group's major businesses are food, retail, chemical, construction, manufacturing, tourism, service, finance, etc. Lotte also owns professional baseball teams: Lotte Corporation has received negative press attention due to treatment of
2626-420: Is often identified by Americans as a "country" accent, and is defined by the /aɪ/ vowel losing its gliding quality : [aː] , the initiation event for a complicated Southern vowel shift, including a " Southern drawl " that makes short front vowels into distinct-sounding gliding vowels . The fronting of the vowels of GOOSE , GOAT , MOUTH , and STRUT tends to also define Southern accents as well as
2727-408: Is still selling 3D knit pieces. In October 2018, Uniqlo collaborated with designer Alexander Wang to create a line of Heattech layerable basics including tank tops, leggings, underwear and bodysuits. On 3 June 2019, artist and recent Dior Homme collaborator KAWS participed on KAWS x UNIQLO UT . "Perhaps because all the other collections were the subdued Uniqlo trademark, KAWS’s subversive art
2828-957: Is the common language at home, in public, and in government. Lotte (conglomerate) Lotte Corporation is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation , and the fifth-largest chaebol in South Korea. Lotte was founded on June 28, 1948, by Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo . Shin expanded Lotte to his ancestral country, South Korea, with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3, 1967. Lotte Corporation consists of over 90 business units employing 60,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels , fast food , retail, financial services, industrial chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Lotte runs additional businesses in China , Thailand , Malaysia , Indonesia , Vietnam , Cambodia , Uzbekistan , India ,
2929-635: Is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States ; the de facto common language used in government, education, and commerce; and an official language in 32 of the 50 U.S. states . Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide. Varieties of American English include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around
3030-463: Is the variable fronting of /ɑ/ before /r/ , for example, appearing four times in the stereotypical Boston shibboleth Park the car in Harvard Yard . Several other phenomena serve to distinguish regional U.S. accents. Boston , Pittsburgh , Upper Midwestern , and Western U.S. accents have fully completed a merger of the LOT vowel with the THOUGHT vowel ( /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ , respectively):
3131-476: The English-only movement , have adopted legislation granting official or co-official status to English. Typically only "English" is specified, not a particular variety like American English. (From 1923 to 1969, the state of Illinois recognized its official language as "American", meaning American English.) Puerto Rico is the largest example of a United States territory in which another language – Spanish –
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3232-608: The Mid-Atlantic states (including a New York accent as well as a unique Philadelphia–Baltimore accent ), and the South . As of the 20th century, the middle and eastern Great Lakes area , Chicago being the largest city with these speakers, also ushered in certain unique features, including the fronting of the LOT /ɑ/ vowel in the mouth toward [a] and tensing of the TRAP /æ/ vowel wholesale to [eə] . These sound changes have triggered
3333-742: The Montreal Eaton Centre (formerly Eaton's and Les Ailes de la Mode ). The first Ottawa outlet opened on 16 June 2023 and the first Calgary outlet opened on 25 August 2023, bringing number of outlets to 14 stores in Canada. As of November 2024, there are 28 stores in Canada. Uniqlo entered the Chinese mainland market in 2002. As of August 2021, there were 832 stores in China, including in Beijing , Guangzhou , Chongqing , Chengdu , Nanjing , Ningbo , Shanghai , Shenzhen, Shijia, Tianjin and Xi'an. "Given
3434-544: The Native American languages . Examples of such names are opossum , raccoon , squash , moose (from Algonquian ), wigwam , and moccasin . American English speakers have integrated traditionally non-English terms and expressions into the mainstream cultural lexicon; for instance, en masse , from French ; cookie , from Dutch ; kindergarten from German , and rodeo from Spanish . Landscape features are often loanwords from French or Spanish, and
3535-862: The United States , the United Kingdom , Kazakhstan , Russia , the Philippines , Myanmar , Pakistan , Poland (Lotte bought Poland's largest candy company Wedel from Kraft Foods in June 2010), Australia and New Zealand (Lotte successfully bought 4 duty-free stores in Australia and 1 in New Zealand from JR/Group in 2019 ). Lotte was founded in June 1948, by Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo , Japan, two years after he graduated from Waseda Jitsugyo High School ( 早稲田実業学校 ). Originally called Lotte Co., Ltd ,
