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Japanese author touts sophistication, but others see subservience
Encouraging Japanese
women to live, above all, with dignity
Young Japanese women searching for a wider role in society have no role
model today. The ideal of a self-sacrificing "good wife, wise
mother," according to a Japanese saying, belongs to the past. And
fighting alongside the country's overworked and overstressed salarymen holds
little appeal.
At least that was the view of Mariko Bando, 61, the author of a book that
professes to be a guide for young women. With sales of more than three
million copies, the book, "Dignity of a Woman," has become one of
Japan's biggest best sellers in decades and has presented Bando as just such
a role model.
Bando has, to be sure, led a career considered ground-breaking for a
Japanese woman of her generation. After graduating from the University of
Tokyo, she became an elite bureaucrat, choosing to keep working even after
marrying and having children. She later became the deputy governor of a
prefecture and then the first woman to serve as a consulate general. She is
now president of Showa Women's University here in Tokyo.
And yet, in her book, Bando focuses not on policy or diplomacy but on
everyday issues. She gives tips on maintaining dignified manners, using
dignified speech and wearing dignified clothes. Other chapters revolve
around living and interacting with, of course, dignity.
A "sophisticated" strategy is necessary for women to get ahead
in Japanese society, Bando said in an interview, making a snaking motion
with her hands. Simply being aggressive, a quality she ascribed to American
women, would not work.
"Japanese society hasn't matured enough yet to accept independent
and aggressive women," she said.
"That's the reality. So we have to think about how to become
independent here. However, I did not write that we should be meek like women
in the old days."
Though fans have praised the book for its useful information, critics
have complained that in the guise of upholding dignity it reinforces a
traditional view of women. Why, they ask, should women be required to know
the names of flowers or be a good cook to be considered dignified, as Bando
writes?
In the age of female leaders like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Condoleezza
Rice and Angela Merkel, the book seeks to shape young women into
traditional, subservient women of the distant past, Nanami Shiono, an author
of history books, wrote in the monthly magazine Bungeishunju.
"I think this book is perfect for the mass production of dull women
suitable for dull men," Shiono wrote. "But why is it that, in
Japan, a person who could not have become an elite bureaucrat by being dull
is so keen on mass-cultivating dull women?"
Bando answers the critics by pointing to the popularity of her book,
saying it resonated among young women searching "for a way to live with
dignity."
The success of Bando's book as well as others with the word
"dignity" in their titles in the last couple of years can be
viewed as something of a backlash against the half-decade of economic and
political reforms under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. With
Koizumi's emphasis on free markets, deregulation and competition, brash
American-style entrepreneurs were briefly heralded as role models for a new
Japan. But now calls for a return to so-called traditional, more dignified
Japanese values are multiplying.
Anyone writing such a book exposes herself to scrutiny, and Bando
recently took some gentle ribbing from a reporter from a youth-oriented
television program who visited her home. In Bando's study, the television
reporter found an earpick lying on her desk and noticed the drawers of a
dresser, opened and bulging with clothes.
"I was cleaning up but wasn't able to finish before they
arrived," Bando recalled.
Born in 1946 in the rural prefecture of Toyama, Bando grew up in a family
that took to heart the American-inspired, postwar emphasis on the equality
of the sexes, she wrote in an autobiographical essay in Bungeishunju. After
college, she became the first woman to enter the prime minister's office as
a career bureaucrat. Even as her female college classmates gave up working
after getting married, she did not.
It was a decision that raised eyebrows among her colleagues. Her husband,
a salaryman, did not object, but told her flatly that he "wouldn't help
at all" at home, she wrote. Her mother and father often came to Tokyo
to help out with her two daughters.
After she landed at Showa Women's University, a publishing friend
suggested that she write a book on Japanese women. Bando had an academic
book in mind, but the publisher wanted a how-to volume geared to readers
like Bando's students.
"Women are looking for a new way to live - not the way men do, but
with dignity as human beings," Bando said. "And I wanted to advise
them."
In her book, Bando starts with a brush-up on manners, emphasizing the
importance of writing thank-you notes and keeping time. She advises against
talking too fast or wearing designer clothes. She decries the indignity of
accepting free tissue paper handed out on Japanese streets and of hunting
for bargain items in sales.
Standing out is discouraged. Moderation is encouraged. In a typical
sentence, she counsels against trying to deliver too good a speech.
"First of all, being able to deliver a conventional speech is the
requirement of a woman with dignity," she writes. "Once that
requirement is fulfilled, let's add a tad of personality."
In dealing with friends, she recommends against sharing problems, saying
it is best "not to reveal one's weak and unattractive sides."
Consultation by phone, anonymously of course, is preferable. Asking
personal questions, like the occupation of a friend's husband or the
children's school, is a no-no.
Male managers often address younger workers by adding the diminutive
"chan" or "kun" to their names instead of
"san." But female managers should refrain from following that
practice, she said, because Japanese men are very sensitive about their
positions.
If the book reflects the survival strategies of a woman of Bando's
generation, however, it also betrays its prudence. Little in the book would
make conservative men uncomfortable.
By almost every economic and social indicator, Japanese women trail their
counterparts in other advanced nations. Japan's system, laws and workplace
are stacked against women, as Bando herself acknowledged.
Still, Bando was ambivalent about American society, by what she perceived
as its fierce competitiveness, materialism and individualism. She pointed to
the futility of pursuing personal desires.
