Japanese Market News

Sales of slightly higher-end products and services targeting children are performing better because of the declining number of children and increasing number of working women in Japan. With more money to spend on less children, businesses are becoming very sensitive to their needs. Since Asics introduced a line of children's shoes, sales have been increasing thirty to fifty percent during these past few years despite their expensive prices ranging from 5000 to 6000 yen. The key to the line's success is in the company's quality customer service, offering shoes that are most comfortable and fit by carefully measuring the child's feet. Competitors in the industry such as Adidas have also taken notice of this new market and have introduced a line for babies. Besides products, there has been an increase in demand for services such as babysitting that provide more than just child care. Currently, there is high demand for babysitters that offer English, piano, violin, and other lessons, even though there is an approximately 1000 yen higher charge than an average babysitter. Furthermore, daycare facilities in office buildings are becoming popular among the increasing number of working parents for their convenience.

Posted by Alisa at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The matchmaking market in Japan is growing with the increasing number of older singles whom are finding it difficult to stumble upon partners for marriage. There are currently 3000 companies that provide matchmaking services in Japan, but within this pool of services that all hold their own unique matchmaking events, there are a handful of online matchmaking sites that are currently gaining some spotlight. While the percentage of partners who meet via online are still under 1 percent in Japan compared to the 12 percent in the United States, there is still much potential in Japan for online matchmaking services. Match.com which recently began services in the Japanese market currently has 100 thousand users whose number is expected to increase. This is a surprisingly positive response considering more people were expected to misinterpret these sites as the cell phone dating sites which became a major social problem in the past few years.

Posted by Alisa at 09:38 AM | Permalink