3636-843: The Wijnegem Shopping Center on 25 March in the same year. 19 October 2017 saw the opening of a third store in Brussels . Uniqlo store in Wijnegem Shopping Center has closed in 2022. There were 3 stores in Belgium as of May 2023. Uniqlo opened their first Canadian outlet at the Toronto Eaton Centre on 30 September 2016, followed by a second outlet at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre on 20 Octobers 2016. Measuring at 28,000 and 24,000 square feet, both outlet are five times
3737-714: The francophile tastes of the 19th century Victorian era Britain (for example they preferred programme for program , manoeuvre for maneuver , cheque for check , etc.). AmE almost always uses -ize in words like realize . BrE prefers -ise , but also uses -ize on occasion (see: Oxford spelling ). There are a few differences in punctuation rules. British English is more tolerant of run-on sentences , called " comma splices " in American English, and American English prefers that periods and commas be placed inside closing quotation marks even in cases in which British rules would place them outside. American English also favors
3838-759: The 18th century; apartment , shanty in the 19th century; project, condominium , townhouse , mobile home in the 20th century; and parts thereof ( driveway , breezeway, backyard ) . Industry and material innovations from the 19th century onwards provide distinctive new words, phrases, and idioms through railroading (see further at rail terminology ) and transportation terminology, ranging from types of roads ( dirt roads , freeways ) to infrastructure ( parking lot , overpass , rest area ), to automotive terminology often now standard in English internationally. Already existing English words—such as store , shop , lumber —underwent shifts in meaning; others remained in
3939-534: The 20th century. The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas . The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing
4040-622: The British form is a back-formation , such as AmE burglarize and BrE burgle (from burglar ). However, while individuals usually use one or the other, both forms will be widely understood and mostly used alongside each other within the two systems. While written American English is largely standardized across the country and spoken American English dialects are highly mutually intelligible, there are still several recognizable regional and ethnic accents and lexical distinctions. The regional sounds of present-day American English are reportedly engaged in
4141-413: The East Coast (perhaps in imitation of 19th-century London speech), even the East Coast has gradually begun to restore rhoticity, due to it becoming nationally prestigious in the 20th century. The pronunciation of ⟨r⟩ is a postalveolar approximant [ ɹ̠ ] or retroflex approximant [ ɻ ] , but a unique "bunched tongue" variant of the approximant r sound
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4242-462: The Hotel Lotte IPO given the current circumstances". Despite local press reporting that Chairman Shin Dong-bin was keen to restart Hotel Lotte's IPO in 2020, Hotel Lotte is still yet to go public. In August 2016, Vice Chairman Lee In-won was found dead in his car with a four-page long suicide note. His death came just hours before he was due to be questioned by prosecutors. Lee was considered
4343-565: The Inland North. Rather than one particular accent, General American is best defined as an umbrella covering an American accent that does not incorporate features associated with some particular region, ethnicity, or socioeconomic group. Typical General American features include rhoticity , the father–bother merger , Mary–marry–merry merger , pre-nasal "short a " tensing , and other particular vowel sounds . General American features are embraced most by Americans who are highly educated or in
4444-560: The South), sneakers for athletic shoes (but often tennis shoes outside the Northeast), and shopping cart for a cart used for carrying supermarket goods. American English and British English (BrE) often differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a much lesser extent, grammar and orthography. The first large American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language , known as Webster's Dictionary ,
4545-508: The THAAD installation, nearly all of Lotte Mart 's 112 Chinese stores were closed down by the government due to supposed fire safety issues. Lotte Department also suffered in the hostile business environment, with an operating loss of ₩ 140 billion ( US$ 122.38 million) between 2016 and 2018. Both Lotte Department Store & Lotte Mart formally ceased trading in China in 2018, with Lotte Chilsung Beverage & Lotte Confectionary leaving China
