Japan

The news coming out of Japan couldn't be worse for the American nuclear industry. Manufacturers, suppliers, and electric utilities must be cringing with every headline, as the information includes science, statistics, and security...all subjects that your average consumer is fairly incapable of understanding (and certainly not via short blasts of news).

It is nice to be back in Japan this week although I am here just for 3 days and off to Seoul. Went to this restaurant in Subuya, impressive design where the kitchen is raised and opened like a theater and the manager is the conductor. Although he looks more like a headmaster standing on a podium. I wish the chefs can come out and sing a tune or two once 30 minutes.

I've had the good fortune to view the world through a Japanese lens over the past 10 days — specifically, the worlds of green business and clean technology, about which I've come to Japan to speak.

Three-quarters of Japanese social network users access the sites only from their mobile phones.

This observation comes from a survey conducted last year with almost 4,000 social network users in Japan by Mobile Marketing Data Labo. They found that 75.4% of respondents only accessed social networking sites from their mobile phone (and not from their PC). The number only accessing it from their PC (and not their mobile phone) was very low at just 2%.

Can design change the world? Or at least let’s try to change healthcare. Or shall we start with our education system? There are plenty to change and no shortage of ideas. Do we need more new and cool products? Or we just need products that last? Or products that are cheap to repair and not throwaways that are costing our environment?

Some new research has just been published by McKinsey about the decline in Japanese consumer’s seemingly insatiable appetite for luxury goods. Sorry, the article is subscription only.

Just look at the graphic showing the responses, by age, to the statement: “I prefer spending money on luxury experiences rather than buying luxury accessories, handbags, or apparel."

by: Idris Mootee

Here's the view form the 51F of Roppongi Hills Club. I have lunches with some old friends here in Tokyo and talking about the challenges technologies companies are facing here. Many things have changed since I worked here in the early 80s. One thing that has not changed here in Japan, the country still has a pretty formal attire culture for business much like London. They are slow in adopting the dressing down trend, probably 5 years behind America.

by: Dick Stroud

I am always crowing on about the effects of lengthening life expectancy but this research from Japan was a real wake-up call (Trends in healthy life expectancy in Japan: 1986 – 2004).

by: Dominic Basulto

This month's issue of Monocle magazine (a cross between the Economist and Wallpaper magazine) takes a closer look at the future of retail, focusing on the "smartest shopkeepers, best buyers, happiest consumers and sharpest ideas on the street, in the aisles and online." If you think the smartest ideas are coming out of the U.S. or Western Europe, think again.

by: Scott Goodson

I recently came across a new Cultural Movement: tokidoki (small t).

Not since the long lines in front of stores waiting to buy Michael Jordan sneakers have so many taste-makers lined up for tokidoki merchandise - shoes, clothes, toys - when a tokidoki item is launched in subcultural stores across the USA.