Season's First Snowfall

This Sunday morning, I saw the first snowfall of the season. Until I started to live in Tokyo at the age of eighteen, I was in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. My high school was in Sapporo, the capitol of Hokkaido. It is best known outside Japan for hosting the 1972 Winter Olympics, and the Sapporo Snow Festival, which draws more than two million tourists from around the world. Therefore, snow was my old friend. Playing with snow, skiing, and ice skating were best winter entertainment for kids in Hokkaido.

However, I have little wisdom for living in the snowy country. Most serious is that I have no experience to drive a car in snowy winter. Before the driving to my office, I checked the Internet to find the tips for driving on frozen roads. OK, now I got the theory of winter driving, but what I need is a practice. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the road was not frozen enough to try my knowledge. It's snowing even now, so the road may be icy at night. I'd better go back home earlier today.

Winter in the US is a biggest season for shopping. From Black Friday to the Christmas, retailer s are eager to loosen the consumers' purse string. Vecere Jewelers in NJ is no exception. Their ads says,

If it snows 4 inches or more on January 1, '08 we will refund your full purchase price on any in-stock jewelry, including designers!

The purchase from November 23 (this year's Black Friday) to December 24 is eligible for the rebate. The snowfall is measured at the Weather Measurement Station at Trenton, Mercer County Airport on January 1, 2008, between the insured hours of 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM (24 insured hours).

Let's pray for heavy snowfall only on the new year day. Also, please pray for my driving safety in winter. Thank you in advance.

50 State Quarters

Until recently, I always tried to use debit card anywhere anytime because dealing with coin is annoying. They are very confusing: Nickel (5 cents) is bigger than Dime (10 cents), and Dime is as large as Penny (1 cents) is in size. I don't like to hold many coins in my pocket or wallet, so I had a habit to use as many coins as possible at the payment in Japan. For example, when I pay five hundred twenty-eight yen, I seldom pay six hundred yen to prevent to receiving nine coins: seven ten yen coins and two one yen coins. I pay the exact amount or six hundred eight yen or something to reduce my coins. However, I have to abandon this deeply rooted habit because I cannot distinguish Penny, Nickel, and Dime immediately at the payment. When I bought a cup of coffee at Starbucks on the first day in Princeton, I scattered many coins on the cashier desk and asked the employee to choose the amount of pay appealing that I was a foreigner. While she kindly explained the difference of coins and I understood it, it took some time for me to learn it intuitively.

But I sometimes use cash recently because I need Quarters for two reasons. First, I need them to wash my clothes. The washing machine and the drier at the public space of my apartment accept only Quarters. To wash and dry my clothes, I need four Quarters in total. It was very sad that I found the other day that I couldn't wash my cloths due to the lack of Quarters and finally went to the convenience store to get them.

Second, I started to collect fifty State Quarters. The 50 State Quarters program is the release of a series of commemorative coins by the United States Mint. Between 1999 and 2008, it is intended to feature each of the 50 individual U.S. states on unique designs for the reverse of the quarter (cited from Wikipedia). They are good tool to learn the history and the character of each state. Delaware Quarter says that it's "the first state." Washington Quarters, "evergreen state," features salmon leaping in front of Mount Rainier. North Dakota has two bison at dawn and badlands, and Kentucky does thoroughbred racehorse behind fence.

Also, they are useful to learn the location of each state. To understand the geography of this country, I bought 50 State Commemorative Quarter Map Holder Album Book. The seller of this album raises ten reasons to buy it on their website. It's interesting that most of them feature financial reasons such as saving and investment. It's very American for me. If Japanese Ministry of Finance issued this kind of coins and somebody tried to sell coin albums in Japan, they would feature the educational utility on their advertisement. By glancing the marketing communication of such small products, we can easily find the cultural difference of the notion on money.

By the way, I visited my colleague who also enjoys his sabbatical in Pennsylvania two weeks ago. His family entertained me with authentic Japanese food, the udon with homemade tempra (a deep fried lightly-battered vegetables and seafood). It was yummy! Thank you very much, Karube-san. After the fine lunch, he showed me his daughter's coin album. It seems that I, a thirty five years old man, shares same hobby with a nine year old girl. Am I childish? Yes, I am a cultural child here.

Luckly every commemorative coin will be released during my stay in the US. To grow up, I will complete this collection.

Japanese Manga Industrial Complex

This month's cover story of WIRED magazine is MANGA CONQUERS AMERICA. One of the article, "Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex" by Daniel Pink reports how Japanese have been obsessed with comics and how the market of nonprofessional self-published manga known as dojinshi has huge market. He visited Japan for two months as a fellow of Japan Society, a NPO which is one of the major introducer of Japanese pop culture in US.

What was striking for Pink when he visited the market of dojinshi was flagrant copyright violation. Most of them sold there borrow liberally from existing professional works such as Dragon Ball and Evangelion. It's no wonder that he was wondering why Japanese publishers doesn't bring a law-suit against them. The scale of the market is incredibly huge. At Super Comic City, two days dojinshi market at Tokyo Big Sight (Japan's largest exhibition oriented convention center), he saw 33,000 dojin artists sold their comics in six huge halls, each the size of a professional basketball arena. About 300,000 books are sold in cash totaling more than $1 million by day's end.

