The "Picky" Customers and Japanese Consumerism
There was a particular example often raised when people talk about how picky Japanese people can be regarding, well, everything they buy. The Kit-Kat chocolate bar, started in the US with one original flavor (um, chocolate) somehow morphed into 27+ different varieties over its decades of development in Japan. While the Kit-Kat bar remains the same and popular in the States, in Japan, flavors come and go as consumers magically get tired of them a few months after introduction.
And Kit-Kat bars certainly isn't an exception. Everything from soft drinks to sausages always seemed to carry some extra ingredient that is not thought of even in their countries of origin. Food flavors comes in and goes out faster than fashion trends, leaving companies forced to constantly innovate their products. Now, if food flavors in Japan are like fashion trends elsewhere, you can bet that actual fashion trends have pretty much no comparison.
Well, everyone is a fan of innovation. Better designed products with greater functionality improves people's standard of living, often without the need to raise the product's cost. And for Japan, the cutthroat competition forced by constant innovations probably helps to cement its reputation as a producer of cutting edge technologies and origin of many interesting, unique products first started in Japan and now sold around the world (instant noodles, for one).
But while the sort of innovation for survival in Japan attests to both the maturity and stagnancy of the consumer markets here, it probably speaks greater volumes about the cultural mentality of the Japanese rather than the economic conditions. After all, the competition for basic products in the States are just as intense and wide open for Japanese firms with their innovative products to enter, but the sort of varieties seen in Japan has not taken hold on the other side of the Ocean.
Again, the issue is one perhaps unique to small, densely packed countries. The lack of space in Japan has forced the Japanese to develop a strong attention to intricate, functional details as compensation for lack of greater area. The lack of resources further forced the Japanese to minimize size of most products, compelling them to concentrate even more on the details to make the items just as productive as larger ones.
On the other hand, the open expenses and seemingly endless resources fielded by the States creates a "whatever" attitude among the people. Size and quantity becomes a standard of quality by themselves, and the attention of detail by the Japanese is often seen as absurdity. So, as materialistic as the Americans are, their focus seems to be just getting more "stuff" that do separate individual tasks, a very logical conclusion given the high income and large garages for storage.
The opposite is true for Japan. Rather than buying a new product with a different function, a product with one function will be replaced one that performs multiple functions. The processing speed and convenience of each individual products will be tested to the maximum because small Japanese homes does not allow the simultaneous existence of many products.
Such attention to quality, then, is easily explainable for food. Because the idea of food as filling (for low price) cannot exist given limited resources, they must "taste good" in extraordinary ways to satisfy the appetite. And while price reflect the quality in a large state, in Japan, the high price is an established fact, and the manufacturers have to bring up extraordinary quality even for low-end products to match the cost.
The result, not surprisingly, is the general lack of affinity for everyday goods at their localities displayed by Japanese abroad. Greater choices at home, topped off with greater quality defined by functionality, and plus better service, leads to conclusion that Japanese-designed goods are superior. But, as discussed, the high quality is but a long-winded side effect of Japan as a country lacking resources.
And Kit-Kat bars certainly isn't an exception. Everything from soft drinks to sausages always seemed to carry some extra ingredient that is not thought of even in their countries of origin. Food flavors comes in and goes out faster than fashion trends, leaving companies forced to constantly innovate their products. Now, if food flavors in Japan are like fashion trends elsewhere, you can bet that actual fashion trends have pretty much no comparison.
Well, everyone is a fan of innovation. Better designed products with greater functionality improves people's standard of living, often without the need to raise the product's cost. And for Japan, the cutthroat competition forced by constant innovations probably helps to cement its reputation as a producer of cutting edge technologies and origin of many interesting, unique products first started in Japan and now sold around the world (instant noodles, for one).
But while the sort of innovation for survival in Japan attests to both the maturity and stagnancy of the consumer markets here, it probably speaks greater volumes about the cultural mentality of the Japanese rather than the economic conditions. After all, the competition for basic products in the States are just as intense and wide open for Japanese firms with their innovative products to enter, but the sort of varieties seen in Japan has not taken hold on the other side of the Ocean.
Again, the issue is one perhaps unique to small, densely packed countries. The lack of space in Japan has forced the Japanese to develop a strong attention to intricate, functional details as compensation for lack of greater area. The lack of resources further forced the Japanese to minimize size of most products, compelling them to concentrate even more on the details to make the items just as productive as larger ones.
On the other hand, the open expenses and seemingly endless resources fielded by the States creates a "whatever" attitude among the people. Size and quantity becomes a standard of quality by themselves, and the attention of detail by the Japanese is often seen as absurdity. So, as materialistic as the Americans are, their focus seems to be just getting more "stuff" that do separate individual tasks, a very logical conclusion given the high income and large garages for storage.
The opposite is true for Japan. Rather than buying a new product with a different function, a product with one function will be replaced one that performs multiple functions. The processing speed and convenience of each individual products will be tested to the maximum because small Japanese homes does not allow the simultaneous existence of many products.
Such attention to quality, then, is easily explainable for food. Because the idea of food as filling (for low price) cannot exist given limited resources, they must "taste good" in extraordinary ways to satisfy the appetite. And while price reflect the quality in a large state, in Japan, the high price is an established fact, and the manufacturers have to bring up extraordinary quality even for low-end products to match the cost.
The result, not surprisingly, is the general lack of affinity for everyday goods at their localities displayed by Japanese abroad. Greater choices at home, topped off with greater quality defined by functionality, and plus better service, leads to conclusion that Japanese-designed goods are superior. But, as discussed, the high quality is but a long-winded side effect of Japan as a country lacking resources.
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