"For example, someone said that all romantic love turns into
friendship within four years," she said. "It's not certain that
you'll feel psychologically satisfied by fulfilling personal desires like
acquiring power or wealth, or marrying the person you love. Instead, many
people fail and get hurt. The degree of satisfaction of the society, in
total, may not increase."
Bando believes that a "society in which everyone can lead modest
little lives isn't bad, though it's not an attractive way of thinking."
"Things change," she said. "There's a time when you're
young, healthy and ambitious. Then when you're mature, you value a
well-balanced life. Things change, in individuals and in societies."
Japan, in the past, was more open to challenges, Bando said.
"But," she added, "once you reach a certain level, challenges
and competition aren't necessarily a plus anymore."
- 2008 March 28 by Norimitsu
Onishi INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
Japanese
Housewives Sweat in Secret as Markets Reel
 
Mayumi Torii
says she has earned $150,000 since she started trading in currencies last
year
TOKYO, Sept. 15 —
Since the credit crisis started shaking the world financial markets this
summer, many professional traders have taken big losses. Another, less
likely group of investors has, too: middle-class Japanese homemakers who
moonlight as amateur currency speculators.
Ms. Itoh is one of them. Ms. Itoh, a
homemaker in the central city of Nagoya, did not want her full name used
because her husband still does not know. After cleaning the dinner dishes,
she would spend her evenings buying and selling British pounds and
Australian dollars.
When the turmoil struck the currency
markets last month, Ms. Itoh spent a sleepless week as market losses wiped
out her holdings. She lost nearly all her family’s $100,000 in savings.
“I wanted to add to our savings, but
instead I got in over my head,” Ms. Itoh, 36, said.
Tens of thousands of married Japanese
women ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half,
playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children
into bed. While the overwhelmingly male world of traders and investors here
mocked them as kimono-clad “Mrs. Watanabes,” these women collectively
emerged as a powerful force, using Japan’s vast wealth to sway prices and
confound economists.
Many bought and sold stakes worth into
the millions of dollars through margin trading, a potentially lucrative but
risky form of trading that uses borrowed money.
Until the credit crisis, which began with
troubles in the American mortgage market, the value of foreign currencies
traded online by private Japanese citizens, including women, averaged $9.1
billion a day — almost a fifth of all foreign exchange trading worldwide
during trading hours in Tokyo, said Kazuhiro Shirakura, an analyst at the
Yano Research Institute in Tokyo.
Now Japan’s homemaker-traders may
become yet another casualty of the shakeout hitting the debt, credit and
stock markets worldwide. If so, these married women could lose more than
just an investment opportunity. They could also lose the newfound economic
freedom that drew many to currency trading in the first place.
Most analysts estimate that Japanese
online investors lost $2.5 billion trading currency last month. In fact, the
subprime-mortgage crisis was the first severe market downturn since online
trading took off here. Economists see the current tumult as the first real
test of Japan’s homemaker-traders, and whether these newcomers have the
stomach to ride out markets in a time of volatility.
“Mrs. Watanabe got burned this time,”
said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency economist at Nikko Citigroup in Tokyo.
“The question now is whether she can make a comeback.”
Indeed, online currency trading has
become a phenomenon here, with a subculture of blogs, books and investing
clubs for Japan’s legions of housewife-traders. The appeal, many of these
women say, lies partly in the potential that online trading offered at least
some financial independence for wives who still wanted to dutifully spend
their days at home.
Some of the women used their own money,
some used their husband’s, and some used a combination of both. But by
trading, they challenged deeply held social prohibitions in Japan against
money, which is often seen here as dirty, especially when earned through
market speculation.
“There are strict taboos against money
that isn’t earned with sweat from the brow,” said Mayumi Torii, a
41-year-old mother of one who said she earned $150,000 since she started
margin trading in currencies early last year.
Ms. Torii is one of Japan’s most famous
housewife-traders. She has written a book on her investing strategies and
founded a support group for home traders, the FX Beauties Club, which now
has 40 members. (FX is financial shorthand for “foreign exchange.”)
But until her book was released in July,
she said, she was afraid to admit even to her friends that she was trading,
though her husband knew and approved. Now she is a regular guest on
television programs.
Ms. Torii said she intended to keep
trading, despite the recent market setbacks. She said it was her best chance
to “stand on my own economically,” a necessity she discovered after her
first marriage ended in divorce, and she and her son had to live off her
meager savings. “I never want to feel that vulnerable again,” said Ms.
Torii, now remarried.
For other women, trading offered a more
modest sort of independence, giving them a chance to build up savings
separate from their husbands’ accounts.
One reason Japan’s homemakers can move
markets is that they hold the purse strings of the nation’s $12.5 trillion
in household savings. For more than a decade, that money languished in banks
here at low interest rates. But as the rapid aging of Japan’s population
has brought anxiety about the future, households are starting to move more
of it overseas in search of higher returns.
A tiny fraction of this has flowed into
risky investments like online currency accounts. Most of these accounts
involve margin trading, in which investors place a cash deposit with a
brokerage that allows them to borrow up to 20 or even 100 times their
holdings for trading.
The practice has been popular not only
because it vastly raises the level of potential profits, but also because it
allowed wives to trade at home, said Hiroshi Takao, chief operating officer
of TokyoForex, an online trading firm.