The main organizers of dojinshi markets answered this American question with Japanese-like phrase, anmoku no ryokai, which literally means "unspoken, implicit agreement." Needless to say, publishers never encourage dojin artists to violate their copyrights. But they gave the creators their tacit permit. Pink explains that this anmoku no ryokai is an imperfect but calcurated business model of manga publishers in Japan. He articulated it in three ways. First, the dosinshi devotees are good manga's customers. Second, dojin creators are the huge pool of potential talent. Third, by observing the trend of dojinshi market, they can predict the direction of professional manga market.

This article remembered me the last summer visit to Comic Market or Comiket. Comiket, the world's largest comic convention, is also held at Tokyo Big Sight every twice a year. Any space other than TBC doesn't have enough capacity for Comiket. Besides that, the number of the attendees continues to increase. Last winters's convention, Comiket 71, gathered approximately 440,000 attendees coverge in the course of three days, and Comiket 72 in this summer accepted approximately 550,000 attendees.

It is held during the hottest summer days in August and during the winter days after the Christmas in December. Apparently, these periods are not suitable for more conventional trade show such as motor show. Nobody wants to visit such an inconvenient place at the gulf of Tokyo at temperature over 100 °F. Also, every Japanese is very busy in December, especially after the Christmas, for preparation to welcome new year. But these scheduling shows the fact that the otaku (geeks) of dojinshi are the only people who don't take care of the climate which would cause sunstroke and can ignore Japanese conventional seasonal schedule to pursue their satisfaction.

Telling the truth, the gathering was really bizarre. Both physically and psychologically, the atmosphere was heated (and humid). Geeks with a bunch of one thousand yen bills were hunting their favorite dojinshi, most of them are the pornographic parody of manga as far as I saw.

But the cosplay (a portmanteau of the English words "costume" and "play") was very interesting. At the open space for cosplay, many people dressed as characters from manga and anime (an abbreviation of the word "animation"). On the contrary to the humid atmosphere around the dojinshi shops, cosplay space was a kind of amusement park. Many of handmade costume were highly sophisticated and some of cosplayer women are as beautiful as actresses. When they are asked to be taken their photographers, any cosplayers took their best pose professionally. It is regrettable that I erased the pictures of cosplayes by mistake.

This sanctuary for otaku has set many rules for attendees. Its phone book size catalogue, which contains information about the buyers and sellers, lists detailed Dos and Don'ts: Ask cosplayers' permission when you shoot them. Don't run. Carry a bottle of water. Be careful of your belongings. Don't bring five thousand yen and ten thousand yen bills to buy dojinshi. Use one thousand yen bill is strongly recommended so as not sellers to be in short of their changes.

Many unknown persons cautioned us about our "misbehaviors" during our two only hours stay. They have established many explicit codes to protect their growing sanctuary and expect any strangers to obey them. There isn't any anmoku no ryokai as far as Comiket is.

What is striking for me is the sharp contrast between their strict rules which dominate their cosmos and their obvious violation of the copyright rules which dominate their outer space. Is this enigma the key to understand how Japanese manga subculture have flourished?

Lost in Translation

My English conversation partner recommended me to watch Sofia Coppola’s movie, Lost in Translation (2003). It is the story about two Americans who spent a week in Tokyo. A middle aged movie star, Bob, once popular in the industry, visited Tokyo to shoot Japanese Whisky Company’s commercial (Suntory’s Hibiki) for big money, while accused by his wife of forgetting their son’s birthday by fax. At the same gorgeous hotel, a young Yale grad wife Charlotte was bored to death because her photographer husband was too busy to be by her side. Although Bob is old enough to be a Charlotte’s father, they became soul mates. Both of them were embarrassed with Japanese cultural environment as total strangers. Also, they struggled to cope with their loneliness in spite of their marriage and to find the meaning of their life. They spent their leisure time to visit Karaoke studio, sushi and shabu-shabu restaurants, and even to a hospital where nobody understands English, but knew that there was no quick solution for their loneliness and uncertainty.

This movie is slow paced and doesn’t have clear story line. There is no car chase, explosion, or murder case. They just visit some places in Tokyo, drank at the hotel bar, and chatted on Bob’s bed sipping Sake, but never slept. Just as they are jaded tourists, this movie may be boring tourist pseudo-documentary for some audiences. It is probably surprising for them that Sophia won the Academy Award for Best Writing.

But I like this movie. Sophia vividly depicted the dry atmosphere of twenty first century Tokyo with simple camerawork: flamboyant westernized fashion among Japanese youngsters in Shinjuku and Shibuya, cutting edge posh hotel facilities, neon-fused downtown night, numerous people overblown on streets, noisy public announcement omnipresent in town and buildings, and so on. Of course, some description may be too stereotypical. She, however, succeeded to grasp the essence of Tokyo: the anonymity and anomie in a gigantic megalopolis and the boredom and anxiety prevailed in Japan who lost the status of an economic superpower in world economy.

Some customer reviews on Amazon.co.jp resented Sophia for making fun of Japanese accent in English which cannot tell the pronunciation “r” from “l”, and main actors for ridiculing Japanese sushi chef in English. But her portrayal is critical and precise enough for me, Japanese who lived in the town just five minutes by commuter train from Shinjuku, where the hotel is located, and now live in a foreign country alone (but, unfortunately or fortunately, I haven't yet met Charlotte-type woman here).

