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?