Japan Market Update - April 2007 Edition

Hi,

Last Friday while I was in Tokyo, as if on schedule, cherry blossoms hit their peak day--"mankai" or "full-bloom". The bursting of the cherry blossoms on Friday, 3/30/07, to full bloom was also the opening day to the public for Tokyo Midtown, a new business, retail, residential complex in Roppongi. The location is truly the heart of Tokyo, just minutes to Ginza, Shinjuku, and Shibuya.

Today, the site is dominated by Tokyo's tallest building at 248 meters (54 stories), which features office space for 20,000 workers and condominiums for 1200 dwellers. Its top floors are occupied by Tokyo's first Ritz Carlton, a five star facility offering the Ritz Carlton's legendary hospitality and comfort, as well as the best panoramic views in Tokyo.

While in Tokyo, I bumped into former Hawaii DJ, Kamasami Kong. Now Tokyo FM DJ and Metropolis Podcast Journalist, Kong said the hotel is "incredible in its attention to detail in every single aspect, and the views...wow...from the corner table you can see Mount Fuji, and yes, the other direction I think all the way to Alaska!"

"Hospitality", "diversity", and "greenery" describe the project, along with "location", "location", "location". Over 40% of the site consists of lush green areas. Then there is diversity of dining, including two famed New York eateries, Indian restaurant Nirvana and Union Square Cafe. Of course some of the best in Japanese cuisine will be found at Midtown. The Suntory Musuem of Art completes the concept and promotion of the "Roppongi Art Triangle" comprising of the National Arts Center Tokyo and the Mori Art Museum at Roppongi Hills.

See below for more information on why Tokyo Midtown is the talk of the town this spring and why it is an "attraction" hoped to bring in an estimated 30 million visitors annually, or about 82,000 a day!

As always, let me know how our firms, PacRim Marketing Group and/or PRTech can be of marketing assistance to you and your organizations this spring.

Warmest regards,
Dave Erdman
derdman@pacrimmarketing.com

*Japan Market News
-----Travel: New comfort for Northwest's Pacific Rim flights
-----Travel: Healing, stress relief, memories top travel reasons
-----Travel: Guam bookings strong for Golden Week
-----Business: Upscale urban project opens in Roppongi
-----Business: Latest M&A: Aeon becomes no. 1 in retail
-----Business: CPK opens two locations outside Tokyo
-----Business: E-wallet advances with Pasmo card
-----Business: Orders pour in for million-yen brandy
-----Beauty: Cult anime ad boosts cosmetics sale
-----Society: Women expect "threefold" on White Day
*Culture Corner
*Media of the Month
*Upcoming Magazine Deadlines
*Important Dates

TRAVEL: NEW COMFORT FOR NORTHWEST'S PACIFIC RIM FLIGHTS

Despite a weaker travel climate, airline adds Honolulu flight and new planes
Northwest Airlines announced it will retire its DC-10s and introduce newer aircrafts between Tokyo and Honolulu, Saipan, and Guam, and between Honolulu and Osaka starting this summer. The new, wide-body Airbus 330 aircraft features redesigned economy class seating and a fully interactive in-flight entertainment system. Scheduled for service between July 1 and August 31, Northwest will also add a flight to the Honolulu route, increasing its daily nonstop schedule to three flights. Over the busy summer travel season, the new flight 83 will thus be adding about 8,000 seats to the airlift capacity between Tokyo and Honolulu. The return flight will depart Honolulu at 2:40 p.m., a welcome choice for travelers who would rather avoid the morning "rush" at Honolulu airport; most Tokyo-bound flights depart in the morning.

(Sources: dailylead.com 3/21/07; Pacific Business News 3/20/07; Travel Vision News 3/27/07)
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TRAVEL: HEALING, STRESS RELIEF, MEMORIES TOP TRAVEL REASONS

Survey shows the ideal trip: a spa vacation with family
Hot springs and spas ranked the top destination types in a survey of women in their 20s and 30s. Resorts ranked second, followed by nature settings such as the ocean and mountains. When asked about their purpose to travel, 66 percent answered "for healing and stress relief," while 49 percent said "to create lasting memories." Other popular reasons to travel were "good eats" and "spending quality time with friends and family." Among the 20s age group, shopping, dining, and memory-making ranked highest, while among women in their 30s, healing and stress relief were the most popular reasons to travel. As for accommodations, 72.8 percent ranked resorts as their top choice, followed by historical inns (such as the Japanese ryokan), lesser-known bed-and-breakfast-type inns, and city hotels.

