The news in Japan is dominated by headlines of economic malaise and political incompetence. Spending money frivolously is definitely not in fashion. SAVVY SPENDING is in. As such, the other two key elements in The Hunting! concept are “young women empowering themselves” and, less high-minded, “tracking down those must-have items at TGC!”  Must-haves this season will feature masculine images such as armor to promote “strong women”, according to a press release.

The event is organized by mobile fashion site GIRLSWALKER.COM and, as in previous years, the clothes worn by models in the show will be available for purchase immediately via the site. TGC released data from its own research that says Japanese in their late teens and early 20s it surveyed currently spend almost 100 minutes a day using the mobile Internet, 10 minutes more than a year ago. About 65% shopped online using their mobiles over the last year.

New this season is TOKYO GIRLS PARADE, a website where users can pull a fashion slot machine to create Nintendo Mii-like avatars dressed in random fashion looks from Tokyo. (The website is currently avaialable only in Japanese.)

Here’s a clip from last season’s TGC:

For women, the only color worse on a man than pink is yellow

What color is it going to be today? More men are making colorful clothes choices at work and at play, but their choices may be misguided, according to the opposite sex.

Black remains the top-selling color for men across all categories, but colors previously seen as feminine, such as pink and violet, have gained popularity since 2004 as color becomes genderless, says the R25 freepaper.

For decades, men’s fashion in Japan changed little beyond some sort of combination of black, white and brown. In the 1960s, a decade characterized by national pride, the Olympics and an economic upturn, the preference was for the bold contrast of black and white. During the unease of the ’70s and the oil shock, a more muted brown was the go-to color. In the Bubbly ’80s, it was back to black and white. It wasn’t until the new millenium that men embraced color.

The color of the moment for men is… pink. A color long loved by women, pink is also the color of choice for guys. An R25 survey found men think women like them to wear pink. However, when women were asked what color they dislike on a man, pink came second, only just beaten out by yellow by the slimest of margins.

Colors men think women like them to wear: 1) pink 31.8%, 2) black 20.2%, 3) blue 18.6%, 4) gray 9.1%, 5) green 7%.

Colors women dislike men to wear: 1) yellow 31.3%, 2) pink 30.3%, 3) red 18.9%, 4) brown 7%, 5) green 6%.

The 108-room Quincy, which opened in February, operates under a flat-rate system where the room charge includes airport pickup, three meals a day, evening cocktails, Internet use, mini-bar, limited amounts of laundry and all local calls. This transparent approach is a clear pitch at businesspeople being squeezed by tighter travel budgets, but appeals to the broader traveler who no longer understand why they should be overcharged for essentials like Internet or non-luxurious extras like a canned drink.

Quoted net rates for early July are SG$228 a night (US$157), an all-inclusive price that is competative for the city-state and, for consumers, laudably easy to understand. By comparison, the same night at The Scarlet would cost SG$175, room only (SG$263 with breakfast and airport pickup). The Naumi is SG$260 including minibar but excluding breakfast or pickup.

This will be a tough year for Singapore’s hotels, with 4,500 new rooms due to come online, even as the number of visitors falls, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

The change of economic mood means that consumers are less tolerant of murky pricing policies and hidden extra charges. They still believe they deserve to travel in style. But if they are going to spend their money, they want to know what they’re getting in return. The Quincy is one example of a business response.

Suntory has been giving away a series of eight mini-goods by product designer Amadana with its Boss Silky Black coffee. Targeting design-smart businessmen in their 30s, the all-black and metal products include a USB memory drive cover, a tape measure, a “multi case” the size of an iPhone, a pen holder, a money clip, a bookmark, a “cord reel” for keeping headphone cords neatly in a suit pocket and a memo stand.

Amadana is a brand of luxury household appliances that have a modernist design aesthetic that has grown from niche to mainstream in a short time. Its product lineup includes everything from coffee makers and music systems to paper shredders and mobile phone handsets.

A quick look online shows the collaboration has spawned more than 70,000 blog posts so far this month, with comments suggesting that consumers actively bought BOSS Silky Black in order to collect the Amadana products.

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

Time to reward yourself with that new 24-inch iMac?

Recession fatigue is starting to show in the United States, where consumers are rewarding themselves by “trading up” items that play an important role in their daily lives, according to Boston Consulting Group (reported by WWD). In fact, marketers interested in this trend need only look to Japan to see how an extended downturn can actually boost sales of high-quality daily necessities.

