New consumption goes to Japan, targeting young women

The author of this article analyzes the new consumption trends of Japanese women, whether Chinese products have purchasing power in Japan, and the timing for Chinese consumer products to penetrate Japan.

Mixue Ice City, with its red and white posters, has swept the Japanese market. The line next to the "Snow King" is crowded with young women. The dark blue Huaxizi advertisements are all over Harajuku buses, passing by the high heels and long skirts of shopping girls. The bright yellow lifestyle platform lemon8, owned by ByteDance, has risen in Japan, and its main force is also young women who pursue exquisite little surprises in life...

There is a glimmer of hope for Chinese consumer products going overseas to Japan, but it seems to be closely related to the lifestyles of local young women.

Japanese writer Kazuhisa Arakawa once predicted in his book "Super-SOLO Society: The Impact of Single Country Japan" that by 2035, more than half of the Japanese population will practice "celibacy". A large number of economically independent unmarried and unmarried Japanese single women, adhering to the concept of "living well and beautifully alone", are driving potential consumption.

Behind the general market consumption demands of "lying flat", "practical" and "not buying unless necessary" in Japan, have the needs of local young women been truly explored? What opportunities have single Japanese women brought to Chinese consumer goods? Can ambitious new Chinese consumer brands make money by going overseas?

In the new trend of consumption going overseas to Japan, what opportunities are Chinese brands facing? What is the attitude of local consumers and partners towards Chinese brands?

1. Japanese women in the “new consumption trend”

The Chinese cosmetics brand Huaxizi recently held a "flash mob" in Harajuku, Japan.

The first-floor entrance of the @cosme flagship store in Harajuku, a gathering place for young Japanese people, is a small area of ​​less than 30 square meters, which is bustling with young Japanese people, local internet celebrities and Japanese magazine editors who come here to take photos, check in, try out and buy cosmetics.

Momo is a self-media blogger living in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the westernmost part of Honshu Island, Japan. She traveled all the way from Yamaguchi Prefecture to Tokyo at her own expense and booked a nearby hotel early, just to attend the makeup launch event of Hanako in Harajuku. At the booth full of rich Chinese colors, she was like a little fan girl meeting her long-awaited idol, fulfilling her long-cherished wish.

Although the Japanese consumer market has long been permeated with an atmosphere of "minimalism" and "no desires", there are still a large number of young girl fashion bloggers like Momo who are looking forward to encountering beauty. The new consumption trend of Chinese-style overseas brands has built more novelty, refinement and beauty in their lives.

Huaxizi's huge billboard @cosme in Harajuku, Japan

Not only cosmetics brands, but also a large number of Chinese products exported to Japan recently have set their sights on the consumer market of young women.

The person in charge of overseas expansion of a company that produces curling irons told Xiaguang News Agency that since the beginning of this year, they have been preparing to sell the facial cleansers they produce to Japan, and many surrounding factories also plan to sell domestic curling irons, beauty devices and other small beauty and cosmetic electronic products, and even cosmetic contact lenses to the Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian markets, most of which are in the form of e-commerce.

In addition to the beauty and cosmetics category, ByteDance's lemon8 also has a significant influence in Japan. This social media software, which is led by ByteDance Co., Ltd. in Japan, changed its name from Sharee to Lemon8, and is now madly copying the "Little Red Book model" among Japanese girls.

"lemon8 focuses on attracting young girls and using check-in culture to influence consumption. Young people here learn very quickly. Before making a purchase, they will obviously check it out to see if there are any new dessert shops that have opened recently, etc. Many of the contents are category keywords that can really hit the girls' hearts." Lin Ping, a blogger based in Japan, told Xiaguangshe.

Lin Ping has been in Japan for 12 years and has more than 5.6 million followers on Weibo. She believes that this kind of "little surprise" and "little happiness" like Xiaohongshu does have a huge market among young Japanese women.

“It’s really a treasure trove of content. In fact, I feel that Lemon8’s traffic algorithm and grouping are more specific than Xiaohongshu’s. For example, if you like coffee, it will push a lot of various coffee content to you.”

A store visit note popular with Japanese girls

Image source: Lemon8_Japan

"This is still an era of consumerism. Japanese young people, especially girls, live in a visual society and are the main group influenced by online propaganda," said Lin Ping.

As short videos have become popular around the world, young Japanese people have become more aware of them and are beginning to accept this marketing method. Originally, Japanese people liked paper media, but in the past two years, their content marketing on online social media has begun to increasingly affect everyone's life.