(Source: Dentsu Trend Box Survey 02/09/07)
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TRAVEL: GUAM BOOKINGS STRONG FOR GOLDEN WEEK

Bookings show short-haul trips to Guam and Asia highly popular
Guam, China, and other Asia destinations are top picks among travelers booking Golden Week travel through JALPAK, the package tour arm of Japan Airlines. Golden Week kicks off on Saturday, April 28, followed by a string of holidays and ending on Sunday, May 6. According to JALPAK, departures for Guam tours peak on two dates -- Friday, April 27 and Thursday, May 3 -- while return activity peaks on Sunday, May 6. Travelers thinking ahead may be taking advantage of this year's favorably situated holidays, since in 2008, holidays will be spaced out between more weekdays, meaning potential travelers would have to take more "days off" in order to maximize Golden Week.

(Sources: Travel Vision News 3/27/07; japan-guide.com)
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BUSINESS: UPSCALE URBAN PROJECT OPENS IN ROPPONGI

Tokyo Midtown to rival Roppongi Hills, offers hotel, residence, retail, and the arts
Across the expressway from the lavish urban compound Roppongi Hills, a new Tokyo complex - Tokyo Midtown - opened on March 30th. The 19-acre property, once occupied by Japan's Self-Defense Agency, is now home to Japan's first Ritz-Carlton Hotel and its branded condominiums, "The Park Residences at The Ritz Carlton," in addition to Tokyo Midtown Residences, and luxury short-term apartments operated by Oakwood Premier. At its core, Midtown is an urban complex featuring three office buildings (including the tallest office tower in the city), over 130 shops and restaurants, a medical clinic, two art museums, concert halls, conference rooms, and parks. The project was handled by a consortium of six organizations: the society of JA agricultural cooperative unions, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co., Sekisui House, Ltd., Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co., Daido Life Insurance Co., and Mitsui Fudosan, Co., Ltd.

If you are interested in listening to Kamasami Kong's podcast, click here: www.metropolis.co.jp/podcast/default.asp

(Source: www.tokyo-midtown.com; Tokyo Calendar Magazine 5/07; commartsdesign.com)
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BUSINESS: LATEST M&A: AEON BECOMES NO. 1 IN RETAIL

A tie-up with Daiei creates Japan's largest retail group
With a total combined sales of over 6 trillion yen ($51.2 billion), Japan's Aeon Group surpassed Seven & I Holdings (parent company of Japan's 7-Eleven and Denny's chains) to become the nation's largest retailer. Seven & I and Aeon have gone head-to-head for the no.1 spot in recent years, but a 2005 acquisition of Millenium Retailing Co. (parent of the Sogo and Seibu department stores) had given Seven & I the top reign for about a year. Then in a bidding race that also attracted Wal-Mart, no.3 Daiei's top shareholder Marubeni ultimately sold 15 percent of its 44.6 percent stake to Aeon for a reported 46.2 billion yen ($535 million). Additionally, Aeon will spend 16.5 billion yen ($140 million) to take a 20.3 percent stake in Daiei's grocery subsidiary Maruetsu Inc. Marubeni said it chose Daiei because it was looking for a strong partner in retail. Meanwhile Wal-Mart continues its expansion plan in Japan through subsidiary Seiyu Ltd.

(Sources: Reuters UK 3/9/07; wikipedia)
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BUSINESS: CPK OPENS TWO LOCATIONS OUTSIDE TOKYO

High demand fuels California Pizza Kitchen expansion within same region
Less than six months after opening its first restaurant in Japan, L.A.-based casual restaurant chain, California Pizza Kitchen, launched its second location at Lalaport department store in Yokohama. Though slightly smaller than its 3,500-sqft. predecessor, the new CPK restaurant opened to eager diners waiting in long lines for a taste of what CPK is best known for in Japan: "California cuisine." The flagship is located at Lazona Kawasaki, a mega-mall complex of retail shops, business offices, and residences, and connected to Kawasaki station, which accommodates about 700,000 passengers daily. Now that there are two CPK restaurants within an eight-mile radius, the question among Japan's avid CPK fans (who frequently blog about their CPK dining experiences in Japan and abroad) is when a Tokyo location will open.

