Japan Consumer Marketing Research conducted a three-country survey in July 2004, targeting Internet users in Japan, China, and Korea.
First, as a barometer for the state of consumption, let us take a look at the fluctuations in household expenditures compared to a year ago. For Japanese household expenditures, household spending increased 8 points compared to the prior year. Households where expenditures increased exceeded households where there was a decrease, which can be taken as a sign of an upturn trend in consumption. On the other hand, although consumption in Japan has rallied compared to the dull consumer buying over the past 5 years, spending in Japan pales in comparison to expenditures in China and Korea, where consumers have been very active.
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To identify the attributes of the leading consumers in each nation, we categorized consumers that showed increased consumption together with their demographic attributes (such as age, generation, life-stage) and income. As a result, for all three nations, there were obvious differences based on gender, generation, and income group. In viewing the trends for the 3 nations, it becomes clear that the group leading consumption differs in each country.
| Who is leading consumption? -- Household expenditure changes by country and age |
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In Japan, the expenditures of the new generation of women, the "female post-bubble generation," is expanding.
In China, the "female 70's generation," "high-income group," is taking the spending lead while in Korea, the "emergency action generation" (born in the late 1950's) are now the prominent proponents of consumption. |
