Autumn 2002
The State of the Economy:

Yes, it's true-- Japan is not as bankrupt as all those articles and TV spots would have you believe.

While in recent years the international media has taken great joy in describing this wild and wonderful country as the 'land of the setting sun', aside from a few less Rolls Royces and Bentleys on the streets, life in Tokyo hasn't much changed since the late 1980s. Or has it?

So we're in a recession...weren't we?

All kinds of market research will tell you that young women are among the most attractive segments of consumers in Japan. Free from the burdens of the typical salaried employee's life, let's just say that this market segment isn't contributing to Japan's high savings rate. Their consumption of designer and luxury goods is well documented.

Louis Vuitton's Japan sales account for 1/3 of the company's worldwide business. When the designer recently opened a branch in Japan's fashionable Omotesando district, the reaction showed that while Japanese may live in tiny apartments commuting long hours to work - they have their priorities straight! (at least from this brand marketer's perspective). 1400 waited in line, some of whom had queued for several days, and thousands of limited edition bags and watches sold out in hours.

Better yet is how shopping in high-class boutiques has been injected with a little Japanese socialism here. Here, the masses ogle the latest fashions alongside the socialites. Teenage girls squeal with delight and old ladies from the countryside try on outfit after outfit only to see themselves in the mirror. Besides...how can snobbery exist when every other lady on the street has a Vuitton purse?

As for the package tour that Beckhammers are taking to England, the stadium tour includes a peak at the lockers and dressing rooms where the golden boy frolics. The normal tour is four days and three nights long, costing 250,000 yen ($2000+ USD) and proving that the Japanese still have money to spend on things that are important.

Creative Yen Pinching

So where does all this disposable income come from? The extra money may be due in no small part to corner cutting in other areas of everyday life. A recent Internet survey conducted by Caz magazine, a rag for female white-collar workers in their 20s, shows that most young women, about 80 percent, are in the habit of serious scrimping.

One common technique for saving a couple of yen is to walk back and forth along streets where free packages of tissue paper are being handed out, stuffed with advertisements for strip clubs and telephone 'dating' services. (Perhaps the more expensive, store-bought tissue is reserved for guests?).

Last month, admitting that it had underestimated the public's love of cheap burgers, Japan's largest restaurant chain reversed its short-lived February price hike and knocked the price of a burger down by 25% to an-even-lower-than-the-first-time 59 yen. (49 cents USD)

Pichon-kun first appearing on a TV commercial advertising air conditioners singing it's soulful rendition of "Mo Do ni Demo Shite", or 'Do Whatever you Want'. While not uncommon for a commercial jingle to become a big hit in Japan, the drip covered new ground by becoming a star in his own right. And thanks to Pichon-kun, the company's air conditioner sales have grown by 2 percent over last year. "Pichon-kun is a character that is cute, but at the same time is also a little bit lonely.

They say Japan is different...Reason 432,692:

Much of the industrialized world may have switched to daylight-saving time decades ago, but it's still seen as a radical idea by many in Japan -- and strongly resisted.

It's not just the hassle of resetting clocks. Farmers fret that cows will be thrown off schedule and won't give as much milk. Social critics fear that children staying up later at night will turn into delinquents.

And there are worries that Japan's office workers, under social pressure not to leave before dark, will end up spending even more time at their jobs.

But attitudes may be changing.

The government proposed going to daylight-saving time in 1998 as part of the energy-saving guidelines drafted to meet the Kyoto protocol on climate change. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, obon holidays, fireworks festivals, ghost stories, and floating lanterns have marked the end of summer in Japan and now it's back to school, back to work, and autumn onsen trips to the country to watch the leaves change. In fact, at 5PM on August 31st, a loudspeaker at a local beach could be heard saying, "summer is over. Many thanks to the lifeguards for all their hard work. Now, would everyone please go home." So there it is...say hello to gray wool suits, bowls of fish soup and plates of onigiri cakes. Cold noodles have given way to warm ones and the sake is once again heated along with the too-hot-to-touch coffee cans that can be