OSAKA -- The department store chain Sogo Co. began clearance sales Friday at its Osaka flagship store and eight outlets earmarked for closure later this month.

The eight Sogo stores holding closure sales are the outlets in Sapporo; Kinshicho, Tokyo; Toyota, Aichi Prefecture; Nara; Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture; Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture; and the two Kitakyushu branches in Kurosaki and Kokura.

Under its rehabilitation plan, Sogo will also close its outlet in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, in late January. Sogo plans to keep its Osaka flagship store, the site of the first Sogo store, and reopen it after extensive renovations.

Clearance sales at the Osaka store began when it opened at 10 a.m. Friday. The first phase of clearance will last through Dec. 18. The store plans to implement greater discounts from Dec. 19 through Dec. 25, when it is to be temporarily closed for renovations.

Some 800 people formed a line 200 meters long around the Osaka outlet, forcing the store to open its doors 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

The store had 3,000 clerks and staff on hand, roughly three times the number usually on duty. It estimates that 1.5 million customers, or 50 percent more than during the same period last year, will visit the store, with sales jumping four times to 10 billion yen.

Masumi Matsui, a 20-year-old junior college student from Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, who stood in line with her mother from a little after 8 a.m., said she always stopped by the Sogo store and neighboring Daimaru department store whenever she was in the area. e Sapporo outlet also saw long lines of customers who braved sub-zero temperatures to line up for the sale.

Sogo collapsed in July with 1.87 trillion yen in group debts and is currently restructuring under court supervision.