{"id":2973,"date":"2009-01-26T20:08:22","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T20:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2009-01-26T20:52:15","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T20:52:15","slug":"wit-life-22-consumers-whats-hot-and-whats-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/26\/wit-life-22-consumers-whats-hot-and-whats-not\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #22: Consumers’ What’s Hot and What’s Not 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITLife<\/span><\/strong><\/a> is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter\/Translator\/Writer Stacy Smith<\/strong><\/a> <\/span><\/span>(Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The start to a new year always invites reflection on the previous one. <\/span>Some of this delving is not so pleasant (i.e. 2008\u00a0fourth quarter earnings), but looking at other aspects such as best sellers from the year can be very enjoyable. <\/span>The magazine Nikkei Marketing Journal<\/strong><\/em> annually examines the latter and uses sumo rankings for its classification system.\u00a0 \"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

They came up with 36 items for last year, and appropriate of 2008\u2019s declining economy a theme running through the list was low price and good value. <\/span>For example, the top rankings of Yokozuna East went to clothing store Uniqlo<\/strong> and Yokozuna West went to Seven Premium Top Valu<\/strong>, an in-house discount brand from the retailer Aeon<\/strong> (i.e. Jusco<\/strong>). <\/span>Ozeki East was captured by microcomputers going for around 50,000 yen, and Ozeki West went to the fat-fighting Wii Fit<\/strong>, which has become a sensation here in the States too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>According to the editor of Nikkei Marketing Journal<\/em>, the selections reflected the recession. <\/span>The winning products were picked by consumers\u00a0based on not just cheapness, but also because of high quality allowing them to\u00a0trust and feel comfortable with them. <\/span>He noted the shift from luxury goods to\u00a0practical ones, and identified keywords for 2009 hit products as deflation, high functionality and the environment.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, the idea of being green has long been celebrated in Japan and received special attention last year with the July Toyako Summit<\/strong> held in Hokkaido. <\/span>A concept that emerged from this meeting was <\/span>\u300c\u7e70\u308a\u8fd4\u3057\u4f7f\u3048\u308b\u30a8\u30b3\u5546\u54c1<\/strong>\u300d(kurikaeri tsukaeru eko shohin<\/em><\/span>), or reusable environmentally friendly products. <\/span>One such item was the Shower Clean Suit<\/strong>, a suit that is washable in the shower. <\/span>By avoiding trips to the dry cleaners you can save both time and money, as well as lessen your toll on the environment. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Another product along these lines is the Eneloop Kairo<\/strong>, a rechargeable pocket warmer. <\/span>It lasts for 5 hours and its lithium ion battery can be charged in 6. <\/span>Though currently only available in Japan, it should be noted that there is a commemorative Valentine\u2019s Day edition that has special pink packaging with a heart. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You thought wining and dining your crush was the way to his\/her heart, but why not let the Eneloop Kairo work its magic this year? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter\/Translator\/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).\u00a0 Recently she\u2019s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations. The start to a new year always invites reflection on the previous one. Some of this delving is not so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30,18,36,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan-trends","category-translatinginterpreting","category-wit-life","category-writers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t