As for stereotypical matter, the Japanese TV Host in a blonde wig and garish suits (as “Matthew Minami”) who welcomed Bob in his program is a strongly stereotypical image of “Gaijin”, non-East Asian in Japanese. This program appeared in this movie was actually aired in Japan until recently. Matthew, a son of a Japanese cellist father and an English mother who is a daughter of an earl, is a noisy gay-type geek of Japanese pop culture. Apparently, his image is meant to parody a westerner.

As California roll, popular sushi among American, isn’t authentic at all for Japanese, any foreign cultural stuff are translated though importers’ frame of recognition and localized by and large. So, picking and accusing the "inaccuracy" in this movie from Japanese standpoint is silly.

It’s interesting that, while this movie apparently deals with incommensurability among different cultures, it consequently describes the universal characteristics of our modernized world: incommensurability among family and friends. This homeless mind in individualized urban life may be shared among many Japanese. We are embedded in complex social structure but feel some uncertainty and loneliness, and this is what “Lost in translation” is all about.

Tolbert and Zucker (1983)

Below is the summary of and comment on Pamela S. Tolbert and Lynne G. Zucker (1983) “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 28 (1), 22-39.

Summary

This paper analyzes the diffusion and institutionalization of change in formal organization structure. Theoretical goal of this paper is to specify the boundaries between the rational and the institutional approaches to organizations clearly and confirm the central role of history in understanding organizations. Both approaches emphasize different aspects to understand the underlying diffusion of an innovation in the formal structure of organizations. The rational approaches point to the need for effectiveness or efficiency that may follow adoption. The institutional approaches point to the legitimacy of the organization in the wider social structure.

To reconcile the two approaches, the authors analyzed the adoption of civil service procedures by municipal governments from 1880 to 1935. Using available data, this paper answers two questions: What is the effect of explicit hierarchical legitimation of a reform, and What is the effect of rapid and widespread legitimation of a reform on its subsequent adoption? To answer the first question, the authors compare the effect of hierarchical control by the state with the effect of non mandated spread of reform on the rate of diffusion. To answer the second question, authors explore the change in the ability to predict adoption on the basis of particular organizational characteristics from the early periods to the later periods.

The first analysis reveals that civil service procedures were adopted much more rapidly by cities when the state mandated them and the process of adoption was directed by a single source. In contrast, when no state-level legitimation occurred, civil service procedures were adopted gradually, diffusing largely through social influence among cities.

The finding from the second analysis is much more important for the authors. They found that internal organizational factors predicted adoption of civil service procedures at the beginning of the diffusion process, but did not predict adoption once the process was well underway. They interpreted this finding as follows: As an increasing number of organizations adopt a program or policy, it becomes progressively institutionalized, or widely understood to be a necessary component of rationalized organizational structure. Also, they insisted that the legitimacy of the procedures themselves serves as the impetus for the later adopters. This finding means that early adopters of innovation are driven by rational reason, effectiveness or efficiency, but late adopters are by the legitimacy.

Comments

I enjoyed this classic paper well. It has both theoretical and empirical contribution. As for theoretical contribution, the authors succeeded to examine two theoretical approaches in the same empirical study. Although two streams of organization theory seem incompatible, both explanations are probably plausible for practitioners. They sometimes adopt innovations willingly to improve their internal process of the organization, and sometimes incorporate them into their formal structure to maintain their legitimacy. The authors explained clearly about this difference by the timing of adoption: an early adoption of innovation is driven by the adopters’ rational reason to improve their efficiency and/or effectiveness, and a late adoption by the pressure from their institutional environment.

As for empirical contribution, this paper figured out a unique technique to describe the institutionalization process empirically. To show the increasing power of the institutionalization through the diffusion process, the authors observed the predicting power of the model explaining adoption of civil service procedures by organizational characteristics such as percentages of foreign born and illiterate people, and city age and size. According to their analysis, the predicting power continued to weaken through the diffusion process. The authors interpreted it as the evidence of the legitimation and the institutionalization of innovation.

However, I may cast some doubt upon their empirical expression of the legitimation and the institutionalization. They did not show any direct evidence. Why could they insist that the civil service was institutionalized by showing the weaken power of the model? They seemed to assume that diffusion without rational reason meant legitimation and institutionalization of the innovation. But are rational and institutional reason either-or? It is possible to think that irrational cities adopt the civil service without feeling the legitimating pressure. They also assume that cities are rational enough to perceive how the innovation is institutionalized and to think that they should adopt it once if institutionalized. It is not necessarily clear what “rational” means in this paper.

This paper is nevertheless a successful research on a diffusion process in modernized society constituted by active agents in institutionalized context. We still can use the technique adopted by the authors to analyze diffusion process observed in our contemporary society. It is fair to say that the problem mentioned above cannot be solved easily as far as we deal with historical case. If we analyze recent diffusion process, we can observe it more directly. For example, we can adopt an interview method to grasp adopters’ and non-adopters’ intention and perception about innovation. By comparing interview and available data, we can gain deeper insight on institutionalization process.

