export-japan.com's newsletter 27th September 2004 edition

Contents

Active senior market with high potential

The "active senior" has recently become a new marketing target for many businesses across Japan. Currently 12.4% (15.7 million) of the total population is between 60-69 years of age. This age bracket is increasing with aging baby-boomers, whom make up 15.0% (19.1 million) of the population. With this increasingly significant demographic in mind, it is necessary for all businesses to research this potential market. It is well known that the life expectancy in Japan is the highest worldwide, with 81 years as the average. This leaves most Japanese seniors with a lot of free time to spend their hard earned cash.

Japanese companies have been luring new customers to this new market for sometime with senior friendly luxury travel packages, walking shoes, and even retirement homes. A second home for retirement was an unheard of luxury item prior to this new, more leisurely, and style conscious group of seniors. Coinciding with the slow food movement which encourages the consumption of organic foods and a slower paced reflective lifestyle, there has been an increase in soon-to-retire baby-boomers interested in these "second homes." There are overseas companies that have captured the hearts of these seniors by offering affordable, spacious, and customized American styled wooden housing. Nevertheless, there is a new trend of retiring business men who are participating in construction workshops with the desire to independently build their own "my home".

This is a difficult market to decipher at the outset due to detailed tastes, but is certainly a dedicated generation with sales potential once successfully tapped.

Featured Product: Industrial Printer Supplies from KR Trading

KR Trading

KR Trading is one of the leading manufacturers of printing and industrial rubber rollers and printing consumables in Japan.

They have recently re-launched their site concentrating on the export-market. It now has details of their entire range from Wash-up Blades to Printing Rollers and Specialist Rubber Compounds.

Special Trade Prices are available to view online after a simple and free registration.

Backed by their parent company Katsura and with clients including Fuji Film, Toshiba, Komori and Ryobi, they have extensive experience supplying printing products to the overseas market. Their staff can handle inquiries in both Japanese and English.

Click here to visit KR Trading's new web site

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Charismatic CEO brings new Japanese management styles to the limelight

Rakuten
Live Door

In the media, baseball has been in the spotlight these few weeks due to Ichiro's single-season hit countdown, along with the first management and player strike in the nearly seven-decade history of Japanese baseball. Associated with the strike is the battle between two internet companies, Rakuten Inc., Japan's largest online shopping mall operator, and internet service provider Live Door, Co. Ltd, in becoming the next sponsor to set up a new baseball team.

While each company's CEO's activities within baseball are the talk of the town, within the business world, Takafumi Horie, the CEO of Live Door has emerged as a rising star due to his trend-setting take on management styles and development of company cultures. With a work style that requires no plush separate office away from his employees, he is the new always available, yet always inspecting efficiency maximizing boss. His simple black shirt no-fluff attire has become his trademark. Extremely opinionated and to the point, he has also recently published a few books on his business values, management techniques, and tips on building a business, which is what he did in his twenties. A drop out from Japan's most prestigious university, Tokyo University, he is often regarded as the Bill Gates of Japan with Live Door's earnings up to 5 billion yen as of September 2004.

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