4646-528: The U.S. Several verbs ending in -ize are of U.S. origin; for example, fetishize, prioritize, burglarize, accessorize, weatherize , etc.; and so are some back-formations (locate, fine-tune, curate, donate, emote, upholster and enthuse). Among syntactic constructions that arose are outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of, etc. Americanisms formed by alteration of some existing words include notably pesky, phony, rambunctious, buddy, sundae , skeeter, sashay and kitty-corner. Adjectives that arose in
4747-563: The U.S. are for instance foothill , landslide (in all senses), backdrop , teenager , brainstorm , bandwagon , hitchhike , smalltime, and a huge number of others. Other compound words have been founded based on industrialization and the wave of the automobile: five-passenger car, four-door sedan, two-door sedan, and station-wagon (called an estate car in British English). Some are euphemistic ( human resources , affirmative action , correctional facility ). Many compound nouns have
4848-662: The U.S. are, for example, lengthy, bossy, cute and cutesy, punk (in all senses), sticky (of the weather), through (as in "finished"), and many colloquial forms such as peppy or wacky . A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that have been in everyday use in the United States have since disappeared in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots . Terms such as fall ("autumn"), faucet ("tap"), diaper ("nappy"; itself unused in
4949-530: The U.S. while changing in Britain. Science, urbanization, and democracy have been important factors in bringing about changes in the written and spoken language of the United States. From the world of business and finance came new terms ( merger , downsize , bottom line ), from sports and gambling terminology came, specific jargon aside, common everyday American idioms, including many idioms related to baseball . The names of some American inventions remained largely confined to North America ( elevator [except in
5050-427: The U.S.), candy ("sweets"), skillet , eyeglasses , and obligate are often regarded as Americanisms. Fall for example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year." Gotten ( past participle of get ) is often considered to be largely an Americanism. Other words and meanings were brought back to Britain from
5151-592: The U.S., especially in the second half of the 20th century; these include hire ("to employ"), I guess (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler ), baggage , hit (a place), and the adverbs overly and presently ("currently"). Some of these, for example, monkey wrench and wastebasket , originated in 19th century Britain. The adjectives mad meaning "angry", smart meaning "intelligent", and sick meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American (and Irish) English than British English. Linguist Bert Vaux created
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#17328550896595252-513: The US sought to deploy an advanced anti-missile defence system, THAAD , in 2016. The site chosen was Lotte Skyhill Country Club in Seongsan due to its high elevation, distance from civilian centres and existing infrastructure. A Lotte spokesperson said that leadership "agonized" over the decision to allow the sale of the golf course for the THAAD system, but concluded their hands were tied: "if we say no to
5353-531: The United States and the United Kingdom suggest that, while spoken American English deviated away from period British English in many ways, it is conservative in a few other ways, preserving certain features 21st-century British English has since lost. Full rhoticity (or "R-fulness") is typical of American accents, pronouncing the phoneme /r/ (corresponding to the letter ⟨r⟩ ) in all environments, including in syllable-final position or before
5454-779: The United States. On September 27, 2012, Uniqlo, collaborated with Japanese tech retailer Bic Camera , to open a store in Shinjuku called Bicqlo. It opened at the former site of a Mitsukoshi department store. The store is now a regular Bic Camera store after Uniqlo sold its lease of the building on June 19, 2022. Launched in January 2017, "Art for All" was a partnership with New York art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch . The project involved selling, for under $ 100 per item, 65 limited-edition products made by commissioned artists such as Marie Roberts, Starlee Kine and Ken Kagami. Beginning in 2017, Uniqlo has collaborated with designer Johnathan Anderson on multiple menswear collections. As of 2023,
5555-596: The West and Midwest, and New York Latino English , spoken in the New York metropolitan area . Additionally, ethnic varieties such as Yeshiva English and " Yinglish " are spoken by some American Orthodox Jews , Cajun Vernacular English by some Cajuns in southern Louisiana , and Pennsylvania Dutch English by some Pennsylvania Dutch people. American Indian Englishes have been documented among diverse Indian tribes. The island state of Hawaii , though primarily English-speaking,
