BCCJ ACUMEN MAY 2013 | Page 13

MEDIA

Parental Presents

Mother ’ s Day and Father ’ s Day fall on 12 May and 16 June , respectively . In March , Macromill , Inc . undertook a survey in which 1,000 adults were asked about their plans to give gifts on these days .
According to the Nikkei Marketing Journal ( 24 April ), the practice now appears to be fairly well ingrained in Japan , with 28.4 % of female respondents and 17 % of males saying they unfailingly give a gift every Mother ’ s Day . The respective figure for Father ’ s Day was somewhat lower : 19.2 % for females , 12.2 % for males .
The gifts of choice for mums were hardly surprising . The most common reply was flowers ( 44.2 %), followed by apparel or fashion accessories ( 21.7 %). For dads , the top choices were alcoholic beverages ( 30.8 %) and articles of apparel or accessories ( 27.2 %).
Just over 30 % of respondents stated that their allocated budget for such purchases — for both parents — is between ¥ 3,000 and ¥ 5,000 . About 90 % of those questioned said they expected the outlay would be unchanged from 2012 . Flowers are the most popular gift to give on Mother ’ s Day .

Will New LDP Policies Foment Clock-watching ?

As the clock changes from 4:59pm to 5:00pm , a young worker stands up , pushes back his chair and , without further ado , heads straight for the lift .
“ These goji-pita otoko ( exactly-5-o ’ clock men ) are on the increase ”, Tomoyuki Suzuki , personnel consultant and president of Wealth Share Inc ., told the Nikkan Gendai ( 17 April ).
“ Abenomics is the process of considering the transfer of human resources away from mature industries to those that promise growth ”, Suzuki explained . “ As a result , white-collar workers who are employed at major firms are being entrusted with implementation jobs .
“ The Abe government is also inclined to increase the number of positions for semi-regular workers , such as those with short-term jobs and task-specific jobs . This is likely to result in falling morale among growing numbers of workers ”, he added . Will we see goji-pita incrementally changed to yoji-pita ( exactly 4pm )? Or even sanji-pita ( exactly 3pm )?
“ Some firms are already moving towards what is , effectively , a retirement age of 45 ”, he said . “ As such a trend is costly , I suppose those firms are likely to increase the number of their subsidiaries , and transfer workers there from the age of 45 , or even rehire them [ under a different pay structure ]”.
During the bubble economy , salaried workers called goji-kara otoko ( after-5 o ’ clock men ) became conspicuous for their eagerness to boogie after work . But this new variation — the goji-pita bunch — is likely to negatively impact the morale of their co-workers . For someone to bring documents to a desk at 5:01pm , only to be abruptly told , “ Sorry , but that ’ s it for today ” has been unheard of in Japan — until now .
Unless people take a stand and nip Abenomic policies in the bud , the salaryman culture that has developed here over the past 70 years may very well come crashing down , the Nikkan Gendai predicts .
“ Sorry , but that ’ s it for today ” has been unheard of in Japan — until now .

Getting Them Young

The term gakuwari ( student discount ) has taken on a new meaning with the launch of campaigns by Japan ’ s three major mobile communications providers .
The Nikkei Business ( 22 April ) reports that , starting in spring , NTT Docomo , Inc .’ s plan that is aimed at juveniles will be extended to include preschoolers aged three and over . Docomo ’ s move came after rival Softbank Mobile Corp . announced its new White Gakuwari family plan that has no age restrictions .
In September last year , Docomo launched sales of children ’ s mobile phones and , from this spring , reinforced its product line-up with
SH-05E smartphone for juniors smartphone models aimed at juniors . According to a survey by ICT Research & Consulting , some 11,310,000 junior- and high-school pupils , and university students in Japan use mobile phones . Although the youth demographic has been shrinking , there is still room for overall growth . In addition , the providers are hoping that sales geared to the use of mobile phones by the youngest family members might win over the parents and older siblings .
Other businesses have also been reaching out to young customers . Japan Airlines has expanded its JAL Card Navi programme for students , which waives annual membership charges and permits accrued mileage points to be retained for an indefinite period while the cardholder is still a student . The Mitsui Sumitomo Card has joined with Amazon Japan to offer its Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Debit Plus Card to younger consumers .
The article points out that credit card services have , in the past , found the youth market less lucrative because of limitations on giving them cash advances . Thus they are turning to encouraging use of their cards for shopping , with the rationale that it will nurture children as future core users .
But in the writer ’ s view , dropping the minimum customer age to three years may be a sign that those businesses are growing desperate as they face the prospects of shrinking demand .
MAY 2013 | BCCJ ACUMEN | 13