Farmers Market

Trenton Farmers Market








Yesterday I visited farmers market. My host kindly took me to Trenton Farmers Market (He is really kind!). I (and my wife) like to visit local markets in foreign countries, which arose our imagination on locals' ordinary life. In this summer, we were lucky to visit Balinese local market. Check some pictures below. You can feel how different (and similar) Indonesian and American local markets are. In future, maybe when I am sixty-four, I want to conduct a research project on international comparison of local market with my wife, then we can visit many foreign countries.

Bali, Indonesia

Trenton, NJ, US

Trenton Farmers Market sell not only fresh vegetables and fruits but also various ethnic foods from Italian to Hispanic to Polish. I found many stuff not sold in supermarkets. Italian shop has diverse inventory of fresh cheese, Polish meats shop sells various kinds of ham and sausage, and Hispanic shop sells casual fast foods, which was inexpensive and delicious (Unfortunately, I forgot the name), as well as dry foods such as red pepper.

Vegetables are very fresh. The assortment of each farmers are unique. Some farmer sell fresh tomato and basil. Other sell okra and coriander. By the way, "okra" is a Japanese loan word (in precise, we call it "Okura"). When I bought it in a supermarket a month ago, the cashier asked me the name of okra to input its unit price into the cash register (Here, supermarkets sell vegetables by weight and the cashier weigh them by the register, so each item should be put into each plastic bag by customer). I was at a loss for the answer, but the woman behind me said "Okra!". She, from Texas told me that okra was popular ingredients of BBQ there. We Japanese prefer lightly boiled Okra with vinegared soy source or Okra tempura.

Anyway, vegetables are very fresh and tasty. I stir-fried okra with some meat last night. This morning I made sandwich with tomato. Unlike vegetable sold in supermarkets, they have a flavor of vegetable. Okra is crisp and crunchy, and heirloom tomato has strong flavor. Considering this quality, the price is reasonable: okra is one dollar and half per one pound.

This market is entertaining for me. Their display is beautiful. Finding vegetable not sold in Japan is curious. At the milk and egg factory shop beside the market, we can observe the manufacturing line of milk from the shop.

The building of the market is owned and maintenanced by local government. It seems difficult to maintain such markets which consists of small scale shops and farmers without financial and managerial support from the government. Do they compete or coexist with supermarkets? How many percent share of US fresh foods market do farmers markets have ? What is farmers' motivation to sell their products at the market by themselves as well as wholesale to retailers? To answer these questions, I should visit there again. Of course, I will.

Pulp Consumption

There are many things I stop using after coming to US. One of them is business cards. In Japan, when we introduce ourselves at the first meeting, we always exchange business cards. So I must have carried my cards at any time. Even now I have some pieces in my bag, but there has been no opportunity to use them so far. I ordered two hundred pieces of my cards just before coming to US. But I don’t believe that I can consume them during my stay.

Another thing I don’t use in US is a handkerchief. Handkerchiefs seem to have given way to paper towels and napkins. To my surprise, every public restroom is equipped with paper towel. So, my handkerchief has been always kept in my pocket. Only chance to use it is perhaps when I cry. But I haven’t cry until now, unfortunately.

Why doesn't American use handkerchief? Wikipedia answers my question as follows. "Use of handkerchief instead of facial tissue paper is often seen as old-fashioned and, especially in North America, unhygienic". Oh, I see. That's why American doesn't. The following sentences are more interesting, "On the other hand, some see it as a more environment-conscious choice. In Japan and Sri Lanka, those carrying a handkerchief are considered to be well-educated." I didn't know that handkerchief was the proof of education.

Anyway, paper towels and napkins are omnipresent in US. You can use as much papers as you can anywhere at any time. In restroom, many men draw out too long roll of paper. In fast food restaurant, most customers take too many pieces of napkins. At first, I thought American waste more resources than Japanese do. Many Japanese thinks that US is more wasteful and Japan is more environmentally friendly. This impression may be rather correct. But as for pulp consumption, the difference between two countries seems not so large.

Omnipresent in Japan are tissue papers. In streets and stations, we often receive tissue packets with the flyer on the front. In huge terminal stations such as Shinjuku, getting five or six packets is not so difficult. We welcome and carry them in our bag because some of public toilets in Japan don’t have toilet paper as well as paper towel. Also, in spring, many Japanese who suffer hay fever (about fifteen percent of Japanese including me) always have to blow their nose. To use tissue, we have no option but to see the advertisement. From the advertisers’ standpoint, this high exposure is very attractive. If those packets are just flyer, we will not receive them. Even if we do, we will discard them immediately and seldom read them. That is why tissue packets are very strong promotion tool for marketers and convenient tool for people in Japan. Apparently this tool cannot be adopted by US advertisers. There is no reason to carry tissue packet for US people.

Sample of Tissue Packet Flyer on Sales Promotion Company's Website

12,500 yen (approximately 100$) per 1,000 pieces

Tissue Packet Flyer in Akihabara

Both US and Japan consumes huge quantity of pulp, but the style is different. US pulp consumption is more conspicuous than Japanese one. We can easily find paper towel and napkins anywhere in US. In the same way, we can easily find tissue papers in their pockets and bags in Japan (if inspection is allowed).

