- Give them "kawaii-ness"
Two of the most (over) used words in Japanese are "kawaii" (cute) and "sugoi" (great, cool) and the Japanese always look for opportunities to use these. So, if you want to please (younger) Japanese tourists, provide them with something that gives them a pretext to use either or both of these words. It is not hard by the way. I have heard Japanese scream "sugoiiiii" at the sight of bones and skulls in the prison museum... Or when reading a story about a woman who has been thrown into a deep fountain in the 16th century... (the Japanese are said to be so over correct, but I sometimes find their choice of words slightly, hmmmm, inappropriate? or just silly?). While fighting animals, not-so-common behaviour (such as shrugging your shoulders) and many other things are labelled as "kawaii". Basically - whatever you give young Japanese tourists, you won't be able to stop them from screaming "kawaii" and "sugoi". So that's an easy one! - Give them collectibles
While young Japanese tourists go for the "kawaii", older Japanese seem to prefer paper proof that they
have been to certain places and done certain things. In Japan any railway line, castle, trail, museum etc. provide rubber stamps with the place's logo. Ideally you provide them with a card to put the stamps on. If you run some castle-type-of-place for example, invent some circuit around the place, draw a map of it and print it on a card. Put a specific stamp into each room or other points of significance (like "the most Eastern point of the castle park"...). Hand out a card to each Japanese tourist and they will gladly follow the trail and collect their stamps. It's even more effective to give some incentive for collecting ALL stamps. Usually it's a 50% reduction on the re-entry fee (well, you know they are not likely to come back anyway). You will see that this very structured sort of entertainment has a great appeal with elderly Japanese tourists. Note that they also like to collect stamps on the train. So dear SFF managers, do provide your train staff (ticket clerks and the minibar vendors) with rubber stamps. It's a job-enrichment for your staff and will create additional turnover with Japanese tourists! By the way, I pledge guilty to having collected stamps as well. It was an attempt to understand its attraction, so cultural research. Haven't come to a conclusion though. - Give them Mobile accessories
The "keitai" (mobile phone) is a central part of social life. The Japanese like to decorate their (already super fancy) model with gimmicks. You find thousands of different pendants for sale here. Usually they follow the above described "kawaii-ness" rule or they have some local flair - or both. The prison museum in Abashiri for example would sell keitai-pendants depicting a run-away prisoner and a prison guard, the product being hand-made by prisoners. I suggest something in the line of "cow sitting on a piece of cheese" hand-made by your local farmer. But please refrain from offering gimmicks like "local youth smoking pot". They DO depict Swiss culture, but the Japanese are extremely wary of any type of drugs and don't want to be associated with them in any way. - Give them natto
Natto is one of the things that foreigners will probably never understand about Japan. Why would you want to eat something that is basically rotten soy beans for breakfast? I have tried it like three times and I can't even describe how disgusting it smells, looks, tastes! But fact is, natto is hugely popular in Japan and it's mostly eaten for breakfast, although they also use it to wreck other meals and dishes. So if you run a hotel, spoil your Japanese guests with a bowl of natto for breakfast or create that super edgy Natto-Fondue or Natto-Röschti... It should be a bit hard to get, but as I indicated, it's basically rotten soybeans. Get some of these beans and put them in your cellar to rot. Don't be surprised if neighbours complain about the smell, though. - Give them Anime figures
Japanese love Anime and its heroes (see the kawaii-ness article above). They like to assume that their anime figures like to travel too and love to buy articles that show either "Hello Kitty" or "Doraemon" on the beach in Okinawa, on a shinkansen to Tokyo, in the lavender fields of Furano or whereever. The preferred article are towels, so why not print some "Hello Kitty crossing the Kappelbrücke" or "Doraemon eating Fondue" towels? If you don't know who Doraemon is or if Hello Kitty makes you puke (that's the case with me by now...), don't worry. Heidi is THE best known anime figure of European descent and she is Swiss after all! By the way, did you know that Heidi has travelled to Sapporo (see picture). - Give them safety and punctuality
As hinted at in previous posts, the Japanese seem to have a preference for the organized, punctual and risk-free. That's probably one reason why Switzerland is one of the very top dream destinations here - because it's so ridiculously safe and trains are super punctual. So great natural conditions, not much to improve there. But please make sure you do not translate your brochures for adventure sports like bungee jumping, canyoning and the like into Japanese. It might damage the safe image of your destination. Any activity that you sell to your customers should have a clearly defined schedule with a lot of details (including photo stops of course). Free-style travelling is generally not much appreciated. There are those risk-seeking hitchhiking travellers, but they usually can't afford to come to Switzerland, so not your target group. If you are looking to make some extra money with Japanese tourists, try to hint at some minor risks (like sunburns) and immediately offer a solution (e.g. ultra-sunblock and sun gloves covering the entire arms - they are super popular here). You are sure to have a thriving business! - Give them sweets
