Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Japanese FMCG are always interesting to us, mostly due to the rapid product cycle, off-beat marketing campaigns, strange flavor combinations, lots of collaborations, and modern crowdsourcing methods.

While cigarettes and coffee have been paired up at the register, we recently found two products that seem to be searching for a product match.

The “Pan” coffee from Roots below advertises itself as the perfect compliment to eating bread. In fact, the word pan literally means “bread”, and there’s a picture of a sandwich that looks suspiciously like the sandwiches available in convenience stores. Thus, if you’re holding a sandwich and looking for a coffee as well, which one looks more suitable?

The Cabin “Roast Blend” cigarettes, recently released, go quite far to associate themselves with coffee. The cigarettes themselves are long and dark colored, internal pamphlets offer coffee makers for lucky winners, and the packaging itself is not only suited for sitting next to a hot cuppa, but even says “For Rich Coffee Break”. Naturally, if you like coffee, what cigarettes would you buy?

This is an interesting tactic, because it does stand out rather well amidst a sea of competition. One convenience store shelf can have over twenty different types of canned coffee, and many times that in cigarette choices, so the marketers are appealing to the other consumption habits of consumers to get their attention.

So, all we need now is bread made to go with cigarettes and we’ll have a complete consumption circle! Both Roots canned coffee and Cabin cigarettes are made by Japan Tobacco, so all they need to do is get their foods division in action.

For parents worried about where their children are going, there are several devices available out there to keep track of them from afar. Every mobile provider now carries kid-friendly phones that have alarms and GPS capabilities that allow parents to watch via satellite. Other techniques, such as sending email alerts to parents once children go through train station gates with their RFID train passes are also hands-off ways to track.

Recently, Princeton unveiled a tiny device that is designed for finding kids, but might be even more useful with your keys! The Kid Finder (shop link) is a remote that displays basic directional information to lead the holder to the corresponding receiver (front, right, left). It also gives basic distance information and has an alarm for the kid’s side in case of strangers bearing candy.

Since it works up top 90 meters, you won’t exactly be able to find your kids with satellite precision from far away, but the idea is that you keep good track on them in public places while you’re there. However, it’s a bit surprising that devices like this haven’t made more of a splash for basic things like bags, pets, and the ever-elusive house keys.

This is radio-based, but with the decreasing costs for RFID tags making the technology more affordable, and receiver integration into most phones in Japan, we could be looking at tagging just about everything we have! Just bring it up on the phone’s menu, and get instant feedback on location. For now, the Kid Finder is the best we have it seems, but combine it with a camera and we’ll need nothing else!

Sofa specialty shop NOyes has a new campaign to recycle your old jeans into home furniture.

Sofa manufacturer NOyes has announced a service available from this month to turn your old jeans into a cushy stool. Sure, the idea of re-using denim is not particularly novel—we covered the more artistic installation of recycled denim creations at last season’s Japan Fashion Week. However, when an otherwise ordinary furniture manufacturer takes up this sort of project it shows the extent to which the idea of re-using materials (and eco-friendly lifestyle in general) has entered the mainstream psyche.

The promo website shows the process of how your jeans (three pairs are necessary) are transformed into the finished stool, complete with a video that demonstrates the whole hand-made process. It is a neat way of re-assuring increasingly wary consumers that they can be sure exactly how and with what materials the product was created (original production of the denim aside). After all, if those jeans had been up to no good, only you would know.

The custom denim stool costs ¥36,720 ($400) and orders take three weeks to complete.

Our latest Trends in Japan piece for Japan Inc. is a quick run-through of some of the latest fun toys and gadgets for the kids in us.

Also in the issue is a comprehensive look at the intellectual property debate in Japan, and a technology piece by CScout comrade Robert Sanzalone.