Japanese girls will refer to reviews and brand circles on YouTube and Instagram to make purchases.

After participating in Hana Nishiko's flash mob event in Harajuku, Tokyo, Lin Ping also believed that this was one of the Chinese brands' "large-scale overseas debuts" in Japan, attracting the attention of a large number of local Japanese women.

In fact, Lin Ping used to attend Japanese beauty brand events at @cosme in Harajuku. She also admitted, "Most of the brands doing brand promotion in such places are Japanese brands, and most of them are big brands."

Omotesando in Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan, attracts a large number of customers due to its convenient transportation and numerous shopping malls. It is not easy for Chinese brands to gain a place and attention there.

Among them, Omotesando is mostly concentrated with Japan's "new rich class", while Harajuku gathers a large number of young people. Overall, for Japanese women between the ages of 15 and 40, this area has always been their favorite fashion mecca, and it is especially suitable for offline settlement of Chinese overseas brands.

2. Is there consumer spending power for Chinese products in Japan?

"Chinese brands are still attractive in Japan. Some brands can reflect the differences in national systems and cultures." Lao Tao, who works as a consultant for Japanese companies going overseas, told Xiaguangshe.

"But Japanese people born in the 1990s tend to value cost-effectiveness more, which squeezes brand premiums and reduces their sensitivity to brands and the countries and regions where they come from."

Chen Jia, who has lived in Japan for a long time, has the same impression.

In her opinion, many of her Japanese friends don’t even know that lemon8 is an app that actually comes from a Chinese company.

She went to Japan to study after college and has witnessed the "landing" of Chinese consumer brands such as Haidilao, Nayuki, Mixue Bingcheng, Hua Zhixiao, and Hua Xizi in the Japanese market over the past few years.

Chen Jia said, “My classmates usually don’t blindly follow trends when shopping. They pay special attention to quality, but don’t really care about the country of origin of the brand.” In other words, the younger generation of Japanese consumers are very adaptable. They won’t “buy it” or “not buy it” just because a brand originates from China.

What ultimately influences their purchasing decisions is often "whether the product is suitable for them" and "whether it hits their preferences", which are factors related to the quality level of the product itself.

Most of those attracted by the "Chinese brand" are Chinese people and international students in Japan, who want to try and take photos specifically because it is a Chinese overseas brand.

From a timeline, the first Chinese products to enter the Japanese market were large commercial and civilian brands such as Haier, Hisense, and Lenovo. "When you walk into a Japanese company, you will be surprised to find that the multimedia system it uses is Lenovo, and when you stay in a hotel, you will find that the refrigerator is Haier." Chen Jia said. Soon after, many 3C products and mobile phone peripherals made in China could be seen on Amazon Japan.

In recent years, the Chinese catering industry, represented by Haidilao, has also made deep inroads into the Japanese market.

"In the beginning, only Chinese people went to Haidilao, but now you will find that more than 20% of the customers are Japanese," Chen Jia told Xiaguang News. In addition to hot pot, Chinese supermarkets in major Japanese cities such as Tokyo and Osaka are also very popular among Japanese residents. "You can often see many Japanese people buying Chinese seasonings."

Since Japan entered a "low-desire society" in the 1990s, the overall willingness to consume has been declining, resulting in the emergence of minimalist brands such as MUJI. In "The Fourth Consumer Era" by Japanese sociologist Hidetoshi Miura, he classified the period from 2015 to 2034 as Japan's "fourth consumer stage", and believed that the consumption characteristics of Japan in this stage are "sharing, altruism and simplicity".

In his book "The Low Desire Society", Japanese critic Kenichi Ohmae attributes the low consumer desire of Japanese consumers to the problem of an aging population and a low birth rate.

But does this mean that the Japanese young consumer market is tired? In fact, the age and gender distribution of Japanese audience users are very different.

According to the age structure in Japan, consumers over 35 years old have stronger spending power and are more likely to pursue quality brands. If Chinese brands want to win over this group of people, it may take longer and continuous investment.

Young Japanese women are more interested in style and fashion, are more open-minded and tolerant, and are more friendly to "hot products" and social media promotion. However, it is also important to note that their spending power is limited and there is a natural ceiling.

"The willingness to consume has declined across the entire society, and the last to see a decline are women, especially young single women." Lao Tao is still relatively confident about the Japanese market.

He believes that, in essence, the economic base determines the superstructure, and Japanese young people still have strong consumption power and desire to try basic consumer goods.

