Inside Angel Farm Fukui (photos via Nikkei)

Imagine going to the latest Ginza flagship store of an up-and-coming brand flagged as the “new Uniqlo”. You have to wait, as there’s a line of consumers around the block, hungry to get a piece of the latest trend. Inside, it’s a minimalist space, with light techno music. Produce is stacked up to the ceilings in cool white units. Literally cool, that is – these units are refrigerated. And what they’re chilling isn’t clothes but the latest must-have item: designer lettuce.

A taste of what may be the future already exists in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, at an award-winning produce store called Green Flavor. It sells vegetables grown in a “plant factory” located upstairs in the same nondescript apartment building. The plant factory is operated by Mirai Co. Ltd. and its 37-year-old founder, Shigeharu Shimamura. He calls his firm an “agricultural software company”.

Plant factories are slowly spreading in Japan, with support from the government. Vegetables are produced indoors and under controlled conditions. Lighting, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and water are all measured constantly to ensure stable production. For example, lettuce can be cropped twenty times a year.

Because the produce is grown in a clean room, it can be eaten without washing. That’s potentially attractive to consumers who want safe foods and restaurants that need to guarantee quality. The factories eliminate the need for physical labor in the countryside, so may create new jobs for young people in cities, according to the government.

Ozu Corp., a maker of traditional Japanese paper known as washi, turned its unused Tokyo warehouses into plant factories in 2008 in response to consumer concerns about unsafe food. The brand is called Nihonbashi Vegetables, after the central-Tokyo location of the company’s headquarters, where it plans to open another plant factory.

Another manufacturer, Fairy Angel Inc., has its main plant factory in Fukui Prefecture and others in Kyoto and Chiba. The Fukui factory’s temperature is controlled to +25°C by day and +18°C by night and is capable of producing three million plants a year, according to the Nikkei. Many factories are starting to use LEDs instead of fluorescent lighting to lower costs.

"Green room" veggies can go direct to the shelves

Mirai, which consulted on the Ozu project, says it receives 100 inquiries a month about the “green room” concept, including many from the Middle East and Africa. The government provided financial support for plant factories as part of its New Economic Growth Strategy in September 2008, and has pledged more as part of the so-called “Green New Deal”. However, concerns remain.

Plant factories consumer high levels of artificial energy compared with natural farming methods, raising the price of the produce, as well as questions about the net cost to the environment. When grown naturally, vegetables are a vital element of the food chain. The implications of their widespread removal from the natural environment are also yet to be measured.

This article was compiled using information supplied by the Japan Foreign Press Center.

For more of Five by Fifty’s consumer insights on “Part Time Greens”, contact us.

The new bottle holds 520ml of water, but weights just 12 grams when empty, or 40% less than other Coca-Cola PET bottles. The bottle, cap and even label weigh less. Over a year, that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the manufacturing process by 3,000 tons, equivalent to the offset of a 950 hectare forest, according to the company.

For Japanese consumers, used to measuring their environmental impact in terms of the volume of waste they produce (always carefully separated into burnables, non-burnables and recyclables), the bottle creates a new disposal ritual to reinforce the “green” brand proposition (see video below). It can easily be twisted by hand to make it thin and easy to throw away, a “1-2-3″  action Coca-Cola Japan encourages consumer to follow in its marketing campaign:  1. buy (!), 2. drink, 3. remove-label-twist-and-discard.

Of course, the ritual still ends with discarding (a non-biodegradable object). However, the manufacturer has undeniable tapped into consumers willingness to take small steps toward “greening” their daily lives, but without making major sacrifices (Part Time Greens).

Not only that, Coca-Cola Japan is betting consumers are willing to pay a premium to be (or be seen as) green: ILOHAS retails in vending machines for 130 yen for a 520ml bottle, an 18% premium to other brands like Crystal Geyser. (As a launch campaign, the water retailed in convenience stores for 105 yen.)

To find out how Five by Fifty helps its clients innovate in the beverage sector, contact us.

A woman relaxes after a work out in a germanium bath.