At every train station there are several "omiyage" (souvenir) shops. The most popular article are sweets, very very sweet sweets. When Japanese people go travelling, their family
and colleagues at work expect them to bring home something edible. Boxes of sweets should be nicely wrapped in printed paper. Everything here is nicely wrapped and selling a plain box with just a picture of the product printed on it will seem very shabby. The more wrapped, the better. So wrap each and every sweet in the most lovely paper, put them in a beautiful box and wrap the box in even more delightful paper. And don't forget to put the souvenir in a pretty bag before you hand it over to your Japanese customer. By the way, almost all sweets here contain "azuki", a sweet red bean. So how about starting to grow them in Switzerland and add them to our chocolate and so on? - Give them super friendly
Service in Japan is notoriously superb and employees in any shop are smiling and bowing constantly and in a seemingly permanent happy, friendly, sweet mood. When customers enter they scream a loud "Irrashaimaseeeee" (welcome), they are not being pushy or following the customer around, but are there to support if you need them to, they wrap your purchased goods in lovely printed paper and put it into a cute little bag and thank you many times for kindly considering their store. They are not always competent, but you would never get annoyed about that, because they are just simply too sweet. NOW -imagine Japanese tourists entering a Swiss store!!! Not that Swiss shop assistants are always grumpy individuals, but they are not simply not as capable of hiding hang-overs, broken marriages, disgust for the customer in front etc. So they will never ever be able to provide the service level that Japanese tourists are used to. A German friend of mine who was tasked to take care of Japanese exchange students at her home University told me the story of a Japanese girl who went to H&M and called my friend afterwards in total despair. The guy at the cash desk had been unfriendly with her and she thought she had made some serious mistake... If you think about giving some intercultural training to your staff - I don't reckon they will be able to reach Japanese levels of friendliness. Better hire some Japanese staff for your customers. - Give them "purikura"
Anyone in Switzerland knows how crazy Japanese tourists are about taking pictures. They take them anytime, everywhere and people always need to be on the picture. Landscapes alone are boring and would not prove that they have actually been there. Striking a V-sign always looks really "kawaii", so when posing with Japanese, be sure to strike one. But besides taking pictures on their own, another Japanese picture obsession are "purikura" (J-inglish for "print club"). These are small, passport size pictures with various backgrounds. Purikura booths are ubiquitous in Japan and attract mainly girls. They take numerous pictures with their friends and edit them afterwards, adding little hearts, flowers or whatever gimmick. At tourist destinations you can choose various local scenes as a background. I couldn't resist making some at Mount Aso... Some purikura booths also provide costumes in which you can dress up. A purikura booth in Zermatt with Matterhorn backgrounds, Heidi's and goats as add-ons and traditional Swiss costumes to dress up with, how about that? - Give them fashion
The Japanese, especially young Japanese are not just fashionable, they are from from another planet, called "Planet Fashion". Walk in the streets of Zurich (priding itself as Switzerland's most fashionable) and any random Japanese city (not to speak of Tokyo) and you'll see the difference. Japan is daring, fashion-forward, often over-the-top, but always really, really progressive fashion-wise. Trying to compete is no option, failure would be certain. Reaching a fashion average like here is quite impossible and I have seen it nowhere else in the world. Hell, like this grandma I've seen recently, she's like mid 70's, but wears this stylish coat and her walking stick has a really cool flower design on it. Of course there are people who are not so well-dressed, but on average the Japanese's sense of fashion and style is really impressive. They really like to shop, but will surely find merchandise in Swiss shops less than exciting. How to still make some money? a) International designer brands - although these are available in Japan too, the Japanese are crazy enough about labels that they would feel the urge to buy them in Switzerland too. The opening of the new Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo recently attracted masses of women camping outside the night before. b) Vintage - it's very popular here and since it's already past fashion you can't make a fool of yourself by being a step behind. c) Swissness - something that is not necessarily current fashion, but originally Swiss (made). I've seen Swiss "Sennechutteli" (traditional mountain farmer's vest) being sold here for ridiculous amounts of money.
Well, these are some thoughts of mine on how to better cater for Japanese tourists. Obviously it's not all meant to be dead serious, but the underlying observations are real. What would be "no-gos" for Japanese tourists then? As indicated, I think the biggest problem is the service level / mentality and that is something that can not be changed on the fly I guess. Anything messy, unorganized and risky will not be appreciated either. As for prices, I have the impression that quality is the criteria N°1 and the price is less important. A big "no-go" are "Made in China" products also. Chinese products are considered inferior and the recent food scandals have strenghtened this image. I am sure an expensive "Swiss made" is much more attractive with Japanese tourists.
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