Students at the ABC Cooking School in Marunouchi.

As we previously reported, the fact that men are behaving more like women makes them an increasingly attractive target for product developers and marketers, and some multinational corporations are responding accordingly. This shift is happening around the world, but especially in Japan, as well as South Korea and Greater China.

Here are some more examples of the shift in action in Japan, offering inspiration for other markets:

ABC Cooking Schools, with locations around Japan, is training an army of amateur chefs. Until two years ago, they only accepted female students. As the Baby Boomer generation began retiring, the competition began offering men-only classes for retirees. ABC took the step of starting co-ed classes at locations with a high density of corporate workers, such as Ginza and Marunouchi. The number of male students has quickly risen to around 600 at the schools.

Another service associated with women that has begun to patronized by men can be found at the 48 nail salons throughout Japan operated by Nail Quick. The number of male customers has risen to the level that the salons now offer a “men’s course” costing 2,940 JPY, and including disinfecting the hands, removing cuticles, and applying clear or colored polish.

One of more surprising hit products comes from underwear maker Wishroom, which has unveiled a men’s bra, which quickly became a top seller on the online shopping site Rakuten. The Wishroom store on the site claims the bra can give men a “calm, relaxed feeling”.

Click here for more insights on shifts in male behavior or ask for a sample report.

Japanese office workers in their 20s prefer communicating on the sports field.

Mori Building, a Tokyo-based property developer, manages offices occupied by several leading Japanese and international companies such as Rakuten, TV Asahi, Yahoo! Japan and Goldman Sachs. Participants in the survey were readers of Office Life News, a free magazine distributed to people working in Mori offices.

The survey found that 85% workers in their 20s see such “informal communication” as important. By comparison, only 24% of workers over the age of 50 responded that it is “important”, with 47% seeing it as “somewhat important.”

New recruits at an admission ceremony for Toyota. Casual Friday is still a dream for most corporate employees.

Workers in their 20s stated they value communicating with coworkers outside of the office because they can “get new information” (59%), and because it can “improve the work atmosphere in the office” (34%). 70% of workers in their 20s said they would like to increase opportunities to informal communication with coworkers.

Mori Building has begun organizing activities to give workers a chance to meet up outside of the office, such as the “Mori Cup” a soccer tournament for teams of people working in Mori Offices.

Zero Gravity is a shop selling fashionable, colorful men's underwear in Harajuku, Tokyo.

Jeans Mate is a discount retailer of jeans and other casual apparel, with 108 locations around Japan, included 36 which operate 24 hours a day. A typical Jeans Mate shop has a tight floor plan, with products overflowing to displays on the sidewalk.

A Jeans Mate location in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Faced with falling sales in 2008, Jeans Mate took a step in a new direction, opening a new shop rebranded as “Zero Gravity” in the youth fashion center of Harajuku in central Tokyo. The small boutique offers colorful boxer shorts and briefs, retro rock T-shirts, and other casual items. Customers are men in their teens and 20s, as well as young women shopping for gifts for their boyfriends.

Meanwhile, discount retailer Uniqlo has sponsored Tokyo Girls Collection mobile-commerce fashion shows to up its cool quotient.

A few years behind Pocky, Lotte has released their own product targeted at men, a bitter, salty version of the Toppo chocolate snack said to leave a spicy aftertaste!

Gatsby has released the first facial mask especially for men.

Gatsby, a Japanese maker of skin and hair care products for men, recently released the “Extra Perfect Mask,” the first facial mask especially for men to go on the market in Japan.

The company got the idea for the product when they discovered that young Japanese men are increasingly interested in skin care products based on quality, regardless of whether they are made for men or women, but were embarrassed to go into a shop and buy women’s products. Young men still living at home with their families became interested in the facial masks used by their mothers and sisters, and the new facial mask for men were met by an eager market.

The Gatsby official homepage includes instructions on how to use the facial mask.

The new product is being marketed to men ages 17-21, and the company’s website features young models demonstrating how to use the mask. It is likely that customer’s mothers, more than their girlfriends, are encouraging them to look after their skin.

The facial masks are a natural extension of Gatsby’s current line of skin care products, which includes facial scrubs and moisturizes, as well as a black adhesive stripe designed to clear our pores on the nose.

Xlylish gum in versions aimed at men and women.

For a maker of a general item such as chewing gum to exclude 50% of a potential market would seem like an ill-advised move. But there are male and female versions of fragrances, so why not separate versions of gum?

Major Japanese makers such as Lotte and Meiji are offering two versions of packaging for their popular lines, one with more feminine designs, and the other with more masculine color schemes, or creating completely new products with names such as “Glamatic” or “Male Fragrance.” The gum flavors are also designed to suit male and female tastes. Glamatic has a fruity taste geared toward women, while Male Fragrance contains a rose/menthol combination that is said to curb body odor by adding a whiff of rose the consumer’s perspiration.

Glamatic itself is divided into two package designs, mirroring the most noted fashion styles of young women in Japan: pretty and pink for “Lolita” fashion, and black and burgundy for “Goth” fashion. Convenience stores have caught on the this new twist in marketing by putting male and female gum on separate shelves.