Tamari, Tomoko (2006). This paper focuses on the ways in which the department store has become a key
site for the constitution of Japanese modernity through the introduction of
images and goods taken from the West, along with the emphasis on "Western
design" and "Western taste". These new consumer spaces have become
aestheticized in various ways so that we can speak of an "aestheticization" of
everyday life. Yet this was also a modernizing learning process for Japanese
consumers, hence a key problem was how these new experiences were to be
classified and ordered into a relatively stable habitus. The rise of the
department store has had an important mediating function here. Department
stores not only provided new goods along with interpretations of how to use
them, but also acted as theatres, as rehearsal spaces, with front and back
stage areas where one can watch the performance, try out for oneself new roles.
This is especially the case for women in the city, who were able to explore a
new identity space with a new set of competence experiences and pleasures. In
this process, the department store also provided a form of women's public
sphere where they could enjoy shopping, entertainment and learning
opportunities. Department stores encouraged not only a sense of luxury and
theatrical settings, but also help to teach women how to assemble new tastes
and styles into their lifestyle. In addition, it should be emphasized that in
the Japanese case, department stores also played an important role not just as
a new cultural initiative on the part of the businessmen and cultural
intermediaries who invented consumer culture, but also as a political
initiative on the part of the government who sought to link them to the reform
of everyday life and the production of good Japanese citizens.
Miyamoto et al (2005), NRI Nomura Research Institute. The mass affluent with net financial assets worth 100 to 500 million yen will
attract increased attention in the future in the market of wealthy clients in
Japan. Among these wealthy clients, approaches by financial institutions are
not being adequately made to the "suddenly rich" who have become abruptly rich
through inheritance.
Kawaku and Ishizaka (2008), NRI Nomura Research Institute. This survey revealed actual lifestyles and mindsets relative to consumption of
the middle rich who earn an annual household income of 250,000 rupees or more.
The middle rich segment is expected to rapidly expand in the future.
Clast, David Marx. 94.3% of all Japanese women in their 20s own a piece of Louis Vuitton. This
number was then repeated in an article by leading Asian luxury expert Radha
Chadha in the FT’s newspaper supplement about the luxury business.
Kogler, Evelyn (2006). This study seeks to understand the underlying cultural and social concepts for
the extensive luxury consumption in Japan. With Japan currently being the
biggest market for prestige brands from the West, this study suggests a
reinterpretation of existing
‘Western’ consumer theories taking into account aspects of Confucian tradition and looks
at how these cultural orientations shape the practice of prestige brand
consumption in
Japan.
Marketing Interactice.com (21/07/2007). To get the attention of the rich, and the super rich you need to act like you
breathe their air, live in their neighbourhoods and don't really need them
anyway. Meenakshi Viswanathan looks at how to attract and keep the attention of
the high net worth set and most importantly shake some of their consumer power
loose.
Luxury Society, David Marx (24.01.2009). In asking the question, ‘What is luxury?’ there is no better place to turn than Japan. Despite fifteen years of economic
uncertainty, the Pacific island-nation remains, for the time being, the world’s single largest market for high-end luxury goods. In recent years, however, the
Japanese market’s enthusiasm for luxury has started to wane.
Luxury Society, Richard Baker (24.05.2009). Life style” is the result of a pattern of decisions made regarding how to spend, invest,
give away or save time, money, attention and other scarce resources, which
reflects a basic set of values. It is the organizing principle for the
accumulation and signaling of social capital, i.e. wealth. What is interesting
is that each of these life styles can be lived at a variety of price points.
Money, in a very real sense, is not the issue. It is the pattern of choices
made with the money, the time, etc.