According to this website (written in Japanese), the quantity of paper consumption per capita/year in Japan is increasing from 239kg in 1995 to 246kg in 2005. On the contrary, US consumption is reducing from 332kg to 301kg. Of course, this contrast cannot be explained by the consumption of paper towel or tissue. It may be due to the influence of rapid growth of Information Technology. I found that US universities are good at utilize IT such as Blackboard to reduce paper consumption. But Japanese universities and companies seems to use more papers than before “IT Revolution”. The more the printers become faster, the more documents we print out, as I did. It is possible that Japanese paper consumption exceeds US one in future.

Healing Boom in Japan

Below is the summary of "The Social Construction of Consumer Needs: A Content Analysis of the Healing Boom in Japan". This research was published in two Japanese academic journals in 2004. I am now revising the original version and translating it into English. If you are interested, please give me your advice to improve my research.

This paper analyzes the developing process of the healing boom in Japan at the end of 1990s. This boom is very different from other booms in two ways. First, many firms belonging to different industries have launched a large number of healing products/services since mid-1990s. Second, as a consequence of this massive market entry, the meaning of healing accepted by consumers changed drastically.

According to Kohjien, the most famous Japanese dictionary, the verb Iyasu (heal) means to cure somebody’s disease or injury; satisfy hunger, or remove emotional pain. But the explanation of Iyashi Sijoh (the market of healing) in Gendai yogo no Kiso Chisiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words) 2003 Edition, published by Jiyukokumin-sha, is fundamentally different from the traditional explanation. The encyclopedia explains that Iyashi Sijoh is the market of goods and services useful to create psychological security, and nowadays various kinds of consumer goods such as books, music, paintings, movies, massage, drink, food, and clothing to make us feel relaxed fall under this rubric. This change of definitions seems to show that the word healing has moved from spiritual dimension to material dimension, and the practice of satisfying one’s need for healing by consuming goods and services sold in market has been firmly established. It is reasonable to suppose that needs for healing are socially constructed.

This paper focuses on the process of the social construction of healing needs and explains the process as a consequence of firms’ continuous mimetic behavior caused by “theorization” about the boom (Strang and Mayer 1993). In consumer goods/service industries, a boom is not unusual in one industry. But the phenomenon of firms in various industries participating in one boom, such as the healing boom is very unique. Nikkei Marketing Journal explained that the healing boom was triggered by the consumers who suffered serious stress caused by bothersome human relations and economic pressures in the long depression of the Lost Decade (the 1990s) and needed to be healed, and many firms supplied various goods/services to respond to this perceived need. Although this explanation is dominant in marketing discourse, we think that consumers’ needs are one of the reasons for the rapid emergence of numerous healing products/services but not the only one, and the firms’ continuous mimetic behavior and the discourse featuring the boom are more important reason.

To verify this assumption, we investigated both the collective behavior of firms and the discourse prevailed in mass media. On the one hand, we investigated all the healing products/services launched from 1988 to 2001. Using NIKKEI TELECON 21, the database of leading Japanese economic newspapers such as Nihonkeizaishinbun and Nikkei Marketing Journal, we collected 1,162 newspaper articles containing the keyword Iyashi (healing in Japanese) and Hiiring (healing as a loan word).

On the other hand, we investigated two kinds of discourse about healing boom. To understand how this boom was explained by marketing experts, we analyzed the contents of 1,162 newspaper articles qualitatively. In addition, to find the difference among discourses revealed to various market segments (e.g. men vs. women), we conducted a content analysis of 1,984 article titles containing both Iyashi and Hiiring from 441 types of magazines issued from 1985 to 2001. These titles are collected from the Oya Soichi Bunko Magazine Article Index CD-ROM database, which covers popular magazines such as hobbies, entertainment, and true-life stories.

From these data sets, I found that 542 healing products/services were launched during this period and the number of healing products/services launched increased rapidly in 1999 and 2000. Besides the rapid increase in products/services launched in 1999, massive publicity campaigns by prestigious mass media companies started. In this year, calm piano music Energy Flow composed and performed by world the famous musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and used as the background music in a TV commercial for a vitamin drink became a hit song. At the same time, the dog robot AIBO manufactured by Sony became popular. Although Mr. Sakamoto and Sony did not intend to appeal to the healing function of their products, mass media such as Nikkei Marketing Journal diffused this interpretation and they were both welcomed by consumers a fitting their needs for healing. Nikkei Marketing Journal gave AIBO their Hittoshohin Banzuke (Annual Award for Hit Products) at the end of this year. Furthermore, Jiyukokumin-sha awarded the word Iyashi as the new word representing the atmosphere of the year in Ryukogo Taisho (Annual Award for New/Trendy Word). After this massive publicity campaign, many firms rushed into healing market. These developments show that the rapid development of the healing market cannot be explained only by the consumers’ needs. The massive publicity campaign by the mass media and the firms’ trying to grasp the new financial opportunity contributed significantly to the rapid growth of the healing boom.

