

Why Japan’s young consumers are turning away from luxury goods - echair
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/japanese-consumers

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Retric
_Last year, Japanese department stores posted their 12th consecutive year of
declining sales._

That seems like a huge trend, I am honestly shocked this is the first time I
have seen this. Thanks for posting this.

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gojomo
That is big. The department stores I saw during (very limited) travels in
Japan were all much like the upscale multi-story Macy's you'll see in American
city downtown areas.

That same style of store may be on a similarly long downward sales trend in
the US -- given the rise of other specialty and discount outlets.

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electromagnetic
I remember when I first saw a Sony store in Canada, after never seeing one in
the UK, I had no clue they existed. I believe it went somewhat like "Oh wow
it's a Sony store, that's cool... wait what the hell's the point of a Sony
store. Is it like a warranty repair place? I thought they were all mail-to
places not stores."

It's just alien to me why Sony would need a store, when everywhere sells Sony
products. I mean bestbuy, walmart, sears, the source, futureshop all carry
Sony products and they're _all_ easier to get to than the actual Sony store!

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whacked_new
They're image/experience stores, which are not all that far from Apple stores.
It gives the brand an enlarged presence and a stage to flaunt the company's
style, culture, and wealth.

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patio11
I have seen little evidence of Japan's young consumers, particularly young
ladies [1], turning away from luxury brand names. The thing that has changed
is where they buy them: they don't go to department stores, they go to malls,
outlets, and the like.

But a Burberry scarf ($200 back when I first checked, probably more now) is
still practically a mandatory part of the high school uniform in some places.
That's the sole brand good I can identify at a glance, but I'm told that Gucci
bags, etc, are still quite hot.

My ex-girlfriend went through a truly astounding amount of money on bags. She
is not exactly unique among the young ladies in my social circle.

[1] I could point to a guy or two I knew who routinely wore single outfits
that cost $300+ but, in my personal experience, its a bit more common for the
ladies. One factor: twenty-something guys are less likely to be "parasite
singles" (this is the actual Japanese word used: it means "living with your
parents while you have a job before you're married"), and the ~$2,200 starting
engineer's salary in this neighborhood doesn't buy a whole lot of bling UNLESS
you have no rent or food bill, in which case its like you've suddenly got
~$1,600 of totally disposable income every single month.

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kennyroo
It's interesting that this is only happening now, after Japan has suffered
through a decade-long recession. Did an entire generation grow up with
different values, or did the down economy change consumer behavior over a long
period of time to reach this point? Or both?

Mapping this to the US, the transition from spending to saving and from bling
to value orientation seems to be happening very quickly. Wonder if it will
last.

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bprater
Great question, hopefully our Hackers in Japan can give us some insight. It'll
be interesting to see if the US will begin to parallel this change.

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jimbokun
I'm wondering what Japanese got translated as "rich old dandies."

Are there any Japanese speakers here who want to take a guess?

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drinian
When I was in Tokyo in 2007, there were several billboards near my hostel with
a well dressed man on them, and the caption was something like (bludgeoning it
here) "トキょ ダンヂイ？" which transliterates to "Tokyo Dandy?" My impression is that
it's a word that entered the language from pre-war British English, and is
probably used more in Japanese now than in English.

