Uniqlo Co. The company is a subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co. Tadashi Yanai, the head of the family retail conglomerate, liked the sound of the error and shortened the name to "Uniqlo" across Japan. In November , it opened their first urban Uniqlo store in Tokyo's Harajuku district, and outlets soon spread to major cities throughout Japan. In , their first Chinese Uniqlo outlet was opened in Shanghai , along with four overseas outlets in London and Basingstoke , England.
On 1 November , Fast Retailing transferred the business related to clothing manufacturing and retailing to Sun Road Co. On the same day, Sun Road changed its name to Uniqlo Co. Fast Retailing signed a design consulting contract for Uniqlo products with fashion designer Jil Sander in March Shiatzy Chen was approached by Uniqlo to produce a capsule collection of ready-to-wear pieces to launch in November Uniqlo first opened its roadside store in Japan in and it has now many roadside stores in Japan and five other countries in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia.
On 2 September , Fast Retailing announced that the company would target annual group sales of 5 trillion yen approx. 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 store is now a regular Bic Camera store after Uniqlo sold its lease of the building on June 19, Beginning in , Uniqlo has collaborated with designer Johnathan Anderson on multiple menswear collections.
In late , Uniqlo debuted a line of 3D knit garments, developed through a joint venture with knitwear machine company Shima Seiki. It also allows for a finer level of shaping and fit compared to classic knitwear production techniques.
