Hasta La Gadget!

The last few years have been a huge boom for toy cameras in Japan, tapping into both retro trends and the embedded camera culture of the country. Two companies are leading the charge: Lomography (the original reviver of plastic camera goodness) and Superheadz (the Japanese equivalent with its own offerings).

Last week was the 25th anniversary of the LOMO LC-A, the Russian model that started it all, with a surprisingly fun party at the Tokyo Lomography “Embassy”.

I was planning to go, but missed out on the party and am wishing I’d made it. As an avid user of my favorite Holga, Horizon, and Blackbird Fly cameras, it’s been great seeing this culture catch on among 20-somethings in Japan. Digital camera makers, by the way, could learn a lot from what’s going on here, especially from a fashion/design perspective.

McDonalds seems to have much more creative leeway in Japan than elsewhere, perhaps due to the comfort level consumers have with marketing campaigns. The Quarter Pounder Shop is a great example…what would be seen as a cynical marketing ploy by many in the U.S. gets great press as an innovative new concept in Japan.

The Quarter Pounder campaign has evolved into another pop-up shop concept for a very limited time. The Bara-Iro (rose color) T-Shirt shop is a pop-up shop within a McDonalds, lasting only from June 11-16.

The Shibuya Center-Gai McDonalds has completely remodeled its second-floor eating area into a super-pink, t-shirt-selling wonderland. Customers who order Quarter Pounders receive metal “bara-iro” pins, but those who are a bit more bold can venture into the Bara-Iro T-Shirt Shop to purchase one of fifty different designs, all printed on rose-colored shirts.

Each shirt costs about $10 and is quite limited, as can be seen below. When we visited yesterday nearly half of the shirts were all gone already, and with a surprisingly large number of customers inside.

As mentioned previously, this seems like the type of campaign that wouldn’t get nearly the same reception in a major U.S. city. The cool factor would only arise twenty years later when hipsters started wearing them ironically, and by then it’s a bit late.

UPDATE: Our pal Andrew Shuttleworth snagged some video from another McDonalds t-shirt campaign in April, this time giving out free “Love & Beer” shirts (?).

This is why we love this city: There’s an intrinsic, exotic mystery about it that comes through in any photo, video, or even radio report. Our friends and clients come here with a set of expectations that, quite frankly, always turn out to be wrong. The beauty of Tokyo is that (despite not living up to over-hyped expectations) it’s never disappointing because new, wonderful things you never would have imagined pop up all around you.

After all, while I’ve still never found the moving sidewalks, robot butlers, and personal jet-packs I imagined in my dreams before coming to Japan, the spirit of that innovation is alive and well, and I’ve no doubt it will all originate here.

via The Agitator

We’ve written before about Taspo, the RFID-chipped ID card that allows “of age” (20 or older) smokers to get their smokes through any of the nations 420,000 tobacco vending machines. Mostly the campaign has been a disaster for folks who own vending machines, a boom for convenience stores (where you don’t need the cards), and and a burden for smokers who just want to buy a pack without registering themselves with Big Brother.

Taspo originally began their campaign to get people to sign up by providing application packets at vending machines. These required applicants to submit copies of identification, fill out a form, and provide pictures in specific sizes before mailing it all in. When this didn’t work, they began to set up stalls in conventions and train stations (like this one) to get folks signed up without having to pay for a picture.

Clearly, this hasn’t worked either, as a Taspo service center has even opened up in Yoyogi to provide instant ID checks and card creation within 30 minutes.

Out of 27 million smokers in Japan, only 33.7% have signed up for the card, a significant amount if you consider that the rest have nearly no chance to use vending machines at all. In fact, convenience store sales have jumped to record highs in the last year thanks to the “Taspo Boom” in the midst of recession.

Going by purely anecdotal evidence and personal experience, even the heaviest smokers want nothing to do with the card. For most, however, it’s not a privacy issue, but one of pride: They don’t want an official “smoking license”, complete with a picture of themselves, to buy something that is their choice. In order to protect a small minority (teenagers) the rest of society must bear the burden of Taspo.

If tobacco makers are actually interested in selling their products and not just submitting to what will surely become complete regulation, they would be embracing vending machines with facial recognition, rather than making their customers file with the authorities. Of course, facial recognition doesn’t always work, but it’s a relatively non-invasive way to solve a problem that isn’t such a big deal to begin with.

In the meantime, convenience stores should beware: Increased sales in your sector mean that you’re next on the chopping block. Expect a full-on Taspo reader integrated into cash registers in no time.

The trend for kitchen gadgets with entertainment value, which we’ve been charting for some time now, continues to turn out new products. Takara Tomy and Bandai are mostly behind this, introducing new products that lead the trend into different directions.

On one hand there are those gadgets that zero in on foods currently in vogue, like the “Nama (fresh) Caramel Pot” from Takara Tomy (released April 30, retails for ¥3,129). Fresh caramel is a fashionable sweet at the moment and this kitchen product offers users the opportunity to make their own version—in the microwave and with little chance of frustration or failure.

Then there are those that turn the process into a game and make a family activity out of meal preparation. Bandai’s latest item in its successful Cook Joy series, the Nagashi Somen Somenya (flowing soumen noodle shop), is a good example (released on April 18 and retails for ¥8,400).

Somen (thin noodles eaten chilled during the summer months), when served nagashi-style, are sent down a bamboo chute. During the course of the journey they cool, become sprinkled with toppings and are picked up with chopsticks. This fun, though elaborate to set up, dish would be served in a festive group setting. Bandai’s version, which looks like a children’s game or a miniature water slide, manages to bring “nagashi soumen” to the dinner table.

Meanwhile a trip to the trend-setting, upscale variety store Ginza Hands demonstrates that those gadgets that succeed in making food cuter, both in presentation and in process, are enjoying continued popularity.

Trend Potential
With cost-cutting related to home finances keeping many Japanese out of the restaurants, eating in is an attractive alternative. Even more so if the entertainment value of going out can be brought into the home.