The era when a sports gym could get by with an array of exercise machines and perhaps a pool is over in Japan, where people are taking a more holistic approach to wellness. Innovative sports clubs are responding with with an array of new services.

Bodies, a women-only fitness club with 20 locations around Japan, features relaxation stations where women can soak their arms and feet in hot water infused with germanium, a popular treatment claimed to boost the immune system and combat free radicals that speed the aging process.

Recently opened in the trendy Daikanyama area of Tokyo, known for its quaint cafes and fashion boutiques, is Athlonia, Japan’s first sports gear shop specializing in triathlon equipment. The shop recently launched a triathlon school, held in collaboration with fitness club chain Tipness, and an adjoining Hawaiian cafe selling dishes with healthy ingredients such as avocado and brown rice.

Bodies also started a women-only running club, a decision it took after talking to its members as well as users of ABC Cooking Schools. There is a running studio in Marunouchi, an area of Tokyo home to a large number of female office workers. Women pop into the studio to change, then run 5km around the nearby Imperial Palace grounds, then return to the studio for a shower.

The club, which is open to beginners, advises members on improving themselves on several levels through running, fashion and beauty. The club’s website features “Beauty Recipes” for do-it-yourself health drinks, as well as organizing tours to the Honolulu Marathon.

Contact us for our ethnographic research on women’s changing attitudes to wellness.

Students at Athlonia's triathlon school.

Oxford Circus, after it receives the Shibuya Treatment

London’s city planners are borrowing a very simple principle of Japanese pedestrian management – the “scramble” – to try and replicate Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing in the West End. It will be a sociological as well as logistical innovation for the European city.

London has started consultations on a major regeneration of Oxford Circus, the juncture of Oxford St. and Regent St., according to the Evening Standard. The scheme would stop all traffic at the crossing for 30 seconds at a time to allow pedestrians to cross diagonally as well as perpendicularly, cutting in front of each other in all directions.

In Shibuya, the phenomenon of thousands of people intersecting uninterrupted by traffic is a major tourist attraction in its own right. It’s one of dozens of such diagonal pedestrian crossings in Tokyo and other major cites that streamline consumer paths between key retail areas and transport links. Thousand gather at these intersections as they wait to cross, providing marketers with a captive audience for advertising hoardings and outdoor TVs replaying commercials.

“The parallels between Shibuya and the West End are stark: [both are] important fashion and entertainment areas,” said Danny Chalkley, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for environment and transport.

However, the new crossing will also be a sociological test of citizens’ expectations of personal space. It remains to be seen how frayed Londoners will cope with the multi-directional onslaught of barging pedestrians, something tolerant Tokyoites are well used to.

If approved, work will be complete by spring 2011, in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Oxford Circus today

Shibuya Crossing

A shop specializing in selling used mobile phones in Tokyo's Shibuya district.

An old stereotype holds that Japanese only want what’s “new.” If a mobile phone got scratched, or was outdated by even a few months, it was easy enough to pick up a new one. Now, that doesn’t even apply to electronics, once a symbol of national pride.

A netbook computer on sale for 100 yen in Tokyo

Sales of cheaper appliances from China and Taiwan are reportedly climbing. In the highly competitive field of “netbooks,” compact, wireless-ready laptop computers, two afforable Taiwanese companies, Asustek Computers and Acer Inc hold a combined 79% share of the Japanese market. In campaigns timed to coincide with university students starting classes and new workers joining companies, electronic retailers are selling netbooks for as low as 1 yen, provided buyers sign up for a wireless internet service provider contract.

Retailers such as Yodobashi Camera in Tokyo have responded to falling sales by moving buying and selling second-hand appliances for the first time.

Sanyo's eneloop rechargeable battery.

Sanyo have scored a hit with their environmentally-friendly rechargeable battery line, eneloop, a portmanteau of “energy” and “loop.” The batteries were first launched in November, 2005. The batteries are sold fully charged, and can be recharged up to 1,000 times. Recent consumer consciousness of environmental issues, coupled with an expanded product line and successful ad campaign has boosted sales.