5656-547: The accents spoken in the " Midland ": a vast band of the country that constitutes an intermediate dialect region between the traditional North and South. Western U.S. accents mostly fall under the General American spectrum. Below, ten major American English accents are defined by their particular combinations of certain vowel sounds: In 2010, William Labov noted that Great Lakes, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and West Coast accents have undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since
5757-505: The aeronautical sense ], gasoline ) as did certain automotive terms ( truck , trunk ). New foreign loanwords came with 19th and early 20th century European immigration to the U.S.; notably, from Yiddish ( chutzpah , schmooze, bupkis, glitch ) and German ( hamburger , wiener ). A large number of English colloquialisms from various periods are American in origin; some have lost their American flavor (from OK and cool to nerd and 24/7 ), while others have not ( have
5858-995: The board of directors. In October 2018, an appeals court freed Shin from prison after just 234 days, giving him a suspended sentence of 4 years and cancelling the fine. News of Shin's release increased Lotte Group's market value by 4.2%. A year later, in October 2019, the Seoul High Court upheld the appeals court's decision, arguing that Shin "passively" committed bribery with the understanding that not donating to Choi's non-profit would result in damage to Lotte Group. Since 2004, Lotte had invested over ₩ 8 trillion ( US$ 6.99 billion) into growing their presence in China, operating 112 Lotte Mart stores, 12 cinemas 5 Lotte Department stores in 2017. However, Lotte's Chinese operations reported net losses of ₩ 75.3 billion ( US$ 65.82 million) in 2011, soaring sevenfold in just 3 years to ₩ 554.9 billion ( US$ 485.07 million) in 2014. To counter potential threats from North Korea, South Korea &
5959-571: The clothing is presented in an organized, rational manner, and that very organization and rationality creates an artistic pattern and rhythm. All these qualities reflect the defining characteristics of modern Japanese culture, modern ' Japaneseness .' —Nobuo Domae, CEO, Uniqlo USA (April 2007) In November 1998, it opened their first urban Uniqlo store in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district, and outlets soon spread to major cities throughout Japan. In 2001, sales turnover and gross profit reached
6060-456: The company had set a global sales goal of $ 10 billion and a ranking among the top five global retailers, joining what at the time was Gap , H&M , Inditex and Limited Brands . Fast Retailing signed a design consulting contract for Uniqlo products with fashion designer Jil Sander in March 2009. Sander was appointed creative director of the brand's menswear and womenswear – as well as launching
6161-476: The company has grown from selling chewing gum to children in post-war Japan to becoming a major multinational corporation . The source of the company's name is German. Shin Kyuk-ho was impressed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and named his newly founded company Lotte after the character Charlotte in the novel. ("Charlotte" is also the name of premium auditoriums in movie theatres run by Lotte. ) Lotte Corporation –
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#17328550896596262-733: The company would target annual group sales of 5 trillion yen (approx. US$ 61.2 billion) and pretax profit from operations of 1 trillion yen (approx. US$ 12.2 billion) by 2020. This means that the company is aiming to become the world's biggest specialty retailer of private label apparel with a continuous growth rate of 20% per year. The figure breaks down as one trillion yen from Uniqlo's Japan business, three trillion yen from its international business, and one trillion yen from "Japan-related and global brand business." The company's international business target breaks down as one trillion yen in China, one trillion in other Asian countries and one trillion in Europe and
6363-406: The country), though the vowel-consonant cluster found in "bird", "work", "hurt", "learn", etc. usually retains its r pronunciation, even in these non-rhotic American accents. Non-rhoticity among such speakers is presumed to have arisen from their upper classes' close historical contact with England, imitating London's r -dropping, a feature that has continued to gain prestige throughout England from
6464-654: The country, which opened on 5 October 2018, at Glorietta 5 in Makati . The store is the biggest in Southeast Asia. Uniqlo partnered with SM Group 's SM Retail Inc. to bring the brand to the Philippines. As of August 2023, there were 72 stores in Philippines. Uniqlo began operations in Poland in October 2022, opening a pop-up store in Wars Sawa shopping centre in Warsaw . In Fall 2024, it
