"Explosive Shopping" Evaporates in Japan

Mainlanders aren't snapping up as many products as they used to in Japan

Hong Kong isn't seeing as many big shoppers from the mainland, and it looks like the same is happening in Japan.

Mainlanders used to clear shelves there of all kind of products, from chocolates to toilet seats, a phenomenon the Japanese called bakugai, or "explosive shopping".

How come we in Hong Kong didn't come up with a term like that?

Like Hong Kong, Japan is seeing steady numbers of tourists from China, but they are more careful about where they spend their money. Last year they were the biggest spenders, splashing out about 227,800 yen per person (US$2,008), but that figure was down 18.9 percent from a year earlier.

Japanese toilet seats used to be a popular item for the Chinese

Visitors from Hong Kong spent even less, plunging 23.6 percent year on year.

"I would not say that the decline in spending by Chinese tourists has been 'dramatic', but it has come down quite a lot," says Martin Schulz, senior economist with the Fujitsu Research Institute.

"There are two primary reasons for this, the first of which is that the yen has become stronger and that has an immediate cost impact on tourists," he said.

"... the products Chinese tourists were buying in the Ginza -- the big suitcases, the heated toilet seats, the brand name cosmetics -- are all available in China now."

He also suggested Chinese travellers who have been to Japan before are going further afield in Japan, to places where there are fewer shopping opportunities, and are actually more interested in services, which Schulz says is good for high-end restaurants and hotels.

Mainlanders don't buy as much cosmetics as they used to

The only way there will be a second wave of bakugai is when the yen weakens again to the point where more Chinese visitors will be enticed to come to the Land of the Rising Sun, but he's not so optimistic.

Service staff are probably relieved at not having to deal with such a deluge of customers, but their bosses might be annoyed they didn't capitalize enough on bakugai.

Ditto could be said for Hong Kong...

Anger Over Lancome Brews

Protesters, including pan-democratic lawmakers were against Lancome

Cosmetics giant L'Oreal is falling into the trap of doing exactly what you shouldn't do in a crisis -- hide and shut up.

Today there was a pretty vocal protest march into Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay, trying to enter the Lancome cosmetics area to shame it from cancelling a free mini concert it had organized on June 19, with Denise Ho Wan-sze as the headline act.

They complained the brand was kowtowing to China

The whole kerfuffle started when the nationalistic state media outlet Global Times accused Lancome of inviting "a Hong Kong and Tibet independence advocate to promote products", while mainland internet users threatened to boycott the brand.

Ho was a strong supporter of the 2014 Occupy protests, even willing to be arrested when police moved in to shut down the 79-day movement in Admiralty. She was also pictured meeting the Dalai Lama on her 39th birthday in May.

It was the threat of mainland customers potentially boycotting Lancome and possibly other beauty brands under L'Oreal, that it seems like Hong Kong was sacrificed to placate the mainland market, and Hong Kong people were not happy.

Knowing there would be protests today, several cosmetic brands closed their shops citing security reasons, including Lancome, Yves Saint Laurent Beaute, Helena Rubenstein, and Shu Uemura.

Denise Ho being escorted by police out of the Occupy protest

Protesters, including at least six pan-democratic lawmakers and Demosisto's Joshua Wong Chi-fung shouted, "Say no to self-censorship!" and "We are all Ho Wan-sze, say no to the mainland's hegemony!"

While Ho herself didn't make an appearance, she was interviewed by the BBC. She said she was "shocked and saddened" by Lancome's decision.

"As an international brand, it should stand firm on its core values and moral standards... It is not just about making money," Ho said.

On Monday she issued a statement, calling for Lancome to explain itself. But so far there's just been silence -- and closed shops.

Ho, in white shirt, met the Dalai Lama in May

It's hard to understand why Lancome chose Ho to be associated with the brand, knowing her political stance since at least 2014. It is naive of the brand to think Ho is only an artist -- she also has very strong political views and she's paying the price for it, with no opportunities for high-paying gigs on the mainland.

The incident also plainly shows how Lancome is desperately kowtowing to Beijing -- but again, if it wants to curry favour with the mainland market, surely it should have known that one shouldn't choose Ho to perform?

Heads will definitely roll in Lancome, but in the meantime someone has to come forward and explain the whole situation. But as this is Hong Kong, where transparency is hardly the norm, we expect more stony silence in the days to come...

Word of the Day: Bakugai

Japan is experiencing "bakugai", a new word for "explosive buying"

The Japanese yen is dropping even further, enticing hordes of Chinese travelers -- from China and Hong Kong -- to invade the Land of the Rising Sun.

They aren't really there to see the sights, but to snap up a lot of stuff.

And so the word of the year in Japan is "bakugai", which means "explosive buying".

During Golden Week, usually the first week of October last year, around 400,000 tourists from China descended on Japan and spent HK$6.3 billion ($8.13 million) in seven days.

That's A LOT of stuff.

Chinese consumers like to snap up rice cookers from Japan

I can attest a lot of Hong Kong people go to Japan because the flights are so cheap now and the drop of the yen further seduces them to go there to shop.

It can be anything from clothes, food, cosmetics and even toiletries.

The Japan National Tourist Agency has found 63 percent buy perfume and cosmetics, 55 percent on food, spirits and cigarettes, and 52 percent bought over-the-counter medicines and toiletries.

Some 37 percent buy electronic appliances like rice cookers and high-tech toilet seats, the most popular items to purchase.

Whenever my uncle goes to Japan, he has to buy a certain brand of toothpaste that is good for sensitive teeth. "Isn't Sensodyne OK?" I asked. Apparently not...

Cosmetics and toiletries are popular items the Chinese buy

He has to go to several pharmacies in order to pick up a dozen tubes, and even asked his niece to buy half a dozen or so for him when she went.

While my uncle hasn't quite explained to me why this Japanese toothpaste is so much more superior, the cache of buying it overseas makes it sound like a must-have product.

I'll just stick to my Sensodyne thanks...

In the meantime Hong Kong should adopt "bakugai" in its vocabulary too! Or are we past that phase now?