By Siqiao Zhang
Abstract:
Starting from 2014, Mainland China has become Japan’s third largest source of overseas tourism, and the number of Chinese travelers to the country is still increasing. A flood of Chinese tourists has shown a special craze for Japanese home appliances and is buying up all the devices in duty-free shops across Japan. Despite the fact that the Japanese yen resumes its slide to hit seven-year low, the superior quality of Japanese products and the consumer-oriented design concepts are the largest contributing factors to the boom in sales.
Introduction:
While the number of Mainland Chinese tourists that spent their Chinese New Year Holidays in Hong Kong has declined for the first time since the 1998 handover (Teon 2015), the number of Mainland Chinese tourist arrivals in Japan nearly doubled to 2.4 million in 2014, an 83 percent increase from the previous year (Minter 2015). Many Chinese people are visiting Japan not only to get a personal experience of the country but also to buy small yet high-end electronic and electrical goods, such as rice cookers, hair dryers, ceramic knives, and even toilet seats. According to reports from the Japan National Tourism Organization, Chinese visitors spent an estimated 6 billion yuan ($956 million) in Japan over the Chinese New Year holiday in February 2015 (Liu 2015). Comparing to the corresponding time period last year, Chinese visitors’ average spending increased 10.4 percent to $2,000 (Liu 2015).
There are a number of reasons for the flood of tourist spending in Japan, including the Japanese yen’s depreciation against the U.S. dollar and Japan’s new multiple-entry visa policy (Minter 2015). Still, this does not fully explain Chinese tourists’ craze for shopping for Japanese gadgets and home appliances since there is hardly any consumer product that is available in Japan today that cannot be found in China. Given China’s frequent product safety scandals, Chinese consumers are losing faith in Chinese cheap manufacturing and start to acknowledge a disparity between the quality of Japanese and Chinese goods. Maybe we can find out why Japanese merchandise became so popular among Chinese consumers if we take a look at this season’s must-buy home appliances for Chinese tourists – expensive Japanese toilet seats.
Behind Japanese modern designs:
Forester argues, “The global reach of Japanese consumer technologies was attributed to Japan’s creative and original refinement, if not pure originality, rather than to its cunning ability to copy or imitate the West” (Iwabuchi 2002), and his theory applies to the invention and development of Japanese high-tech toilet design. The modern toilet in Japan is commonly known as Washlet in Japanese and has become the most advanced toilet design worldwide. However, the idea for the Washlet first came from abroad; the first toilet seat with integrated bidet was produced in the United Sates in 1964. Then Toto, the leading brand in Japan, refined the design and introduced its first Washlet model in 1982 (Tokyo 2003), and it’s been estimated that more than 70 percent of Japanese homes now feature a toilet seat with enhanced capabilities (Stevenson 2014). Japanese high-tech toilet seats have a dazzling array of features, including heated seats, blow dryer, massage options, bidet functions, and even wireless control panel.
The popularity of these toilets seats can be explained by the fact that Japanese merchandise explicitly shows its advanced technologies, exquisite workmanship and user-friendly functions. Chinese architecture researcher, Lili Sheng once stated that “Japan’s modern design meet the use function in the premise of users true feelings, pay attention to life habit and the local natural characteristics, cultural background and design all coming together (Sheng 2012).” Sheng’s argument is also consistent with Nagamichi’s theory on Kansei Engineering, a consumer-oriented technology for new product development. Nagamachi defined the Kansei Engineering as translating technology of a consumer’s feeling and image for a product into design elements (Nagamachi 1995). The successful companies, such as Toto, using Kansei Engineering benefitted from good sales regarding the new consumer-oriented products (Nagamachi 1995). The seat-heating function built for the Washlet is the sort of thing you don’t realize you need in your life until you’ve tried it. What’s more is that you will immediately decide you can no longer live without it. According to consumers’ words, “ It is truly a pleasure to press your hind flesh to an oval of cozy warmth, instead of receiving a mild, chilly shock, especially during winter times (Stevenson 2014).” A consumer-oriented product, which is designed based on consumer’s feeling and demand and further, reforms consumer’s lifestyle and acceptance of the whole market. Therefore, the craze to buy Japanese home appliances can be said to be an inevitable trend.