6565-417: The designer is still working with Uniqlo on limited collections. In late 2017, Uniqlo debuted a line of 3D knit garments, developed through a joint venture with knitwear machine company Shima Seiki. The technology allows a garment to be knit in one piece with minimal waste and no seamlines. It also allows for a finer level of shaping and fit compared to classic knitwear production techniques. As of 2023, Uniqlo
6666-614: The diverse regional dialects of British English) became common after the mid-18th century, while at the same time speakers' identification with this new variety increased. Since the 18th century, American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that retain minor influences from waves of immigrant speakers of diverse languages, primarily European languages. Some racial and regional variation in American English reflects these groups' geographic settlement, their de jure or de facto segregation, and patterns in their resettlement. This can be seen, for example, in
6767-742: The double quotation mark ("like this") over the single ('as here'). Vocabulary differences vary by region. For example, autumn is used more commonly in the United Kingdom, whereas fall is more common in American English. Some other differences include: aerial (United Kingdom) vs. antenna, biscuit (United Kingdom) vs. cookie/cracker, car park (United Kingdom) vs. parking lot, caravan (United Kingdom) vs. trailer, city centre (United Kingdom) vs. downtown, flat (United Kingdom) vs. apartment, fringe (United Kingdom) vs. bangs, and holiday (United Kingdom) vs. vacation. AmE sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas BrE uses clipped forms, such as AmE transportation and BrE transport or where
6868-405: The fifth country outside Japan to get a Uniqlo roadside store. The 15,100-square feet store, located in Bandar Sri Damansara was opened in December 2020. The first Dutch Uniqlo store was opened at the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam on 28 September 2018. The official opening was marred by protests against Uniqlo's unethical business practices in its factory in Jakarta, Indonesia. Second Uniqlo store
6969-453: The following two centuries) when this ethnic group eventually made up one-seventh of the colonial population. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from Delaware and Pennsylvania throughout the larger Mid-Atlantic region, the inland regions of both the South and North, and throughout the West: American dialect areas that were all uninfluenced by upper-class non-rhoticity and that consequently have remained consistently rhotic. While non-rhoticity spread on
7070-470: The government, we can't do business in Korea". The installation of the THAAD system led to a rise in anti-Korean sentiment in China, with much of the ire directed at Lotte. Government-controlled news media encouraged Chinese consumers to boycott the Korean conglomerate, and protests were held across multiple cities, with employees of a mall in Xuchang protesting Lotte as they sung the Chinese national anthem. Shortly after news of Lotte's co-operation with
7171-889: The hospital , BrE to hospital ; contrast, however, AmE actress Elizabeth Taylor , BrE the actress Elizabeth Taylor ). Often, these differences are a matter of relative preferences rather than absolute rules; and most are not stable since the two varieties are constantly influencing each other, and American English is not a standardized set of dialects. Differences in orthography are also minor. The main differences are that American English usually uses spellings such as flavor for British flavour , fiber for fibre , defense for defence , analyze for analyse , license for licence , catalog for catalogue and traveling for travelling . Noah Webster popularized such spellings in America, but he did not invent most of them. Rather, "he chose already existing options on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology." Other differences are due to
7272-656: The influence of 18th-century Protestant Ulster Scots immigrants (known in the U.S. as the Scotch-Irish ) in Appalachia developing Appalachian English and the 20th-century Great Migration bringing African-American Vernacular English to the Great Lakes urban centers. Any phonologically unmarked North American accent falls under an umbrella known as General American. This section mostly refers to such General American features. Studies on historical usage of English in both
7373-438: The late 18th century onwards, but which has conversely lost prestige in the U.S. since at least the early 20th century. Non-rhoticity makes a word like car sound like cah or source like sauce . New York City and Southern accents are the most prominent regional accents of the country, as well as the most stigmatized and socially disfavored. Southern speech, strongest in southern Appalachia and certain areas of Texas,
7474-427: The mid-nineteenth century onwards, so they "are now more different from each other than they were 50 or 100 years ago", while other accents, like of New York City and Boston, have remained stable in that same time-frame. However, a General American sound system also has some debated degree of influence nationwide, for example, gradually beginning to oust the regional accent in urban areas of the South and at least some in
