A Japanese shoe shop known for holding a "store-closing sale" for more than 20 years finally went bust, a credit research agency said Friday.

Shoes Otto, which started the "going out of business sale" after the burst in the early 1990s of Japan's asset-inflated bubble economy and continued it through last year as a marketing tactic, formally went bankrupt on April 26 this year, Tokyo Shoko Research said.

Among the mainstay products of the shoe shop in Osaka was a lineup of "secret shoes," or elevator shoes with thick insoles under the heels to make wearers look taller than they really were.

The Kobe District Court's Amagasaki Branch declared the shop bankrupt on April 26. The shop had stopped operating in February last year.

Founded in 1977, Shoes Otto had advertised itself as "Osaka's cheapest shoe store." But sales shrank in recent years as discount shoe shop chains expanded.