This boom can be understood by applying the framework of institutional theory (Powell and DiMaggio 1991), which is useful for analyzing the socio-historic patterning of consumption, an important research program in Consumer Culture Theory (Arnold and Thompson 2005). We think the Japanese firms’ mimetic behavior is both the cause and consequence of cognitive institutionalization of healing. Cognitive institution means shared conceptions that constitute the nature of social reality and frames through which meaning is made (Scott 2001). The shared conceptions of the healing boom is the belief that consumers are fatigued due to stressful urban life and seriously hope to be relaxed, resulting in many business opportunities in the healing market. This cognitive institution triggered by massive media campaign was established around 1999, and since then both the consumers and firms shared conceptions of their life worlds and soon took it for granted (Berger and Luckmann 1966). Establishment of the shared conceptions has been enhanced by firms’ mimetic behaviors and mass media’s agenda setting. Consumers’ needs for healing were not created by the socio-economic environment, but were socially constructed through the interaction among firms, mass media, and consumers.

In marketing discourse, the explanation that consumer needs create market phenomena is dominant, supposedly because of the strong influence of the “marketing concept” which emphasizes customer orientation and consumer sovereignty. But the healing boom is instead explained by firms’ mimetic behaviors and the mass media’s publicity campaign. Although consumers are not the cultural dupes of an affluent society (Galbraith 1958), they are not sovereign, and their preferences are not private, free and rational (Slater 1997). This case of Japanese healing boom gives us an opportunity to reconsider the dynamics of market phenomena and consumer needs.

Energy Flow - Ryuichi Sakamoto (1999)

Strang and Meyer (1993)

Below is a summary of and my comment about David Strang and John W. Meyer (1993), "Institutional Conditions for Diffusion, " Theory and Society, 22 (4), 487-511. JSTOR

Summary

This theoretical paper tries to suggest how institutional conditions affect the rate and form of diffusion. Contrary to dominant diffusion research focusing on connectedness among adopters, they emphasize the influence of theorized accounts of practices (innovation) and those adopters.

This paper points out the feature and weakness of prevailing theory of diffusion, which is generally reviewed by Everett Rogers. It can be summarized in three. First, they suppose “sociological realism,” paying attention to mapping direct contacts between prior and potential adopters. Actors are considered as purposive and rational, and they and their network relations are understood as jointly providing a sufficient basis for the explanation of social behavior. Second, their model is relational. The of rates of diffusion should vary with levels of interaction between prior and potential adaptors. Many analyses treat diffusion as a spatial process, where probability of transmission is some function of geographical distance. Third, rationalities are emphasized. Practices are adopted to the extent that they appear more effective or efficient than the alternative.

The authors insist that rapid and unstructured diffusion observed in modern world system such as educational practices among American states cannot be predicted with the prevailing theory. and that we need adopt new theoretical framework. As an alternative model, the authors present the concept of “theorization.” Theorization means “the self-conscious development and specification of abstract categories and the formulation of patterned relationship such as chains of cause and effect” (p. 492). Diffusion is accelerated and redirected by their theorization. Among the examples they show, most striking is the one that Marxist theorization of world-history hasten the diffusion of socialist revolution.

Theorization prompts diffusion in three ways. First, by proposing homogeneities within populations of adopters, theorization motivate them to acquire practices. They predict that similar practices can be adopted by all members of a theoretically defined population, with similar effects. Second, by abstracting properties of practices and specifying the outcomes they produce, theorization make it easier to perceive and communicate about the practice to potential adopters. Also, theorization documents the many virtues involved in practices, in terms of standardized notions of efficacy or justice or progress. These two theorization are jointed in many cases. As an example, the authors indicate that Simonean information processing theory and organizational practice/structure are interpenetrated. Third, theorists themselves become central conduits of diffusion, as Harvard economists was active in bringing Keynesian fiscal policy to Washington.

When theorization shapes diffusion, what flows is not a copy of some practice existing elsewhere, but the theoretical model of the diffusing practice. Theorization facilitates communication between strangers by providing a language that does not presume direct shared experience. Theorized diffusion is also likely to be relatively unconstrained by relational structure. Theorization permits the actor to see through the confusing evidence of others’ mixed successes and detect the “true” factors at work. In short, theorization may be regarded as turning diffusion into rational choice.

The authors consider diffusion as modern phenomenon. Many previous diffusion research have studied marginally modern peoples exposed to modern practices. But in the contemporary world, both practices and adopters are likely to be modern.

Comment

I think this paper has two strength. One is that they introduced discourse ("theorization" in this paper) about the diffusing innovation ("practices" in this paper) into the analytical framework of diffusion research. This make it possible to analyze what Giddens called dualities of structure. In modern society, everybody is a theorist. We, from individual to organization to nation state, try to understand and explain rationally what we see, hear, and experience. Professionals and/or mass media provide tools for constructing our explanations. This tool is exactly "theorization" Strang and Meyer explained. For example, to understand the dynamic process of fads in fashion industry, we must consider not only the diffusion process of fashion item but also the discourse about it. Because there is not clear criteria such as efficiency and effectiveness to evaluate products in fashion, the influence of discourse prevailed in mass media (e.g. magazines) cannot be ignored to analyze the diffusion process.

Another strength of this paper is that they pointed out the features of dominant diffusion research clearly. In total, they raised four points. First three can be called as 3Rs (realism, rationality, and rationality). Although these points are sharp enough, the forth, the assumption about the laggardness of potential adopters, is more important. In modern world, adopters are not so ignorant as those in premodern world who adopted boiled drinking water introduced by advanced countries. By finding this tacit assumption, I realized for the first time why the framework summarized by Rogers explain the phenomenon of fads and fashion observed in Japan (or US) partially and insufficiently.