7575-617: The most formal contexts, and regional accents with the most General American native features include North Midland, Western New England, and Western accents. Although no longer region-specific, African-American Vernacular English , which remains the native variety of most working- and middle-class African Americans , has a close relationship to Southern dialects and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans, including hip hop culture . Hispanic and Latino Americans have also developed native-speaker varieties of English. The best-studied Latino Englishes are Chicano English , spoken in
7676-1152: The old-styled commercial facility of Galleria Alberto Sordi. In September 2024, Uniqlo opened the first European railway station store in Roma Termini . As of September 2024, there are 4 Uniqlo stores in Italy, 2 stores in Milan and other 2 stores in Rome. In October 2023, Uniqlo opened its first flagship store in Luxembourg, in Luxembourg City at Grand Rue Avenue. The store covers 950 m (10,200 sq ft) on three floors. On 4 November 2010, Uniqlo opened its first store in Malaysia, in Fahrenheit 88 located in Bukit Bintang , Kuala Lumpur . As of October 2021, Uniqlo now has 48 outlets located across Malaysia, including an online store. Malaysia became
7777-402: The past forms of a few verbs (for example, AmE/BrE: learned / learnt , burned / burnt , snuck/sneaked , dove/dived ) although the purportedly "British" forms can occasionally be seen in American English writing as well; different prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (for example, AmE in school, BrE at school ); and whether or not a definite article is used, in very few cases (AmE to
7878-444: The population of 1.3 billion, I think we can go for about 3,000 stores," Fast Retailing chief Tadashi Yanai told The Nikkei in 2020, indicating plans to continue opening locations in the world's most populous country. In May 2011, the magazine Shukan Bunshun published a story alleging that Uniqlo had forced employees at its stores and factories in China to work long hours for little pay. In response, Uniqlo unsuccessfully sued
7979-413: The retail brand consultancy, CIA, Inc./The Brand Architect Group, to guide the company through the realization of this strategy, including consulting on merchandise, visual merchandising and display, store design and a new logo designed by Richard Seireeni and Sy Chen of The Brand Architect Group's Los Angeles office. Uniqlo had begun outsourcing their clothing manufacturing to factories in China where labour
8080-540: The scandal . On June 13, 2016, Lotte announced it would withdraw its initial public offering (IPO) for Hotel Lotte , which was scheduled for the following month. The IPO was predicted to garner up to ₩ 5.2 trillion ( US$ 4.55 billion) which would have been the largest offering in South Korean history. Lotte spokesperson Choi Min-ho told the Korean Herald , “we physically cannot meet next month’s deadline to complete
8181-727: The second country to open a Uniqlo store in Scandinavia after Sweden. As of May 2024, there are 28 stores in France, 9 of those were in Paris . On 17 November 2014, Uniqlo opened its first store in eastern France (and the second store in France outside Greater Paris ) in the city of Strasbourg . Uniqlo currently has stores in many other major cities including Bordeaux , Lille , Lyon , Marseille , Montpellier , Nantes , Nice , Rennes and Toulouse . Uniqlo's German flagship store opened on 11 April 2014 at Tauentzienstraße , Berlin . Uniqlo then opened
8282-1104: The second store in Mumbai opened on 20 October at Oberoi Mall. As of October 2023, there are 12 stores in India. Uniqlo has recruitment plans for management from South and Southeast Asia as it accelerates the development of its store network in the region. On 22 June 2013, Uniqlo opened its first Indonesian store at Lotte Mall (formerly Lotte Shopping Avenue), Ciputra World 1 , Jakarta . It has 76 stores as of November 2024, spreading east to Balikpapan , Bandung , Banjarmasin , Cirebon , Denpasar , Makassar , Manado , Mataram , Pontianak , Samarinda , Semarang , Surakarta , Surabaya and Yogyakarta , and west to Batam , Jambi , Lampung , Medan , Palembang and Pekanbaru . On 9 April 2021, its Indonesian flagship and most iconic store opened at Pondok Indah Mall 3, Jakarta. On 28 October 2022, Uniqlo opened its first roadside store in Indonesia at Heritage Lifestyle Hub in Bandung , West Java , thus became
8383-765: The sixth country outside Japan to get a Uniqlo roadside store. The second Uniqlo roadside store as well as its first neighborhood store in Indonesia opened at One District at Puri in Metland Cyber Puri in Tangerang , Banten on 26 May 2023. The third Uniqlo roadside store in Indonesia opened at Hive Kota Harapan Indah in Bekasi , West Java on 26 April 2024. In September 2019, Uniqlo opened its first Italian flagship store in Milan at Piazza Cordusio square. In April 2024, Uniqlo opened another flagship store in Rome at Via del Corso street in
