Expanding from Edo (Tokugawa) Era Japanese merchant stores from the 1600s, full-scale department stores emerged in Japan early in the twentieth-century, and were later joined by railway based department stores. This paper discusses department stores as a mirror of 20th century Japan, then looks at them for insights on 21st century Japan. During the 20th century Japan’s department stores were arbiters of culture, taste, and fashion, and a major means through which Japanese were introduced to Western cultures, customs, and styles. Department stores reflect Japan’s early twentieth-century tendency towards emulating the West, the expansion of this in following decades, its renewal in the post-World War II period, the eventual full consumer flowering of Japan in the bubble years, to the late century recession and [first] ‘lost decade’ resulting in the closure of many previously prominent department stores. The talk then discusses 21st century “restoration”–re-openings or renewals of department stores. Japan’s department stores are pivotal in revealing gender in relationship to culture and consumerism. Department store marketing in Japan reflects gender expectations and socialization, at times possibly even when store promotions claim to move away from such constructs. A long term emphasis on catering to female customers within the store, and the more recent development of men’s buildings and styling clinics reveal a great deal about shifting gender ideals. Linked to this, as important employment institutions in the service sector Japan’s department stores reflect shifts or changing attitudes towards gender roles and gender based employment or careers. Based on research during the late 20th century on Japan’s department stores at their peak, and in 2012-2013 during a year of grand openings or re-openings of department stores and other consumer complexes, this talk also suggests Japan’s department stores as a window on Japanese culture and society show the 20th century as one of Japan looking towards the West, and the 21st century as one with a greater focus on Asia and other non-Western countries. Millie Creighton is a Japan specialist and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, where she serves on the Executive Management Boards of the Centre for Japanese Research and the Centre for Korean Research. She has done extensive research in Japan on department stores, consumerism, tourism, popular culture, gender, minorities, work and leisure, and identity. She was awarded the Canon Prize for her work on Japanese department stores showing how department store marketing reflected nostalgia and the search for community, tradition and cultural identity. She has also published on Japanese department stores and the socialization of gender roles, along with work exploring the Equal Employment Opportunity Law and gendered careers through department stores. She recently received a fellowship to spend the 2012-2013 academic year in Japan at the National Museum of Ethnology, in Osaka, Japan conducting further research on consumerism and Japanese society and culture. In addition to work on department stores, she has been conducting research on Japan-Korea relations through popular culture exchanges, and was one of the founders of the World Association of Hallyu Studies (Hallyu refers to Korean Popular Culture Flows) and is one of the regional presidents.