Contrary to the sharp theoretical analysis, the discussion about the methodology to grasp theorization is not enough, I think. How can theorization be operationalized? To understand the interpenetration process of discourse and behavior explained by them, we must compare the data sets of the two. Making the data of the behavior is relatively easy, but analyzing discourse, mostly text data, is very completed and time consuming. Discourse should be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. To use quantitative analysis, the technique of content analysis and text mining should be elaborated. In this point, Eric Abrahamson's analysis of management fashion is very useful.

Britney and Shinzo

Shinzo Abe announced his resignation as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday. Japanese mass media, which had been obsessed with attacking his lack of leadership and his fellows' scandals for many months, is now crazy about predicting his successor. I bet that many news related to his abrupt decision and the election for next president of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) are filled with on TV, newspapers and weekly magazines in Japan.

But here, while news websites such as CNN reported it as a breaking news, TV news programs didn't report his resignation as far as I know. My roommate at our office, who seldom watch TV, knew this news on New York Time's website. I realize that Japan's presence is weak on US TV media (and perhaps for US people) as many Japanese in US lament. Outstanding on TV recently is not only Bush's Iraq policy but also Britney Spears' poor performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

I casually watched her at VMAs on last weekend. She was just strange. She was visually nervous. She was barely moving. As PM Abe had been for several months, She seemed lack of energy on her stage. It's a great pity that most popular pop star and our prime minister become like zombies.

As US people don't know much about the "big" news from far east island, Japanese people don't know how absorbing topic Britney's "disaster" is here, I imagine. Our world has not been flat yet. Media environment in different society constitute diffrent reality. Maybe I will experience counter culture shock when going back to Japan in future.

(You can move to the reports by CNN if click each picture.)

To sir, with Love

Watching TV here is very interesting because TV service and program in US are different from Japanese one. What I found so far is three points.

First, the mainstream of broadcasting system is different. Terrestrial television (free TV) is dominant in Japan, but cable TV (CATV) is in US. Although satellite and CATV broadcasting become popular recently in Japan, the majority mainly watch terrestrial television with no charge. If you have a TV set and connect it to an antenna, you can enjoy programs immediately (to be precise, only NHK, quasi-national broadcaster, collects viewing fee, but anyway you can watch their program on your TV set weather you pay or not). But, here, we cannot watch anything without subscribing CATV service with monthly charge.

Second, the number of channels offered is quite different. In Japan, most people generally watch seven free TV channels. On the contrary, majority of American TV viewers seem enjoy far much more channels. For example, Patriot Media's Full Basic I use now has nearly one hundred channels. This package is second cheapest one among their service line. If I pay more, I can enjoy two or three hundreds.

Third, because of the diversity of channels, viewers in US can enjoy various programs everyday. Such special channels as Food Network and Comedy Central can't be expected on Japanese free TV. Also, some channels are designed exclusively for Christianity, and others are for Spanish speakers. Even Princeton University has their local channel. This diversity of choice is very attractive to TV viewers.

But it is a irony that huge amount of channels offers the digital video recorder industry such as TiVo a business opportunity to gain customers who feel inconvenient to find their favorite programs from thousands of choices. Freedom of choice is sometimes the burden on consumers' decision making, as information processing theory insists.

As for me, I enjoy freedom of choosing TV programs so far. On TCM (Turner Classic Movies), I found a good old movie, To sir, with Love. According to Wikipedia, this movie, released in 1967, is "a British film starring Sidney Poitier that deals with social issues, especially racism, in an inner city school." I like the story about an idealistic teacher because I am also a teacher (but I don't hope to be in his position). This movie seems a classic one in this genre.

Not only the plot, but also schoolgirls' Swinging London fashion is fascinating. But most attractive part in this movie is its title song "To Sir, with Love", sung by Lulu. This is the main point I want say on this post.


To Sir, With Love - Lulu

Those schoolgirl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try

If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters
That would soar a thousand feet high 'To Sir, With Love'

The time has come for closing books and long last looks must end
And as I leave I know that I am leaving my best friend
A friend who taught me right from wrong and weak from strong
That's a lot to learn, but what can I give you in return?

If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather you let me give my heart 'To Sir, With Love'

Buying a Car

At the dealer: "scare copy" or truth?

The car you looked at today and want to think about until tomorrow may be the same car someone else looked at yesterday and will buy today.




Three weeks has passed after my arrival on US. I finished every paperwork related to my stay in US, and bought a car. Yes, I have got Suzuki Aerio 2004. Not sexy at all, but maybe useful enough. I bought it about two weeks ago. This car is fine till now. But there was an incident about the car in fact, I should confess. On the next day of the purchase, Sunday when the dealer closed, I could not start the engine because of the battery trouble, so I payed fifty five dollars to the gas station only for jumping it. But, on the next day of the trouble, the dealer apologized me, replaced it to brand new one, and refunded me the fifty five dollars. Tom, the salesperson at Suzuki, is a reliable person.

I tell you the story how I finally decided to buy Suzuki as follows. Even now I am not certain that my purchase was smart. But anyway, my experience may be useful for foreigners who want to buy a car in US.