Discussion:
Do you think Nagamachi’s theory on consumer-oriented engineering is culturally odorless?
Will Japanese toilet seats succeed in the U.S. market? why and why not?
Related Links:
Review on Japanese toilet seats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xnm1syPnwE
References:
Liu, Simin. “Nothing Wrong with Chinese Shoppers in Japan.” CHINADAILY. CHINADAILY, 16 Feb. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
Minter, Adam. “Why Chinese Tourists Love Japan.” Bloomberg View. Bloomberg L.P., 25 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Nagamachi, Mitsuo. “Kansei Engineering: A New Ergonomic Consumer-oriented Technology for Product Development.” International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 15.1 (1995): 3-11. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
Sheng, Lili. “The Analysis of Human Nature of Japan??s Modern Design.” – Master’s Thesis Provide The Best Dissertation. Dissertation001, 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
Stevenson, Seth. “You Probably Need This Incredible Japanese Wonder Toilet.” Slate. The Slate Group LLC., 6 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
Teon, Aris. “Now the Japanese Are Mad at Chinese Tourists | The Nanfang.” The Nanfang. The Nanfang, 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
Tokyo, Reuter. “US, Europe Unready for Super-toilets, but Japan Is Patient.” The Taipei Times. The Taipei Times, 28 Sept. 2003. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
I had no idea what the Washlet was or the fact that it was so popular with Chinese tourists, so it was cool to connect it to some cultural inside jokes that I completely missed in Asian dramas I watch. I’d be interested to know more about the logic behind this Chinese craze phenomenon, and whether there are other examples in Japanese products that can support your argument.
Regarding Nagamachi’s theory on consumer-oriented engineering, I absolutely think that it is culturally odorless. The idea, as described in your post, is that businesses find out what consumers want as a product and creates it using those elements. Catering to the consumer is a rule of thumb for business success, so I think that it applies in any country around the world. A question I would ask though, is the Japanese toilet seat (or can it become) culturally odorless and gain the same amount of popularity in a western country, say the US, as it has with the Chinese population?
Wow, this was so interesting! I didn’t realize there was a movement you can trace in the popularity of Japanese toilet innovation and I’d like to see what other products might have grown in that way. You mention that it isn’t necessarily how Japan has reinterpreted Western invention, but its own originality and refinement. Are there examples of other products, not as popular in the West, that has as much popularity?
Since this is also closely tied with the boom in tourism, have you noticed any Japanese advertisements focusing on the innovation and inventiveness of Japanese products? The marketing of a “Cool Japan” and practice of national branding likely capitalized on this image, so have there been partnerships with private companies and the government to emphasize this aspect?
Finally, with the toilet seats, are they as pervasive among Japanese people as well? Have even rural homes taken to buying up these products? Are there examples of Chinese products that draw Japanese consumers?
I have heard before about Chinese consumers vacationing to Japan expressly to buy merchandise, but I never would’ve guessed it would expand to toilets. That’s fascinating!
Siqiao, to address the question about whether something like the Japanese toilet could succeed in the US market, I have to wonder about that. Certainly, as a US citizen, I’d totally love to have a Japanese toilet with seat heating functions or a bidet. However, I have this hunch that there may be a resistance towards such a product at least here in the US. One of the great buzzphrases in commercial marketing today is “Manufactured in America” which appeals to a nationalistic pride in our country and products from our country. I certainly don’t think this has stopped people from buying products they know were manufactured elsewhere, such as Apple or Samsung phones produced in foreign factories, but there are some things such as cars where “American cars” are a symbol of pride and quality. I suppose this depends on whether Americans care enough about a toilet to ascribe nationalist values to one, right?
One question I became curious about was the manufacturing process of these Japanese products. Certainly, by the time these products are packaged and shipped to retailers, they are seen as Japanese. However, to my knowledge, many Japanese companies outsource some manufacturing work to foreign countries with cheaper mass-production facilities. Obviously, China is one such place where many Japanese corporations outsource their labor. Does this play at all into the Chinese conscience when they buy products from Japan?
really good one keep sharing with us valuable and informative content
life-sciences
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