The housewife-traders were so secretive
that many market analysts did not realize how widespread the trend had
become until this summer, when the police arrested a Tokyo housewife accused
of failing to pay $1.1 million in taxes on her foreign exchange earnings.
While day trading of stocks has also
taken off in Japan, the women say they prefer currencies because of the
relative simplicity: currencies might involve only a handful of nations,
while trading stocks might mean keeping an eye on hundreds of companies.
For a time, margin trading seemed like a
surefire way to make money, as the yen moved only downward against the
dollar and other currencies. But last month, in the midst of the credit
turmoil, the yen soared as hedge funds and traders panicked.
Ms. Itoh recalled that she had wanted to
cry as she watched the yen jump as much as 5 percent in value in a single
day, Aug. 16.
“But I had to keep a poker face,
because my husband was sitting behind me,” Ms. Itoh said.
She did not sell her position, thinking
the yen would fall again. But by the next morning, only $1,000 remained in
her account, she said.
Yayoi Kawakage, a 40-year-old homemaker
who works part time at a real estate consulting firm, said she limited her
losses last month to $500 because she sold her positions quickly. She said
that if markets become less predictable now, many housewives would likely
abandon trading.
“The subprime problem showed good
things don’t last forever,” she said.
Still, some analysts point out that the
$2.5 billion that Japanese individuals lost last month was just a fraction
of a percent of the nation’s overall household savings.
“It is about the same as what Japan
spends in two weeks on horse racing, lotteries and pachinko,” said Tohru
Sasaki, chief foreign exchange strategist at JPMorgan Chase Bank, referring
to a pinball-like game popular among gamblers here.
Mr. Sasaki said he believed the losses
were not big enough to scare away married women and other investors. And
while the trading volume is far below last month’s, recent data show signs
of a return to online trading, said Mr. Yamamoto of Citigroup.
Indeed, most of the half dozen
homemaker-traders interviewed for this article said they were already
trading again, and the rest said they soon would be — including Ms. Itoh,
who said she would probably invest her remaining $1,000 in savings.
“There’s no other way to make money
so quickly,” she said.
- 2007 September 15 NEW
YORK TIMES
Taka mamas
SINGAPORE
- They are the Japanese versions of the taitai.
These expat wives hub at malls like Takashimaya.
They live in posh condominiums in Districts 9 and
10, sip tea at Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge, and structure their lives around
their children and husbands.
They're the Japanese versions of local taitais,
more affectionately called Taka Mamas, who kill time at Orchard Road malls
in groups while their kids are at school.
Mr Hideki Akiyoshi, who runs fashion and event
consultancy Style Factory, says Takashimaya is a favourite haunt for them.
'They can find everything they need there - supermarket, shops, restaurants
and even Kinokuniya, all of which they are familiar with.'
To top off the experience, Beard Papa, Japan's
best-selling cream puff chain, also made its way into Takashimaya Food Hall
last year.
The women are always a picture of low-key feminine
charm - well-coiffed, flawlessly made up and clad in tasteful designer garb
adorned with discreet jewellery.
'Most of them are on dependant passes, so they
can't work here,' says celebrity Japanese hairstylist Shunji Matsuo, who
runs six hair studios and quick-service salons here. 'They also speak little
or no English, so they prefer to hang out together, unlike other expat wives
who tend to socialise more.'
Based here for the last eight years, Mr Akiyoshi
says members of this brigade often take turns to pick a lunch or tea venue
among themselves, and sometimes pool money for day trips to Malacca or Kuala
Lumpur together.
Ms Violet Yeo, managing director of the upmarket
Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge at Takashimaya, says this well-heeled group
makes up 50 per cent of her customers.
Shy and reserved, many declined to have their
pictures taken for this story. Three called after the interview asking for
their names to be changed or quotes to be dropped as their husbands had
'scolded' them for giving away so many personal details.
'It's a small community here, we don't want to
draw attention to ourselves,' one explained apologetically.
Although Japanese housewives hold the family purse
strings, it is still the men who call the shots, says Ms Kiyomi Nishi, 35.
The mother of two was sent here in 1992 to set up
a branch office for her trading company, but she became an interpreter four
years ago.
The Japanese Embassy puts the size of the
community here at about 21,000, down from the peak of 27,000 in 1997.
The dwindling numbers are attributed to Japan's
economic woes and companies moving their bases to countries such as China
and Thailand to cut costs.
A Japanese freelance editor based here for the
past 13 years notes that more Japanese are also being hired on local
employment terms.
This means hefty expat packages worth about
$30,000 per month in the past have mostly been halved.
The 45-year-old, who declines to be named, says:
'With less spending power, many of these housewives are also more practical
these days. They used to splurge on brands like Louis Vuitton and Ferragamo,
but are now more careful.'
Ms Nishi, the interpreter, also sees more
'suburban mamas' who are content with heartland malls and Singapore
supermarket chains.
This group, who make their homes in the east and
west coasts to be nearer the Japanese schools, seldom mix with the Taka
brigade unless they share hobby or English classes.
Their husbands are often hired on local terms, and
they are more casual in their dressing, with jeans being a perennial
favourite.
Trips to Takashimaya or Meidiya supermarket at
Liang Court are limited to about two a month.
Upside, downside
Still, all the 10 Japanese housewives whom
LifeStyle spoke to describe life here as 'easy' and 'comfortable'.
