While in Tokyo for the JAPANSHOP/Retailtech conference, we had the opportunity to walk through the show floor of the 2010 "Franchise Show" featuring hundreds of exhibitors offering everything from new kinds of fast food to specialty eyeglasses.
Aside from the sheer joy of having free food samples handed to us every 10 feet, as we walked through the floor, several trends became clear:
The Japanese cultural way of shopping is changing. One of the hottest topics at the expo were variations on the "second hand store" theme, a trend unheard of in Japan twenty years ago. The economic realities of a global recession stacked on an as-yet-fully-recovered economy mean that doing more with less is a reality for many Japanese, and the benefits of a healthy resale market are overcoming cultural biases toward keeping goods and purchasing new.
"Mobile dining" is coming to Japan. The cultural taboo of eating and walking may also be under siege as many styles of cuisine are now coming in food trucks. Though this wouldn't qualify as a new trend in the United States (particularly the Pacific Northwest), American consumers are used to "dining and dashing," eating food while on the go, which is not the norm in Japan. The new food trucks in Japan eschew the traditional small seating areas of a yakitori stand or a tiny little izakaya restaurant, instead requiring that patrons either get their food "to go" for home or break tradition by eating while walking down the street.
Service still reins supreme. Japan is a very service-centric culture, with store staff offering a high level of customer service by nature - with no tipping. This same concept comes to the franchise world through a "total convenience service" that offers everything from lawn and garden care to automotive repairs to home cleaning... all from one company.
US brands were... absent. One of the most surprising things was that US and Western brands - even those that franchise agressively - were largely absent from the show. In fact, it was only Curves that had a presence. While there was no dearth of fast-food concepts (ranging from Go Go Curry to new non-melting ice cream to giant takoyaki... which are soft-ball sized cream-puffs filled with, yes, octopus...), there were NO Western food franchise brands at all. It's not as if the Japanese don't enjoy the food (Krispy Kreme donuts were offered as a gourmet snack on Singapore Airlines business class flights to Tokyo recently), but the overwhelming variety of food franchise concepts were variations on and standardizations of traditional Japanese foods.
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