HMV Flagship Closing

The Japan flagship store of the UK-based record retail chain HMV has announced it will close its doors Aug. 22.

The store, located in the youth mecca district of Shibuya, takes up 6,400 square feet of building space on the trendy Center-gai street.

An HMV Japan KK official told Asahi Shimbun, “We made the decision after considering several factors,” including slowing CD sales due to the expansion of online music downloading sites.

HMV opened its first Japan store in Shibuya in 1990, though it was in a different location. It soon became the biggest record store in Japan, and moved to the Center-gai premises in 1998. At its peak, HMV had 67 stores in Japan.

After HMV closes the Shibuya operation and three other outlets in August, 40 retail stores will remain open in Japan.