Mixue Ice City’s expansion into Japan is by no means an exception. In Shinjuku, Japan, Coco and Happy Lemon have long been the tea brands that locals are accustomed to, and Gongcha is flourishing in Japan.

As for food consumption, it is inherently anti-cyclical, and the consumption habits of a social female group in the retail of desserts, tea and coffee consumer goods are, to a certain extent, irreversible. Once the economy picks up, the desire to consume will only be stronger.

MoldBreaking, which serves many Chinese top beauty brands in their overseas expansion, is responsible for the planning and execution of the Huaxizi flash mob. They told Xiaguangshe: "Chinese cosmetics going overseas are relatively well-matched with young people between the ages of 16 and 28 in Japan. These girls are actually very receptive to foreign products. They bought Korean brands in the early days, but now they buy Chinese or even Thai brands. There is actually no sense of disobedience."

3. China’s consumer products are going global, a good time to penetrate

"In the past year, especially since the beginning of this year, I feel that more and more Chinese products are trying to enter Japan, and there is a very obvious increase." Overseas seller Roman told Xiaguangshe. In the past, they believed that the Japanese market was more mature, and if the product was not competitive enough, it would be difficult to enter the market compared to the Southeast Asian market.

But this year is generally considered to be an "excellent time" to go to Japan.

On the one hand, considering the yen's currency advantage in the world, the proportion of Japan's rent and labor costs has been reduced. It is for this reason that Japanese manufacturing companies did not unanimously agree to increase their employees' salaries until this spring, ushering in a "wave of salary increases." But overall, establishing a business in Japan has changed from the impression of an "expensive labor market" to a "place with a high cost-effectiveness."

"Compared to five years ago, Chinese brands can breathe a sigh of relief. As far as Japanese employee salaries are concerned, there has not been much increase in the past five years." Lin Ping also came to the same observation conclusion.

According to the Nikkei Chinese website, Hisaya Yamada of the Japan Research Institute believes that "Japan's wages are at a low level" and that the local "virtuous cycle of rising wages and prices" has not yet been achieved.

In addition, the local people's psychological label of "shoddy" domestic products is also slowly being removed. Many Japanese consumers have changed their impression of Chinese brands, believing that many Chinese brand products are of good quality, guaranteed, and not lacking in design and fashion.

Zhang Le, who often deals with Japanese customers, has many local brands he cooperates with: "They are less receptive to new partners or brands that are new to the Japanese market. So some of the early confirmations are really cumbersome and take up a lot of staff energy. But once you get through this stage, the subsequent operations and profits are actually very smooth."

The process of competing with local brands, channels, and offline channels is also a process of polishing and improving Chinese consumer products exported to Japan. For example, brands allowed to enter large shopping malls or drugstores in Japan have many requirements for product details, even the opening of the product packaging, packaging transparency, etc., which once caused a headache for the brand.

But we have to admit that under strict standards and mature competition, this is a brand upgrading process in which product evolution becomes more delicate.

"If Chinese brands going overseas want to make their influence sweep across all age groups, they need to continue to polish their brands." Guo Xiruo, who has been engaged in the export of Chinese cosmetics to Japan for many years, said that "brand export" is the hope for the export of Chinese consumer goods to the Japanese market in the future. The opposite of this is the low-priced, white-label, low-quality goods, which he called "typical speculative behavior."

This kind of bonus period strategy may still have opportunities in the Southeast Asian market, and may even save a lot of promotion efforts. "Japan is already a very saturated market," said Guo Xiruo, "but it is not a stagnant market. There is a certain space for truly good new brands, but you can't just put a label on it and think 'you can get it done in Japan by just fooling around'."

In the eyes of many people going overseas, "Japan's overall business environment is more benign." Although brand premiums have continued to decline in Japan, brand characteristics can still bring freshness to consumers.

In the overseas consumption categories targeting women in Japan, the possibilities currently revealed are increasingly concentrated in three aspects: high quality, brands that do not need to emphasize the country, and relevance to the single economy.

From Mixue Bingcheng to Huaxizi, facts have proved that the Chinese consumer products that can truly gain a foothold offline and leave an impression in the hearts of Japanese consumers are those that go overseas with their brands as their base.

A seafarer who settled in Japan compared the Japanese market to a large sponge cake: "You can't eat a large piece, but it's like a sponge, with a lot of gaps in the middle, and it takes time to penetrate it."

Author: Guo Zhaochuan

Source: WeChat public account "Xiaguangshe (ID: Globalinsights)"