Mrs Taeko Hasegawa, 54, who heads the culture
section of The Japanese Association's women's committee, says the transition
is so smooth that fewer are turning up for orientation talks.
Mrs Yoshiko Tanaka, 25, was thrilled to find
condiments like Japanese soy sauce and mayonnaise when she came here three
years ago. 'I couldn't find any of these things when I was studying in New
Zealand,' she says.
Mrs Naoko Suzuki, 44, appreciates the cheaper taxi
fares. The mother of two teenagers flags down a cab whenever she steps out
of her Aspen Heights condominium in River Valley Road.
The journey to Orchard Road costs her about $3.50.
A similar trip back home would set her back by at least $15, she says.
Cheaper green fees here have also prompted her to
take up weekly golf lessons at the Asian Golf Academy in Bishan.
But life here as an expat wife is not always as
peachy as it looks, these women point out.
Sure, the expat packages their husbands get are
worth at least $10,000 a month.
Their apartments are double the size they get in
Japanese cities for the same price, the children's education is paid for or
subsidised, and the company often throws in a car, too.
But hampered by visa restrictions or a weak grasp
of the English language, many of them find their lives here revolving around
just their husbands and children. Most have to give up their careers to move
here with their husbands.
Her homemaker status sometimes bothers Mrs Motoko
Yamada, 42, who has a degree in English language and literature.
The former bank officer says: 'Many Singaporeans I
meet here ask me what I do for a living. When I say I'm a housewife, they
will ask why don't I get a job.
'I feel a bit hurt. Does that mean I'm worth
nothing without a job?'
Sloppy service standards here, or what they term
the 'nevermind mentality', are another pet peeve.
Mrs Chitose Tanaka, 35, who arrived 10 months ago,
relates an encounter her friend had.
'It misspelt the name of her child on the birthday
cake. When we pointed out the mistake, the assistant said, 'Oh, nevermind.'
It's as if it was such a small matter, why bring it up?
'Such a thing would never happen in Japan.'
Don't call me a Taka Mama, lah
It took her a month to get the hang of bus routes,
a year to step into a wet market, but eight years on, Mrs Motoko Yamada even
spouts Singlish.
'I don't feel out of place at all,' she says in
fluent English.
Four years ago, she and her husband became
permanent residents here.
He was posted here in 1995 by his trading company,
but left to set up his own engineering firm four years later.
This is one reason Mrs Yamada, 42, reminds you
several times that 'I am not a Taka Mama'.
Mr Yamada's expat package used to be a monthly
five-figure sum, which included housing allowance for their Neptune Court
apartment in Marine Parade and use of the company's Toyota Corolla.
Now he draws more than $8,000 a month and has to
pay for everything, including the $1,900 monthly rent on their apartment in
Simei.
Mrs Yamada also watches her expenses more
carefully. While she used to spend about $500 on shopping and transport, she
now limits herself to $300 a month.
She shops mostly at East Point and Tampines Mall,
and drops by Takashimaya only 'when I want to buy gifts for people'.
NTUC FairPrice outlets meet most of her grocery
needs, and laksa ranks as her favourite local dish. Her first visit to a wet
market seven years ago was a culture shock, she recalls with a laugh.
'All the raw stuff like pig's heads were all hung
up. And I didn't dare look when they chopped off the chickens' heads.'
Now she heads to a wet market in Tampines thrice a
month.
Her four-year-old attends kindergarten at a local
church from 10am to 3pm on weekdays.
Mrs Yamada fills these hours with church
activities, such as attending choir practice and craft lessons or helping to
translate newsletters.
Lunch is usually a simple affair at nearby food
courts or hawker centres with her friends.
'Singapore is more child-friendly,' she notes. 'In
Japan, many restaurants don't allow you to take young children with you.'
But what she appreciates most is the space she
gets here.
'In Japan, the emphasis is placed on unity. You
have to think about what others think of you.
'Here, I have the freedom to be myself.'
Enjoying the expat life
Before she came to Singapore three years ago,
marketing planner Kaoru Tsuchiyama was an ordinary salaried worker in Tokyo
who relied on the subway to get around.
But since her husband, the managing director of an
advertising agency, was posted here, her life has been the envy of friends
back home.
She lives in a three-bedroom apartment at upscale
Spring Grove condominium in Grange Road, hails a taxi every time she goes
out, and lunches regularly at Lei Garden at Orchard Plaza and Crystal Jade
in Takashimaya.
'Everyone is enjoying life here,' the 36-year-old
says through an interpreter.
The slim mother of one does not want her picture
taken. Neither will she reveal her husband's expat package, except to say
that it's a five-figure sum.
The amount covers her daughter's pre-school fees
at Chats-worth International School, costing $500 a month. Enrichment
classes such as ballet for the three-year-old and English lessons for
herself are another $500.
Once a month, she goes to five-star hotels such as
the Raffles and Grand Hyatt for high tea with other Japanese housewives.
Her day starts at 7am, when she prepares breakfast
and sees her daughter onto the school bus at 8.15am.
Thanks to the Gymboree exercise class that her
daughter attends at Tanglin Mall, she gets the chance to interact with expat
mothers of other nationalities.
This was what prompted her to sign up for English
lessons twice a week at Paradiz Centre.