At first I thought that buying a used car was best. I visited several dealers. Aggressive salespersons introduced me a lot of cars, saying that those were best among their inventory and meet my need. But I could not understand how to find the most suitable one for me because I have no experience to buy used car even in Japan. What should I check when I talk with salesepersons and test-drive cars? Appearance (many cars are so dirty)? Brake (if there is any problem, I will die)? Engine (I listened to the sound, but found no answer)? Miles (the ratio of mile and year seems to be important)? I was just confused.

In addition, many websites on used cars warns me that dealers try to sell consumers lemon (i.e. defective cars). So I changed my idea. I'll buy a new car so that I don't have to worry about its quality and enjoy the warranty from the manufacturer.

But I immediately found that new cars are just too expensive. Because I am a foreigner arrived recently, I cannot use loan or lease. I have to pay in cash. Above all, I have to sell my car one year and half later when I go back to Japan. Several alespersons told me that the depreciation of new cars are faster than old ones. These two problems of new car made me change my idea again. I'll buy a used car.

I found Nissan Maxima 2000 with low mileage (about 61,000 miles) at some dealer. This car with 3.0 liter engine is a bit big for me because only I use it. But the cost performance is very good. Also, the salesperson (I will call him "Pooh") was patient to explain me the detail of the car and its insurance when I asked him to speak slowly and repeat what he said many times. At that time, I was about decided to buy it, but didn't pay the deposit on it, because I am very cautious about the purchase.

After going home, I visited Kelley Blue Book to reduce my "cognitive dissonance". All right, the price of my Maxima is cheaper than Trade-In Value on the Book. But I found that some websites recommended me to check the Carfax information about the car I will buy. Carfax is an Internet web site offering vehicle history information about used automobiles.

On the next day, I visited the dealer again, asking Pooh to show me the Carfax data. He said "OK" and printed it out. After scanning it quickly, he was strangely reluctant to pass it to me and tried to change the topic. I asked him again to show it. After all, he gave me the document.

The data showed that Maxima's mileage is more than 100,000. I asked Pooh about the difference. He replied me that the shop which repaired the car before made a mistake and he would ask them to correct it. I felt dubious of his sincerity. But, finally, I gave him the deposit under the condition that it was refundable unless the Carfax data was updated. I became tired of buying a car and wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

Am I wise? Is that a lemon? I became increasingly anxious.

This is a bit long story. So, continued.

Consumer, Automobile, and Supermaket

I have lived at Princeton for four days. I am very OK.

On the day of arrival, I went to Wegmans, the supermarket which the girl at Starbucks on Nassau Street recommended, to buy vegetables, meat, eggs, salt, vinegar, oil, soy sauce, bread, cheese, detergent, shampoo, hair conditioner, and so on. According to the information on the web, it seems that Wegmans is competing with Whole Foods Market to attract relatively wealthy health conscious consumers. I like Wegmans. Whole Foods is too fashionable for me.

I went to Wegmans BY TAXI and to Whole Foods BY RENTAL CAR. In Japan, I visited supermarkets BY WALK. But in US, without car, you can't do anything. I know it before the arrival, but I really feel so from bottom of my heart. It seems that this difference on transportation system each society has constitute different consumer behavior and retailers' strategy.

In US, the society everybody uses or is forced to use cars, the trading area of supermarkets is relatively wide, and therefore, people go there not so frequently (eg. once a week or two). In this case, supermarket attract consumers with Everyday Low Pricing because they cannot visit stores so often. Keeping price stable establishes consumers' store loyalty.

On the contrary, in Japan, the society other transformation like train, bus, and subway are used often, the trading area of supermarket is relatively narrow, and therefore, people can go there frequently (eg. almost everyday). Retailers attract consumers with High Low Pricing. Changing price motivate consumers to visit there and the convenience of one stop shopping force consumers buy not only buy low margin products but also high margin products. This margin mix tactics is also used in US, it works well in Japan.

Of course, I know that this typification is too simplistic. For example, Japanese living in suburb or rural area visit supermarkets by car. In addition, we can't affirm that transportation system is the only factor to establish consumer behavior and retailers' strategy. We must consider other factors and different causal relationship. Especially we should focus our attention on the influence of consumer behavior on retailers' strategy and vice verse.

Although this typology has some problems, we can explain why foregin retail giants such as Carrfour and Walmart failured in Japanese market. Their store manegement didn't fit consumers' needs at all. They want to and CAN visit supermarket frequently and enjoy hunting price-cut product. To understand it, we may be more careful about the institutional complementarity among transportation system, consumer behavior, retailers' strategy and other factors.

Anyway, visiting supermaket is great fun for me.

Hi

Hi. I am Takeshi Matsui. I am a researcher and a teacher of marketing, consumer behavior, and consumer culture at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan. I will enjoy my sabbatical year from August 15 at Department of Sociology in Princeton University. I will stay there about one or one and half year to complete and publish my previous research in English/Japanese and start new research project on the influence of Japanese consumer culture in US society. This is my first stay in a foreign county. On this blog, I will keep a diary during LIVING IN AMERICA. I will write anything that I'm interested in from the point of view of a Japanese consumer and/or a researcher of consumer culture. HIT ME!


Living In America - James Brown