Big in Japan: Why 30 is the new 20

by Matthew Firestone on

Love it or hate it, the HBO series Sex and the City was a global phenomenon that redefined cultural stereotypes of single women in their 30s.

From 1998 to 2003, millions of viewers the world over tuned it for the latest exploits of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, who challenged the notion that single life for older women was anything other than fabulous and fun.

While American audiences needed a bit of persuasion to admit that 30 was perhaps the new 20, Japanese women were quick to embrace the notion of aging gracefully outside the restrictive confines of marriage.

Indeed, there’s even a new word to describe a fashionable and sophisticated single woman in her thirties, namely arasa (????????????), which is short for aranundo sati, the Japanese pronunciation for ‘around thirty.’

While Japanese government bureaucrats – the vast majority of whom are male – are scrambling to solve the problem of Japan’s declining birth rate and aging population, Japanese women are increasingly embracing the freedom of unmarried life.

In fact, they’re currently being targeted by some of Japan’s most prominent brand name stores and boutiques, which are slowly realizing that older women have much more purchasing power than fickle teeny-boppers.

If you happen to be ‘aranudo sati,’ keep on reading for more info…

It wasn’t too long ago in Japan that turning 25 was something of a death-sentence for unmarried women.

Believe it or not, unmarried women in their late 20s and early 30s were once commonly referred to as Christmas cakes (クリスマスケーキ, kurisumasukekki). Since you tend to throw away uneaten Christmas cakes after December 25th, the sick punch line is that unmarried women beyond the age of 25 have little value to society.

Wow. That’s harsh…

Of course, all of this is changing, especially since sexy older women are now gracing the covers of Japanese fashion magazines that were once reserved exclusively for teenage models. Stores and boutiques in fashionable neighborhoods such as Ginza and Ometesandou in Tokyo are increasingly shunning younger shoppers, preferring to market exclusively to the padded wallets of older, single women.

While Japanese men will certainly have to face the reality of declining marriage prospects, Japanese women seem to be embracing the personal and financial power and freedom that comes with being financially stable and single.

Arasa women have even coined their own word for mature sexiness, namely otona-gyaru (大人ギャル, grown-up gal), which signifies the transformation from Harajuku and Shibuya-themed youth fashion to the fabulous world of single adulthood.

Of course, not everyone is happy with the latest consumer trend sweeping across the country. On the contrary, Japan’s declining birthrate and aging population is a serious issue that is threatening to collapse one of the world’s most powerful economies.

However, while politicians in Tokyo’s Diet argue and bicker about the best course of action for convincing women to settle down, arasa are breaking with tradition, and flexing their growing consumer might.

Perhaps Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda had it right all along – 30 really is the new 20.

Photo of the Day (08/25/08)

by Abha Malpani on

I’m a total sucker for street performances, especially when I travel, and especially if it’s something cultural – I always stop and watch! This shot has been taken by user jonjanegoin on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China. Its simplicity makes it so real — and he’s managed to capture a moment with as much precision as possible.

Want your photo featured on Photo of the Day? Submit it to the Gadling Flickr pool for consideration.

Big in Japan: Overheating iPods irk Japanese consumers

by Matthew Firestone on

Japanese consumers love their electronics, and they take incredible pride in being one of the world’s most technologically literate societies.

Indeed, the Japanese have traditionally been extremely loyal to their domestic brands, especially since companies like Sony, Nikon and Canon produce some of the finest electronic goods in the world. In recent years however, foreign products have started to make significant advances in the Japanese consumer market, particularly anything made by Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.

In a society where image and fashion are paramount, Apple’s stylish products speak to Japanese consumers looking to distinguish themselves from the masses. Despite the fact that Sony invented the Walkman, the vast majority of Japanese consumers rely on iPods for all of their personal music needs.

However, Apple is currently in danger of losing a percentage of their market share, following reports that a couple of iPods in Tokyo overheated, igniting stacks of nearby papers. In a society where safety and harmony are also paramount, potentially dangerous consumer goods are quickly shunned, even if they actually pose a minute risk.

