Department store sales in November made their biggest jump since April 1998, thanks to strong sales of winter clothing and yearend gifts, while supermarket sales continued to fall for the 21st straight month, industry bodies said Monday.

Nationwide, department sales rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier to 692.38 billion yen on a same-store basis, supported also by brisk sales of high-priced items, such as jewelry and watches, said the Japan Department Stores Association.

The figure is a vast improvement over the 0.1 percent uptick in October and marks the third consecutive month of rising department store sales.

Clothing sales, the largest product segment, rose 5.6 percent from a year earlier -- the largest increase in percentage terms since April 1998 -- reversing a 1.1 percent fall the previous month.

Sales of men's clothing jumped 9.4 percent and women's clothing climbed 5.7 percent, both logging their biggest jumps since April 1998.

In addition to cold weather, the association said floor renovations and special events at some department stores helped lift overall sales.

Tokyo department store sales rose 4.3 percent in November, the biggest percentage gain since September 2000, while those in Nagoya jumped 7.0 percent over the previous year for the ninth straight month of improvement.

Department store sales in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama advanced a combined 3.1 percent, up for the third consecutive month.

The growth was the biggest in percent terms since September 2001, the association said, adding that combined department sales in other cities rose 3.4 percent, the largest since April 1998.

The department stores association covered sales at 282 stores run by 98 operators across the nation.

November supermarket sales, meanwhile, fell 0.4 percent on a same-store basis from the previous year to 1.16 trillion yen.