'It's a waste if I come to a foreign country and
mix only with the Japanese,' she says. - 2003
October 17 Singapore
Straits Times
Japan needs female workers to survive
In an era when women in developed countries are advancing in every
field from politics to business to the professions, Japan stands out.
Japanese women remain second-class citizens in the workplace,
underrepresented, under-used and undervalued.
Just 0.8 per cent of Japanese chief executive officers are women,
compared with 10 per cent in Britain. Less than 10 per cent of managers
are women, compared with 43 per cent in the United States. Japan's female
employment rate is 25 percentage points below the male rate, the highest
gap for any major industrialized country except for Spain and Italy (and
they are catching up while Japan's female rate stays flat).
To legislator Kuniko Inoguchi, that seems not just unfair but absurdly
wasteful. With its working population forecast to shrink by nearly 10
million by 2030, Japan desperately needs productive workers if it is to
maintain its high standard of living. Just as badly, it needs a shot of
new energy and ideas.
“When you segregate half your population you reduce your talent
base,” she says, matter-of-factly.
Ms. Inoguchi is one of a growing number of Japanese who argue that
raising the status of women is much more than a matter of justice and
equity. It is a matter of national survival.
Japan faces a big crunch over the next 20 years as a growing public
debt and an aging population converge, threatening to cripple the world's
second biggest economy.
Other countries, like Canada, keep lively by importing labour through
high levels of immigration. Proudly homogeneous Japan has almost no
immigration by Western standards. The obvious alternative is to make
better use of existing, Japanese labour by tapping the vast pool of women
who are excluded from paid work. One study, by Kevin Daly of Goldman
Sachs, estimates that Japan could boost its economic output by 16 per cent
if it closed the gap between male and female employment levels.
Ms. Inoguchi argues that along with filling empty seats in Japanese
offices, bringing more women into the work force would spur the innovation
and creativity the country needs to revive its economy, which lost steam
after a market collapse during the late 1980s and has never fully
recovered.
Call it practical feminism. A Japan that fills its offices with ranks
of salarymen in dark suits, she says, cannot prosper in a global economy
that runs on innovation. “If you don't care about catching up to the
competition then you can afford to have a uniform work force,” she said.
Japan cannot. “If you want to stay ahead you need to have new ideas. If
you recruit people with exactly the same ideas as yours it's no good.”
Ms. Inoguchi is a rarity in Japan: a successful, high-profile woman who
also managed to raise two daughters. For years a top representative of her
country in international disarmament talks, she entered politics in 2005
and became minister for gender and population issues in the government of
reforming prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. Now an ordinary MP again, but
still a determined advocate for women, she holds court in an office in the
National Diet so crammed with papers, books and bouquets of flowers that
it is hard to move.
She says that because there is so little organized child care in Japan,
many women have to quit their jobs to raise children. Public spending on
child care amounts to just 0.3 per cent of gross domestic product, far
below the 0.7 per cent average for industrialized countries. That helps
explain the unusual M shape in Japan's female participation rate in the
labour force. The rate drops sharply during women's prime child-bearing
years.
By providing on-site child care, she argues, companies would find
themselves with a whole new group of motivated, loyal employees. “Women,
once cared for in terms of their role as care givers, will be very much
committed to that company,” she says.
Perhaps paradoxically, they might also do the nation a favour by having
more children. In the past it was assumed that it would help the fertility
rate if women stopped working to have children. In fact, the evidence
shows that in developed countries where female employment rates are
higher, birth rates are too. That is because countries like Japan confront
women with the choice of either having children or working. Countries that
make it easier to do both see more babies being born.
Simple justice demands that Japan do something about its abysmal record
on women's progress in the workplace. During the 21st century, no country
that pretends to be “advanced” – as Japan certainly does – can
claim the title if it keeps half its population in a state of subservience
to the other. But there are practical, unsentimental reasons for raising
the status of women, too.
- 2008 June 18 GLOBE
& MAIL
ONLINE
Japanese eCommerce: It's Not Just for
the Guys Anymore
Just as women caught up to men on the web
in the US, Japanese women are establishing a greater presence on the web as
well. Japan.internet.com notes that 3 million Japanese women are online out
of a total 18 million internet users. By 2003 there will 15 million women
online.
According to a study by e-Solutions,
Japanese women already have a disproportionate presence in e-commerce: they
represent 53% of all interent users that have shopped on the net.
Furthermore, annual per person expenditures on e-commerce are expected to
hit 75,000 ($731) yen by 2003. An indication of the clout Japanese women
wield in the household economy is that in 80% of cases surveyed, they
decided on final auto purchases.
The study also found that:
- 46.8% of all internet users have
shopped on the net
- The advertising market will grow to 50
billion yen ($487 million) by 2003
- eMarketer
29 November 1999
Japanese Sites for Women Aim for
Empowerment
Early in December, eWoman
officially opened for business with Mari Matsunaga, the woman widely
credited with igniting Japan's passion for cruising the Internet with a cell
phone, at its helm as editorial director.
Her job choice was a bit surprising. As
the brains behind i-mode, the popular Internet service that placed Japan in
the vanguard of the mobile Internet, Ms. Matsunaga had her choice of jobs
after leaving NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest cellular phone company and
i-mode's purveyor. Yet she gambled on a new Web site aimed at women, an area
of online business whose popularity has plummeted in the United States.