According to reports that are quickly circulating through the Japanese media, a small number of first generation iPod Nanos overheated this past week, resulting in nearby papers being scorched. While no one was hurt in any of these incidents, the issue was serious enough to draw the attention of Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official Hiroyuki Yoshitsune, who immediately demanded that Apple investigate the defect.

Apple responded by stating that the overheating problem was the result of a defective lithium-ion battery that was being traced to a single supplier. However, they emphasized that the problem was extremely rare, occurring in approximately 0.001% of first generation devices sold between September 2005 and December 2006. They also stressed that no one had been harmed in any of the incidents, and that any customer worried about their device should contact customer services.

Unfortunately for Apple, this is not the first time that they have had to deal with the fall-out of spontaneously combusting personal electronics. In 2006, the company received quite a bit of negative press over the faulty lithium-ion batteries found in a number of its laptops. Following reports by various media outlets of small laptop fires breaking out, Apple quickly removed 1.8 million units from the global market.

With that said, it’s worth emphasizing that you don’t need to rush to the store to trade in your black MacBook and iPod Touch, especially since the Dell Inspiron and Microsoft Zune are (at least in my humble opinion!) somewhat inferior products. However, it will be interesting to see what the fallout is amongst fickle Japanese consumers, who are famous for seizing and abandoning products in a moment’s whim.

** All photos are courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project, and are trademarked images of Apple Inc products. They are are being displayed here on this website for the purpose of critical commentary. **

I was here first: Why don’t people in some countries form neat, orderly lines?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

If you’ve tried to buy a train ticket in a place like Morocco or Indonesia, you know that this seemingly simple task is actually a full-contact sport. Rather than forming an orderly, single-file line, people are forced to scratch, claw, elbow, and gouge their way to the ticket window, in a process that even an Ultimate Fighting champion would describe as unnecessarily painful and violent.

So why does this happen? Why can’t people in certain, usually less-developed countries form neat, single-file lines? Here are a couple possible explanations:

1. There’s no incentive for the first person to stand in line. Though forming an orderly queue might be more efficient for everyone, it’s not beneficial enough to one particular person for him or her to go through the trouble of starting a line. This is a classic example of what economists call a “collective action problem,” in which a group of people are given a choice and, if following their individual self-interests, will choose an action that is suboptimal for the group overall. Merging on the highway is another example: It might be in your interest to cut in line at the last second, but if everyone chooses that same thing, the results will be worse than if everyone simply waited their turn.

2. The absence of orderly lines is not that big of a deal to people in these countries. Though seemingly chaotic and unnecessary to those of us in the “West”, the truth might be that these “mobs” actually work. Their structure– or lack of it– rewards those who want the ticket or item the most, and only displeases those who weren’t industrious (or ruthless) enough to work their way up to the front. This is a form of price discrimination in which those who were willing to “pay” the most, in this case with time and effort, are rewarded, while those who weren’t, aren’t.

Also, even in these sorts of “mobs,” there are a certain number of unwritten rules that people follow that tend to keep them approaching civility: for example, there’s usually no punching, scratching, pinching, or any kind of behavior that causes lasting physical harm. Though if it’s your first time experiencing an Indonesian train-ticket line, it will probably feel like a free-for-all. It isn’t, but almost.

3. These countries generally have less respect for the rule of law. In countries like the US, people tend to follow rules– even pointless ones– because they’ve been raised on the maxim that “following rules is good.” This is part of the reason we stop at red lights in deserted areas at 3 am, even when there’s no police car in sight. This is why we walk back and forth through those red ropes at the bank, like rats chasing a piece of cheese, even when the place is virtually empty.

People in developing countries can often not afford the luxury of pointless rule-following. If they miss a train because the ticket line was too long, that could have serious consequences for them. They might miss work, earn less money, and have to struggle that much harder. There’s a lot more at stake for them, so it’s understandable that people would want to get to the front of the line that much faster.

4. Finally, people do what their parents did. If people are taught that mobbing a ticket booth instead of standing in line is okay (and maybe it is– standing in line is not “objectively better”; I just happen to find it easier), it becomes very hard to transition to something else. It’s all about culture. If I were raised in Morocco, I wouldn’t see anything wrong with the practice, and instead of this article I’d probably have written one called, “Why can’t people in certain countries just crowd around a ticket booth?”