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I have just returned from a business trip to Japan, the purpose of which was to promote our line of baby gifts. The trip was a great success… I met with a number of potential distributors for our range, as well as potential stockists. I also had the opportunity to research the Japanese gift market in some detail – visiting retailers in Tokyo and Osaka as well as speaking  with numerous female consumer groups.

The Japanese gift market is steeped in tradition, with a focus the “cultural etiquette” surrounding gift giving.  There is a strong culture of giving “cash” in elaborated decorated envelopes on occasions such as the birth of a baby, a wedding or a funeral.  Many gift websites provide a table with a sliding scale of “appropriate amounts” to put into your envelope or spend on a gift.

Siblings and family spend around 10,000 yen. For a collegaue you’d spend around 5000 yen, and a friend? Anywhere between 5000 to 10,000 yen.

Upon receipt of your gift or  fancy envelope of cash, receipients are expected to send a “return gift” . Again, the amount you spend on the “return gift” depends on your relationship with the gift-giver, as well as the generosity they have shown you!  Return  gifts are sent out by department stores, in something I can only liken to a “gift registry” type of service. You give the department store a list of names and addresses, as well as the amount to spend and they handle the rest for you.

Surprisingly, Japanese do not give gifts to celebrate birthdays. Many of the women I spoke with expressed amazement at the vast range of greeting cards they had seem whilst visiting overseas, for such an array of occasions! (I got the feeling that they considered we westerners to be “frivolous” gift givers!)

Despite the lack of birthday presents, the Japanese give gifts as a mark of respect. As is the custom, I presented each of the attendees at my Japanese business meetings with a small gift. Train stations for the “bullet train” have extensive gift shops, because it is a tradition to give a gift to the host when you reach your destination.

The online gift market in Japan is extensive, as you would expect in such a “techno savvy” country.  The majority of consumers under 40 years of age  order  goods on their mobile phone. Gift catalogues are also very popular. One of the gift catalogue companies I met with had 23 different catalogues, over 5 million customers per year, and an annual turnover of 150 billion yen.

Gift presentation is everything. I met with one online retailer who had the most amazing gift despatch service system I had ever seen. One person was in charge of dusting, there was even a gift wrapping “supervisor”…

Everything is gift wrapped…beautifully. Department store employees attend gift wrapping school, and use the traditional Japanese method of folding the  gift paper so that the “happiness can get in”. You must hold your gift the right way up, so that the happiness does not “escape”…

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