The top ten list of “trade-up” items for the U.S. is dominated by what most people would consider 21st Century home necessities. No. 1 is the personal computer, and household electronics like home entertainment (5), kitchen appliances (8) and washers and dryers (9) also feature. At No. 2 is fresh fruits and vegetables, reflecting wellness trends as well as the basic importance of food, with other entries being meat (4), sit-down restaurants (7) and fish and seafood (10). The other entries are bedding (3) and automobiles (6). With the exception of restaurants, the list clearly shows the items consumers will start spending on first will be things that improve their daily lives and personal space.

A prolongued period of low growth in Japan bred innovation in small-ticket items, as consumers recalibrated their spending patterns

The changes in spending by Japanese a decade ago reflected their different priorities, with more emphasis on fashion (which doesn’t make Boston’s U.S. Top 10) and personal computers (mobile phones were always more useful here). However, the shifts in demand were similarly focused on improving consumers’ daily lives and, in the process, contributed to world-leading innovation in everything from functional home electronics and B2C mobile commerce to beverage flavors and cigarette packaging.

Contact us for details of ethnographic research and innovation programs to help your business anticipate consumers’ changing priorities.

If imitation is any sign of success, Tokyo Girls Collection, the live fashion show-cum mobile commerce event created by Branding Inc., should be flattered.

A Japanese printing company, Toppan, has announced that it will diversify into fashion and launch a series of catwalk shows in Tokyo in September, according to WWD and Nikkei.

In a concept almost identical to TGC, Toppan will sell clothing and accessories worn by models in the shows via a mobile website. It will also sell magazines and DVDs related to the event. Toppan hopes to attract 10,000 girls in their teens and 20s paying at least ¥3,000 (US$30) for a ticket. It expects annual sales of ¥3 billion (US$30) by 2011, and plans to export the shows to other cities in Asia.

Branding Inc. (formerly Xavel) held the first TGC in 2005. Attendees can instantly buy clothes they see from an affiliated mobile website, fashionwalker.com. Versions of TGC took place in Beijing in 2007 and 2008. The most recent event was held in Tokyo in early March and featured brandsincluding Alba Rosa, BEAMS, Jill Stuart and Milkfed.

Following the trend started by Isetan Girl in Tokyo last autumn, department store operator Marui has remodeled it’s Shinjuku location to create “Marui Curren,” which opened on February 27.

Marui Curren features ten floors of fashion boutiques and interior shops targeting young women in their late teens-early twenties. In a move away from luxury designer brands, the focus is on cute and casual clothing that is stylish but also affordable. Uniqlo, which is rebranding itself as an affordable fashion line rather than a casual wear brand, has a large shop in the new store.

Narita Airport is Japan's gateway to the world. Will it see more or less traffic in the months to come?

For a long time we have known that Japanese in their 20s have less interest in traveling abroad than previous generations. But now that so many other formerly rich countries are going through Japan-style economic slumps of their own, is this a pattern that we will see repeated worldwide?

Visa recently conducted a worldwide study that found that two out of three travelers were rethinking their holiday plans this year. (Some newspapers decided it was positive that one in three wasn’t rethinking, surely a sign of negative headline fatigue.) If they weren’t going to cancel their breaks entirely, they were considering holidaying closer to home.

Some airlines are responding with dramatic fuel surcharge reductions (from 14,500 yen to 2,000 yen on an ANA flight from Tokyo to Singapore) or discount campaigns (“35,000 yen return” from Tokyo to London on British Airways), but others are already cutting schedules: JAL is currently operating 33% fewer flights to Bangkok.

As the Golden Week holidays approach, there are also signs that the Japanese travel market is at a tipping point that will strongly favor the domestic industry.

It’s worth noting that flights to SE Asia mid Golden Week are still available for as low as 35,000 yen return (on United), while prices to Okinawa remain sky high. That suggests that people are making travel plans not only for economic reasons; it also “feels wrong” in these lean economic times. There is a deeper shift in consumer behavior going on toward the local, the safe and the humble.

As more demographics choose to travel locally, expect a more diverse range of leisure options to develop in Japan targeted not only at the Silver Market and families with children, but also at sophisticated and wealthy consumers who used to go overseas. They will be looking for international-standard hospitality within easy reach of Japan’s urban centers. Products and services offering understated luxury, eco-awareness, wellness and experience will prosper.

In the video game Like a Dragon 3, characters eat ramen to gain strength.

Instant noodle manufacturer Ace Cook is promoting its new product through as tie up with the popular Sega video game “Like a Dragon 3″ (sold in North America as “Yakuza 3″). In the video game, players eat ramen noodles to gain strength before battling opponents.  Ace Cook’s new product is named after a fictitious ramen restaurant that appears in the game. Although the shop does not actually exist, a special section on the Ace Cook website features a map, menu, and reviews.

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.