(Sources: CPK Press Release 3/15/07, 9/26/06)
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BUSINESS: E-WALLET ADVANCES WITH PASMO CARD

New "Pasmo" debit card can be used to ride most Tokyo trains, subways, and bus lines
Electronic money reached a new milestone in March, when 59 of Japan's major railway and bus operators jointly launched "Pasmo," a debit fare card that can be used throughout the complex web of trains, buses, and subways in metropolitan Tokyo and neighboring cities. The cards can be charged with up to 20,000 yen (approx. $171) in electronic cash, and are used by sliding them across electronic readers. Besides tickets, the card can be used for vending machines, and for purchases at over 700 participating stores. The Pasmo is a significant advancement for "smart card" technology powered by Sony's integrated circuit chip, which has been used by JR East's own "Suica" e-money card since 2001. Pasmo Co., a joint company of 11 railways and 19 bus operators, plans to issue eight million cards by 2010, eventually linking 106 transportation operators in the Tokyo area.

(Sources: The Japan Times 3/19/07; Bloomberg.com 3/18/07)
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BUSINESS: ORDERS POUR IN FOR MILLION-YEN BRANDY

Asahi planned to sell 70 bottles of rare French brandy blend
At 300, beverage maker Asahi Breweries Ltd. stopped accepting orders for the Louis XIII Black Pearl brandy. Asahi had originally planned to sell 60 to 70 bottles of the rare blend, produced by Paris-based Remy Cointreau Group. But when reservations poured in, Asahi, a distributor for Remy Cointreau, boosted its supply to 120 bottles. A random drawing will determine the lucky customers. Louis XIII Black Pearl is a blend of 1,200 unblended brandies, and comes in a special 700-mL (23 ozs.) Baccarat crystal bottle.

(Source: Kyodo News 3/10/07)
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BEAUTY: CULT ANIME AD BOOSTS COSMETICS SALES

Poreless cartoon character popularized through mobile-phone subscriptions
A new brand of skincare called "Bihada Ichizoku" (meaning "beautiful skin family") has been recording unprecedented sales since its launch in November 2005, thanks to a tie-up with a cultishly popular, comedic novel series by the same name. The main character - a porcelain-skinned ingenue named Bihada Sara - graces the packaging of the Bihada skincare line, which features individually-packaged lotion masks containing pearl and seaweed extracts (450 yen, approximately $3.85). The Bihada Ichizoku series ran exclusively on Girls Walker, a fashion web site for mobile phones, with 9 million registered users. By the time Bihada launched an ad for the lotion mask through a mobile phone web site, the series was so popular that all 64,000 of them sold out in a day. The ever-popular cosmetics line, available at drugstores and convenience stores, has since spun off to feature Sara's twin sister and rival, Yutenji Saki, and their "looker" of a mother, Rumiko.

(Source: web-japan.org 3/6/06; field report)
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SOCIETY: WOMEN EXPECT "THREEFOLD" ON WHITE DAY

On the reciprocal version of Valentine's Day, women expect more than what they gave
At least from their true love, a group of 500 women surveyed by Ginza's Printemps department store said they expected a gift of about 8,893 yen (approx. $75) on White Day, March 14. That's about triple of what the same group of women spent on their partner for Valentine's Day. No wonder White Day - a Japanese marketing creation that gives men a chance (and an extra month to prepare) to reciprocate gifts they received on Valentine's Day - is big business. Among the top choices for White Day gifts from husbands and boyfriends, the surveyed women chose dinner (17 percent), earrings (13 percent), necklace (12 percent), cake (11 percent) and flowers (10 percent). As for WD gifts from men who were given "giri-choco" or the "obligatory" Valentine's Day gifts, (such as bosses, co-workers, friends, and family members), the women expected back gifts of about 1,300 yen ($11), and only in simple form: chocolate.

(Source: Tokyo Shimbun Shopper 3/9/07)
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JUJITSU

Almost every culture has developed its own form of combat fighting techniques. Jujitsu is a martial art form that originated in Japan around 200 B.C. It was developed for unarmed guards of the emperor to ward off enemies. Since the art form was developed for combat with an unarmed, unarmored opponent, the atemi waza (or vital striking techniques) are used heavily.

The word "jujitsu" means "art of flexibility" because it does not use rigid fighting tactics. Instead, jujitsu uses strategies that outwit the opponent into making the first attack. Once the attacker makes his move, the fighter using the jujitsu strategies will attempt to make the opponent lose balance and then counter attack. The counter attack includes throwing, striking, or joint locking. Jujitsu also includes punching, kicking, throwing, wrestling (pinning and strangulating), and the use of weapons. The weapons used include the tanto (dagger), ryufundo kusari (weighted chain), jutte (helmet smasher), and kakushi buku (disguised weapons).

Jujitsu has been passed down for centuries from Japan, and has even expanded outside of the country. Many different schools have been established throughout the decades, and the style has been altered by the different schools (called ryu). Modern jujitsu has changed a great deal from its original form in order to match modern day situations.

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