8484-1081: The size of the Muji outlet that opened in Toronto in 2014. Three new Ontario outlets opened in 2018 at Vaughan Mills , CF Markville and Square One Shopping Centre . The first Oshawa outlet opened at the Oshawa Centre in March 2019 and the first Newmarket outlet opened at the Upper Canada Mall in April 2019, bringing the total number of Ontario outlets in to seven. The first British Columbia and Western Canada outlet opened at Burnaby 's Metropolis at Metrotown in October 2017, followed by Surrey's Guildford Town Centre and Richmond Centre in Richmond, BC. The Coquitlam Centre outlet in Coquitlam, BC on 14 September 2018. The West Edmonton Mall outlet opened on 27 September 2019. The first Quebec outlet opened on 23 October 2020 at
8585-586: The southern hemisphere, in October 2016 when it was redeveloped. Uniqlo opened its first store in the Australian capital Canberra on 26 October 2023 in Canberra Centre. As of November 2024, there are 39 stores in Australia including in Perth , Brisbane , Melbourne , Sydney , Adelaide , Gold Coast and Canberra . The first Belgian Uniqlo store opened in October 2015 at Meir , Antwerp . A second store followed at
8686-682: The store's exterior had become a popular venue for people to gather and take pictures in sexual poses reminiscent of the video. Uniqlo opened its first flagship store in Central China at Chuhe Hanjie street in Wuhan in May 2024. Uniqlo opened its first Hainan store in Sanya Joy City mall, Sanya in October 2024. In April 2019, Uniqlo opened its first Danish flagship store in Copenhagen at Strøget. It became
8787-827: The top lieutenant of Chairman Shin Dong-bin . According to a statement released by Lotte Group after his death, Lee "oversaw Lotte Group's overall housekeeping and core businesses and accurately understood the minds of Chairman-in-Chief Shin Kyuk-ho and Chairman Shin Dong-bin". In October 2016, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office closed their investigation. The probe accused Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho , his son Chairman Shin Dong-bin , along his mistress Seo Mi-kyung and two other children of embezzling ₩ 146.2 billion ( US$ 127.8 million). In addition, prosecutors claim they committed inheritance tax fraud amounting to ₩ 115.6 billion ( US$ 101.05 million). A further ₩ 22 billion ( US$ 19.23 million) of corporate tax
8888-570: The traditional standard accent of (southern) England, Received Pronunciation (RP), has evolved a trap–bath split . Moreover, American accents preserve /h/ at the start of syllables, while perhaps a majority of the regional dialects of England participate in /h/ dropping , particularly in informal contexts. However, General American is also innovative in a number of its own ways: The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as English-speaking British-American colonists began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from
8989-417: The verb-and-preposition combination: stopover, lineup, tryout, spin-off, shootout , holdup, hideout, comeback, makeover , and many more. Some prepositional and phrasal verbs are in fact of American origin ( win out, hold up, back up/off/down/out, face up to and many others). Noun endings such as -ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster (gangster) and -cian (beautician) are also particularly productive in
9090-442: The weekly's publisher, Bungeishunjū , for ¥220 million for libel . A 2015 online video of a couple having sex in a Beijing Uniqlo store changing room became notorious among Chinese internet users. Chinese police arrested at least five people in connection with the incident, allegedly including the couple and three other disseminators of the video, for having 'severely violated socialist core values'. The New York Times noted that
9191-772: The word corn , used in England to refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the maize plant, the most important crop in the U.S. Most Mexican Spanish contributions came after the War of 1812 , with the opening of the West, like ranch (now a common house style ). Due to Mexican culinary influence, many Spanish words are incorporated in general use when talking about certain popular dishes: cilantro (instead of coriander), queso, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, and guacamole. These words usually lack an English equivalent and are found in popular restaurants. New forms of dwelling created new terms ( lot , waterfront) and types of homes like log cabin , adobe in
9292-609: The world. Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is known in linguistics as General American ; it covers a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. but especially associated with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single mainstream American accent . The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in