Like many involved in the Internet here,
however, Ms. Matsunaga argues that sites like hers could pry open Japan's
regimented society by encouraging people to speak out, and in doing so
discover that they are not alone. "We're hoping that we will hear
thoughts we've never heard before, that we will give a voice to people
who've never had one," she said. "I think this will stretch
people's perspectives, which tend to be limited here by society and
tradition."
EWoman (www.ewoman.co.jp/) is jumping
into a stampede, and whether it or any other Web site will dominate the
women's market, let alone operate profitably, is an open question.
Although there is no firm count of Web
sites for women, "We've already gone beyond the saturation point,"
said Mayuko Shimoda, who runs several Web sites addressing a range of
audiences, including lesbians, one of Japan's most secretive demographic
groups.
Japanese women have flocked to the
Internet, finding a type of community often available only to men in Japan
— a forum in which their sex makes no difference in terms of job
opportunities or the freedom to seek advice and air opinions.
Numbers illustrate the Internet's allure.
While men account for more than halfof Japan's Internet users, according to
Media Metrix, an online audience ratings firm, analysts say women are
catching up, accounting for an ever-larger segment of a growing
Internet-user population. Last May, 34.6 percent, or about 5 million, of
what was then 14.6 million Internet users were women. In October, women
accounted for 35.9 percent, or almost 6.5 million, of 17.9 million Internet
users.
Many people in Japan connect to the
Internet on cell phones, rather than PC's. So a lot of Web traffic in Japan
is for simple, slow-speed material conducive to cell-phone access, instead
of content-rich sites like eWoman. But such technical bottlenecks are
expected to be removed in future generations of wireless networks.
And even now Ms. Shimoda credits the
cellular phone and iMac computers with the surge in female Internet users
here. No well-heeled Japanese woman younger than 60 travels without her
"keitai," or cell phone, which is as much a fashion accessory as a
Vuitton bag. And the iMac, with its clear, candy-colored body, is "kawaii,"
or cute, a crucial factor in marketing to women in Japan. "When iMac
was put on the market last year, more and more women began going online and
accessing the handful of existing sites for women," Ms. Shimoda said,
noting that until then, sites catering to women were limited.
E-mail has also been a critical spur to
Internet use in this country, especially among mothers of small children.
Many of these women are setting up their own Web sites. "Sometimes we
just stay at home with no way to communicate with other people, and it's
very lonely," said Mieko Kai, a homemaker whose site lists child-
friendly restaurants. "The Internet is a way to find a friend and
exchange information."
Thus sites that ease communication among
users, as do most women's Web sites here, are attractive investments, said
Takuji Hiroishi, an Internet analyst at the Sanwa Research Institute and
Consulting Corporation, a research company affiliated with Sanwa Bank.
"That's why you're seeing the current shift from business- oriented Web
sites to sites serving women and seniors," he said.
One of the first women's sites was Womenjapan.com,
begun last fall. The site offers work-related tips, message boards, fashion
news and Ask the Experts, where members question lawyers, financial planners
and others affiliated with the site.
The focus is working women and women who
would like to work but face hurdles, like the lack of good child-care
options and pressure to stay home. This fall, for instance, the site awarded
a prize for the best new business plan, and it offered information on
writing résumés, continuing education and changing jobs, a daunting
challenge in a society dominated by lifetime employment.
The founder of Womenjapan.com, Kumi Sato,
is most interested in fostering women like herself, a successful business
executive who heads Cosmo Public Relations, a well-known firm here.
"I didn't need to be an Internet player, but I felt, as a woman running
a company, that I could help other women who would like to do the same
thing," Ms. Sato said. "Women here feel like they don't deserve to
have it all, work and a family and a good life."
Ms. Sato said that despite the
proliferation of women's sites in Japan, their future was brighter than that
of similar sites in the United States. Women here have a greater need for
information tailored to their needs and for places where they can speak out
and ask questions, she said. For instance, Japanese women are less likely
than Western women to see a gynecologist regularly, but many users of
Womenjapan.com ask questions of the gynecologist affiliated with the site
because they have some anonymity.
"No one ever points out that there
are 400 women's magazines in Japan," Ms. Sato said. "Can
publishers of women's Web sites sustain themselves? Probably, yes."
Many analysts would counter that a number
of Japanese women's magazines operate at a loss; they survive by being
subsidized by other businesses. Ms. Sato could not say when and how
Womenjapan.com will become profitable, although she is confident that it
will make money with the support of advertisers and sponsors eager to reach
female consumers. "Johnson & Johnson, Aflac, DaimlerChrysler and
Schwab have all sponsored various pages and forums on the Web site,
incorporating advertising about their products and services into discussions
about women's health issues, cars and so forth," Ms. Sato said.
The company has been trying to raise a
second round of financing from venture capitalists since early this year;
Ms. Sato said that effort would soon end.
Japanese Internet businesses have not had
the same access to the capital that has flowed into American Internet
businesses and have learned to operate frugally, said Grace Fromm,
Womenjapan.com's chief marketing officer. "People are growing these
businesses in a sensible way," Ms. Fromm said. "Expenses are more
under control."
Ms. Matsunaga also said that women's Web
sites here would be more successful than they had been elsewhere, although
she predicted that the field of contenders would be halved. "This is a
survival game," she said.
Her intention is to capture a pool of
subscribers large enough to compile marketing data that the site can then
sell. The site's draw is its affiliation with celebrities and experts, who
question users. The responses will help marketers, she said. For instance,
Ryu Murakami, a popular Japanese author who often writes about
Internet-related matters, asked, "Do you envy rich people?" The
response was an emphatic yes.
