As Tyler digs into our favorite nation – Japan (if you didn’t know this your home work starts with buying issues 9 through 11 of you know what) – in this week’s Fast Lane column, he finds five great ways of bringing a bit more of Japan Inc. to the rest of the developing world, i.e. North America. The high notes for us this week was point three and five.
3. Clever collaborations
Japanese consumers love a clever tie-up between established brands and smart creative talent. Good examples are retailer Beams doing a customised Subaru in hot orange and chocolate brown, or bagmaker Porter doing a “man bag” exclusively for ANA.
5. Bathroom culture
The Washlet (the automated, all- spraying, all-blow-drying, all-sound cancelling, all-deodorising toilet) is finally making inroads into new markets, but the world needs to embrace this concept faster. If it’s standard practice to wash your hands after going to bathroom, shouldn’t it also be part of the routine to wash the parts of your body that performed the function? Japan’s become so addicted that they’ll even feature on the two national carriers’ 787s when they eventually take to the skies.