9393-407: Was able to avoid imprisonment due to health issues, eventually passing away in 2020. The founder's son and Chairman Shin Dong-bin was convicted of the charges of embezzlement and breach of trust, while Dong-bin's older brother Dong-joo was acquitted. On 17 April 2017, Chairman Shin Dong-bin was embroiled in the 2016 South Korean political scandal and charged with bribery. In order to secure
9494-722: Was able to stand out all the more." In November 2022, Uniqlo opens a new remake and repair service in Tokyo. Re. Uniqlo Repair Studio, offers same day repairs and custom remakes of clothing purchased at Uniqlo. It is open for a trial run until 31 March 2023. This was previously introduced at stores in Germany, the UK and US. On 16 August 2023, Uniqlo announced a line with designer Clare Waight Keller , former creative director of luxury brands Chloé and Givenchy . The 34-piece fall collection launched in September 2023 across 1,500 stores globally as well as online. In 2024, Uniqlo has made growth in Europe
9595-555: Was allegedly avoided by Lotte Chemical . South Korean authorities also argued that Lotte Engineering & Construction overpaid its suppliers and then reclaimed the difference, amounting to slush funds worth ₩ 30.2 billion ( US$ 26.4 million). In total, the allegations of misconduct amounted to ₩ 375.5 billion ( US$ 328.25 million). The following year, founder Shin Kyuk-ho was fined ₩ 3.5 billion ( US$ 3.06 million) and sentenced to four years in prison. At 95 years old, it seemed possible he would spend his last days incarcerated, but he
9696-637: Was cheap, a well-established corporate practice. Japan was in the depths of a recession at the time, and the low-cost goods proved popular. Their advertising campaigns, clothing quality and new retail layouts also proved fruitful. In creating its clothing lines, Uniqlo embraces both shun and kino-bi . Shun [旬] means 'timing, best timing, but also at the same time it's a trend,' something that's updated and just in time, neither early nor late. The company offers clothing basics, but basics that are current, that respond to what's going on today in art and design. Kino-bi [機能美] means function and beauty, joined together:
9797-551: Was founded in March 1949 in Ube, Yamaguchi . On 2 June 1984, it opened a unisex casual wear store in Fukuro-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima , under the name "Unique Clothing Warehouse". Initially, the brand was going to be registered as a shortened contraction of "unique clothing". However, in 1988, during administration work in Hong Kong for registering the brand, the "C" in the contracted name
9898-892: Was made permanent and expanded. A second store opened in Warsaw's Westfield Arkadia mall on 26 September 2024. As of 2024, Uniqlo had 29 stores in Singapore. Uniqlo opened its first store in Singapore on 9 April 2009 in Tampines 1 , which has been closed down on 17 January 2021 and instead, a new store at Tampines Mall was opened on 5 February 2021 and has the similar format as Bugis+ , ION Orchard , JEM , Orchard Central and Plaza Singapura which has two floors, one for men and one for women. The first Global Flagship Store opened on 2 September 2016 at Orchard Central replacing 313 @ Somerset. Numerous expansion plans were unveiled in 2020 and Uniqlo ION Orchard and Plaza Singapura, were also heavily expanded and
9999-585: Was misread as "Q". Tadashi Yanai, the head of the family retail conglomerate, liked the sound of the error and shortened the name to "Uniqlo" across Japan. In September 1991, the name of the company was changed from " Ogori Shōji " to " Fast Retailing ", and by April 1994, there were over 100 Uniqlo stores operating throughout Japan. In 1997, Fast Retailing adopted a set of strategies from American retailer The Gap , known as "SPA" (for specialty-store/retailer of private-label apparel), meaning that they would produce their own clothing and sell it exclusively. They engaged
10100-705: Was opened at the Grote Marktstraat in The Hague on 1 October 2020. Uniqlo opened the second store in Amsterdam at Koningsplein square on 3 October and the first store in Rotterdam at Lijnbaan street on 10 October 2024. As of October 2024, there were 4 stores in the Netherlands. Uniqlo's first store in the Philippines opened at SM Mall of Asia on 15 June 2012. On its sixth anniversary, the company opened its flagship store in
10201-469: Was written by Noah Webster in 1828, codifying several of these spellings. Differences in grammar are relatively minor, and do not normally affect mutual intelligibility; these include: typically a lack of differentiation between adjectives and adverbs, employing the equivalent adjectives as adverbs he ran quick / he ran quickly ; different use of some auxiliary verbs ; formal (rather than notional) agreement with collective nouns ; different preferences for
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