"The answers you get on the Internet
are much more sharp and clear than you get in person," Ms. Matsunaga
said. "The Internet provides a certain level of privacy for people to
talk and really express themselves."
She said the Internet gave Japanese women
opportunities they would not have otherwise. She pointed to the Internet-
based workplaces that allow homebound women to work and give them
responsibilities and decision-making roles that they would not have in a
typical office here.
One of Ms. Matsunaga's favorite examples
of a woman who enhanced her life through the Internet is Randi Taguchi, who
published her first story by e-mail through @nifty, Fujitsu's Internet
service. Her stories became such a hit that other online magazines picked
them up. Finally, Diamond, a well-known publisher, printed them.
"Without the Internet, unknown writers cannot attract attention,"
Ms. Matsunaga said, "but with it, they can become best sellers."
- New
York Times 25 December 2000
e-Commerce in Japan
Tokyo --
The market for Business to Consumer (B to C) electronic commerce in Japan in
1999 was 248 billion yen, or roughly four times the 64.5 billion yen of
1998, according to a new survey from the Electronic Commerce Promotion
Council of Japan and Andersen Consulting. In addition, if the newly added
segment of real estate is included, the size of the electronic commerce
market reaches 336 billion yen.
This figure is increasing faster than the
predictions from a previous survey. The contributions of automobiles and
real estate are the largest, accounting for roughly half the total, with PCs
and related products next, the survey showed. Financial products evidenced
the greatest rate of increase, with foods and services also increasing
rapidly.
As for the next prediction for 2003, the
survey team anticipates an even faster rate of eCommerce growth. It predicts
more than 3.5 trillion yen, or a total of 4.4 trillion yen, when including
real estate. In 2004, the scale of the market is expected to be 5.5 trillion
yen without real estate and 6.7 trillion yen including real estate.
Categories expected to significantly increase in market scale include
automobiles, travel and real estate, each of which should top one trillion
alone in 2004.
In addition, the survey team estimates
that electronic commerce's share of total household consumption will reach
2% by 2004, up from 0.1% in 1999.
From these results, the Electronic
Commerce Promotion Council of Japan and Andersen Consulting marked 1999 as
the year when Japan's electronic commerce started accelerating for its full
fledged takeoff, and will conduct various activities aimed at the expansion
of electronic commerce, their clients' advancement and the development of
the industries in Japan.
The Electronic Commerce Promotion Council
of Japan (“ECOM”, located at Aoumi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Chairman: Hiroshi
Ikawa), which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of International
Trade and Industry, and Andersen Consulting (located at Akasaka, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, Japan Representative: Masakatsu Mori), the world's largest management
and technology consulting company, cooperated in carrying out “A Survey of
the Market Scale for Electronic Commerce for Consumers in Japan”. This is
a continuation of a survey conducted jointly last year by MITI and Andersen
Consulting titled “A Survey of the Market Scale for Electronic Commerce
between Japan and the U.S.”, published in March 1999.
The survey was conducted from October
1999 to December 1999 by questionnaire and questioning, in regard to
Business to Consumer (B to C) electronic commerce in Japan. The special
characteristics of this survey are (1) the survey team limited its inquiries
to the fast expanding (B to C) electronic commerce market and tested the
predictions of the previous survey, and (2) the survey team revised the
previous survey's predictions based on the latest estimated values for the
present day market scale and made predictions ahead to 2004. The Electronic
Commerce Promotion Council of Japan (ECOM) was established in 1996 as a body
under the jurisdiction of MITI. In order to aid the realization and promote
electronic commerce, especially in the area of Business to Consumers, in
Japan, it has, while facilitating international cooperation, built
guidelines. It also conducts various research and studies for the porpoise
of realizing EC business and establishing an ideal and safe environment in
which all parties can participate.
- January 19, 2000 Arthur
Andersen
Japanese Women Entrepreneurs
TOKYO (AFP) - It is
much harder for a woman to start up a business in Japan than a man. But
despite many obstacles blocking the way, more Japanese women are devising
schemes to gain financial independence.
"There are no real statistics on
women who start their own business but interest is growing," said
Atsuko Mayumi, president of Amaria, a consulting company for Japanese and
American enterprises.
"An increasing number of women are
self-employed," said Mayumi, who is also a part-time lecturer on female
entrepreneurship at a university in Tokyo.
Thirty universities, certain professional
schools and even large department stores run special courses on how women
can set up their own enterprises.
But in Japan only 5.5 percent of
industrial company directors are female, being promoted to the position
through family inheritance or by working hard.
The figure is small compared with the
United States where 38 percent of such firms are fronted by a woman, said
Mayumi. The proportion of Japanese female presidents rises to 17 percent, or
350,000, according to figures for 1997, if small businesses such as clothes
boutiques and restaurants are included.
Women are inspired to start their own
business by a variety of reasons. But the biggest factor is Japan's
decade-long economic slump which has led companies to sack thousands of
female workers to cut losses.
Many men have also lost jobs, forcing
their wives to seek part-time work to make ends meet. Women comprise 70
percent of Japan's part-time workers.
"The number of the people wanting to
become entrepreneurs or start businesses is increasing," said an
official from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
There were 220,000 such individuals in
1997, up from 67,000 in 1968, and the number is steadily increasing,
according to ministry data.