A recent eneloop television spot.

A current series of television ads for the batteries feature people holding up signs and and saying mottainai in various accents.  Mottainai means “what a waste” or “you shouldn’t waste that” in Japanese, but recently it is used to market environmentally-friendly products, and has become synonymous with the overall environmental movement and the increased awareness amongst Japanese consumers of the environmental impact of the products they use in daily life.

Eneloop batteries themselves are positioned as environmentally-friendly products, as they can be reused multiple times. However, newer products in the eneloop line enhance and emphasize the environmental benefits. Sanyo has introduced a new way to charge eneloop batteries with a solar charger, as well as offering reusable alternatives to normally disposable products

Another recent edition in line is the “eneloop kairo,” which is presented as an alternatve to the disposable “kairo,” a pouch that is placed in a pocket or under clothing and produces heat for several hours after opening, and thrown away after a single use. The kairo in the eneloop line are of course regargeable, a larger version running on an internal battery, and the smaller version which uses interchangeable eneloop batteries.  A similar product is a portable, cordless electric blanket.

The eneloop concept has been extended to transportation, with an power-assist bicycle that replenishes its power supply when the bicycle is coasting.

This battery charger works on solar power alone.

The rechargeable eneloop pocket warmer.

The Mottainai shop sells garbage bags with endagered animal designs.

Japanese retailers and consumers have been criticized for creating unnecessary excess waste, with many products individually wrapped in several layers of plastic. However, attitudes are changing, as evidenced by the Mottainai project operated by Tokyo-based Tatsumi Co. “Mottainai” means “you shouldn’t waste that” in Japanese.

The project supplies retailers who would like to provide consumers with reusable shopping bags. Mottainai’s online shop, which sells directly to consumers, features products meant to reduce waste, such as reusable lunch boxes, chopsticks, and thermoses, as well as items meant to draw attention to the environmental impact of waste, such as garbage bags featuring designs of endangered animals. The project also organizes events to educate the public in environmental problems.

A new environmentally-friendly boat in Japan

A new environmentally-friendly sightseeing boat is operating in Lake Biwa, the largest fresh water lake in Japan, and a popular vacation site.

The 34-meter cruise ship, which has a capacity for 200 passengers, runs on bio-diesel fuel made from recycled oil from restaurants selling tempura, a deep-fried Japanese food. The boat is also equipped with solar and wind-powered generators to provide electricity to the ship, instruments to test water quality in the lake, as well as on-board systems for teaching passengers about environmental issues.

Innovative showrooms like this may not be enough to save the Japanese automobile industry.

Japanese auto sales are at a record low, falling 22 percent in December compared to the same month the previous year, giving a dark end to 2008, the worst year for car sales in 34 years. Japanese are increasingly urbanizing, with trains and subways being the preferred mode of transport.

However bleak things may look, some companies are responding with innovative new services. An increasing number of condominums are offering car sharing services. Residents register for the service, and then book a car for one day in advance, make a reservation for as short as a 30-minute block of time. Orix Auto, which operates the service, provides a number of compact cars to a housing complex, charges a monthly fee or around 3,000 yen ($30) and a minimal fee each time the car is used. Given the high prices or maintaining a car and a parking spot in Tokyo, the system can mean a savings of hundreds of dollars per month for someone who only drives occasionally.

Similarly, companies that rent cars and motorbikes have begun offering rentals for as little as one hour, for rates lower than a short taxi ride.

A statement released by festival organizers states that “the greatest films inevitably address the most compelling social issues of their times. One of the most urgent problems we now face is protecting the Earth’s environment…[yet] no international film festival has yet stepped up to champion this issue.”

This year’s festival will feature a “Green Carpet” instead of the traditional “Red Carpet,” and the ecological theme will be reflected in a variety of programs during the festival, including a new award as well as various seminars and events.

The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival will be held from October 18th to 26th, 2008 in various locations around Tokyo. The festival been growing steadily since 1985, and is now the 12th largest in the world.