"I think the changes in our
lifestyle - such as the end of a 'jobs for life' system, a rise in divorces
and an increase in the unemployment rate - could be one of the reasons for
this," the official told AFP.
More and more women decide to go it alone
because career prospects at established firms in Japan are limited and they
receive much lower remuneration packages than men, with salaries some 66
percent of their male equivalents.
Japan's technological evolution, with a
sharp rise in small office home office (SOHO) locations - rooms for rent in
ultra-modern buildings - has made it easier for people to take the plunge on
their own.
Women are exploring job opportunities in
all areas from interpreting and public relation services to environmental
work and manufacturing. There is also a rise in the number of self-employed
female taxi drivers.
In 1999 the government launched a
programme to offer support to women and senior citizens wanting to embark on
a self-employment scheme. Through the initiative people can apply for a low
interest rate loan of between 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent for up to 720
million yen (six million dollars).
But the new legislation is severely
flawed, said Mayumi.
"There is a lot of paper to submit,
you need lots of time to fill it out and collateral or co-signers are
required," she said.
"Women are asked if they have a
husband who can guarantee them. It often takes one year to process the
application and by the time you receive the loan it is too late you don't
need it anymore."
The METI official admitted there was a
need to revise the loan scheme.
"We have received opinions about the
slowness and complexity of the procedure," he said.
"We have been working on a way to
complete the application process in one to two days taking full advantage of
the Internet. Hopefully, this will materialise this year."
- AFP
European luxury brands
expand in Japan
After braving opening-day crowds to
check out Prada's brand-new, $85 million megastore in Tokyo, Takako managed
to snatch the last pair of $290 sunglasses. The 30-year-old secretary was
thrilled: Her friends had to make do with $115 key rings. "I'm
lucky," enthuses Takako, who declined to give her last name.
"Everybody likes Prada."
Well, this week, anyway. In April, everybody apparently liked Coach, as
thousands lined up to buy $625 straw purses -- which sold out in five hours
at the company's new outlet in young and trendy Shibuya. Last September,
everybody liked Louis Vuitton; 1,000-plus people waited in a kilometer-long
line for the grand opening of the world's largest Vuitton store in the swank
Omotesando district. They spent more than $1 million on Vuitton goods that
day, setting the company's single-day sales record. Other luxury retailers
just opening new stores or planning to do so soon: Salvatore Ferragamo,
Cartier, Christian Dior, and Gucci. "Despite the recession, luxury
brands still sell," says Seiko Yamazaki, associate research director at
the Dentsu Institute for Human Studies.
Sell they do. Even after a decade of economic malaise, Japanese consumers
have not given up the love affair with European luxury goods they began in
the go-go 1980s. Recession or no recession, a stunning 94.3% of Tokyo women
in their 20s own something made by Louis Vuitton, according to Saison
Research Institute. Goods made by Gucci sit in the closets of 92.2% of Tokyo
twentysomethings; 57.5% own Prada and 51.7% Chanel.
Problem is, the new shopping shrines are opening just as Japan's luxury
goods market appears to be ebbing. Overall sales are forecast to shrink this
year to $10.32 billion, from $10.75 billion last year and $11.38 billion in
2001, according to Yano Research Institute Ltd. So why the store-building
binge? For one thing, some of the shops have been in the works since 2000,
when retail deregulation made it easier for luxury brands to move out of
their ghettos in department stores. Cheaper real estate in Tokyo has also
helped. The new stores, though, are cannibalizing sales of luxury goods from
department store boutiques. Sales of most luxury goods at department stores
are down as much as 20% this spring, according to Goldman, Sachs & Co.
That leaves the stronger luxury goods makers scrambling to get a bigger
slice of the shrinking pie. Prada is hoping that its new store -- a
five-story building that looks like it's covered in a fishnet stocking --
will help it grab market share from Vuitton and other rivals. The store
helps Prada "reinforce itself in this market," says CEO Patrizio
Bertelli, who flew to Tokyo for the June 7 extravaganza. "Louis Vuitton
has been working very hard in this market and has been rewarded for
that."
He's right. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton saw its yen sales jump 15%
last year, to $1.16 billion. But Prada didn't do so badly, either: Net
profit in Japan leaped 260% in 2002, to $3.3 million, on a 10% increase in
sales over 2001. Bertelli says sales are on track to reach 10% growth in
2003 as well, and the company reported first-day sales of $240,000 at the
new megastore. Japanese consumers rewarded Coach Inc. for its splashy
openings, too. For the nine months ended Mar. 29, sales in Japan were $123.3
million, about double those of the year-earlier period. "We're building
momentum in Japan," says Coach Chairman Lew Frankfort.
What makes the Japanese spend their dwindling disposable income on luxury
bags, belts, and shoes, even if they're marked up more than 40% over
European prices, as Louis Vuitton goods are? "Wearing any kind of brand
makes you feel more self-confident," says Mayumi, a 21-year- old dental
assistant. Walking around Shibuya with her friends sporting one of those
must-have Vuitton purses, a Bulgari necklace, and a Gucci watch, she said:
"It just makes you feel good." As long as luxury retailers intent
on grabbing market share in Japan can continue to lure Mayumi, Takako, and
their friends, they'll be feeling good, too. -
Business
Week 30 June 2003
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