Postmodernism in Japan—the development of a mature consumer behavior

The high-growth phase in Japan influenced all aspects of private life. The baby boomers, as Higashi (2004) points out, were the icons of their time. Security and a sense of belonging to a large corporation, the “typical” middle-class lifestyle, was idealized as the norm for ordinary lives in the second half of the 20th century. The job was the primary identity for the man and marriage, family and raising the children the primary role attributed to the woman (The model of the company and family as primary identity is not uniquely Japanese. See for example Helgesen, Sally, 1998: Everyday Revolutionaries: Working Women and the Transformation of American Life, Doubleday, New York 1998, describing the typical model of middle-class life as a normal condition of life in a post-modern industrial society. Also refer to Whyte, William H., 1961: The Organization Man, Penguin Books, London 1961). Not the ie-system (an extended patriarchal household) but the nuclear family became the new model, which is now challenged by a growing number of singles as late marriages increase and birth rates are declining (McCreery 2000: 247: “As in other parts of the world, ideals that took root in the 1950s have been radically challenged by the impact of consumerism on the home as well as the market place. [...] In Japan, as elsewhere, roles of husband and wife associated with the new-model nuclear family popularized in the fifties were the products of modern industrial economies shaped to meet the needs of mass production.”)
McCreery (2000) sees parallels to other capitalist societies and thinks that the key to understanding the transition of Japan from a modern society into a post-modern one lies in seeing that consumer demand led directly to

“[...] habits and values at odds with the disciplines that industry demands of its workers. Self-sacrifice and willing obedience validated by a sense of belonging have been challenged by advertising images offering instant gratification and encouraging consumers to seek satisfaction of their own personal uniquely desires. [...] The idea, that if happiness can't be bought, the next best thing is readily available to those who can pay the price has eroded the core values of modern, industrial middle class life. Delayed gratification, and strong group loyalties no longer seem both desirable and inevitable. [...] “The new breed, as a smaller generation in a nation whose wealth and economic power seemed destined to number one, could afford to be self-indulgent [..] their designer hand bags and something crystal lifestyles were said to be post-modern.”  (McCreery 2000: 248)

The new breed was free to demand more of the nice side of life and even question the lifetime employment system in favor for job hopping. The different mind-set was caused by more disposable income and a higher demand in the labor market. The collapse of the bubble crushed this lifestyle and left them frustrated as they began to feel the pressure from the new economic conditions. Life became increasingly centered solely on consumption and marriage and children ceased to be the only socially acceptable roles. Single attitudes spread even to those who did marry, leading to a declining birthrate. The term “something crystal” is referring to the book by Yasuo Tanaka, who won the Bungei Award for his debut novel ‘’Nantonaku Kurisutaru,’’ (sort of crystal; the original translation of the book title in English is “Something Crystal”) in 1980. (Tanaka, Yasuo「田中康夫」(1981): Something Crystal「なんとなく、クリスタル」, shinchousha「新潮社」, Tokyo 1985). The main character Uri belongs to the young generation of Japan, exhibiting a totally westernized lifestyle: she likes western food, listens to western music and prefers to dress in western clothes. The special feature about the novel are the approximately 400 footnotes that describe in detail and with a sense of irony the brands, restaurants and shops encountered in the story.
During the bubble economy, many Japanese people, based on the prevailing view that consumption was a virtue, were embracing the mass-production, mass consumption society that was the dominant lifestyle then (Danke 2005: 8). Sugimoto (2003) sees the start of diversification in the 1980s. Previously manufacturers sold models standardized for mass consumption, successfully promoting them through sales campaigns and advertising, but this strategy became ineffective as consumers started to demand products that appeal to them on a more personal level and became more unpredictable, selective and inquisitive, not like the uniform mass consumers of the pre-bubble times (Sugimoto 2003: 8-9).
Fujita (1984) suggests the emergence of shoushu (小衆), individualized, divided and small-unit masses set into contrast with taishuu (大衆), undifferentiated, uniform and large-scale masses (See Fujioka, Wakao「藤岡和賀尾夫」(1984): Farewell to the masses. How to read the age of sensibility「さよなら、大衆。感性時代をどう読むか」, PHP Reserach Center「PHP研究所」, Tokyo 1984). The advertising company Hakuhodo (1985) sees the term bunshuu (分衆) or segmented masses, as better suited to describe this new consumer behavior than the conventional image of homogenous masses (See Hakuhodo (1985): The birth of the segmented masses「「分衆」の誕生」, Hakuhodo Insititute for Live and Living「博報堂生活総合研究所」, Tokyo 1985).
As society in Japan changed, it became increasingly difficult to imagine the features of consumers. Seeing the Japanese as stereotypes of rational-choice economic animals that respond to market dictates in a similar way like their European and American counterparts is seen by McCreery (2000) as simplifying and missing the point. He instead proposes a model of the Japanese as being neither too “western” nor too exceptional (See McCreery 2000: 258. He describes a model with three main characteristics: ( 1 ) Japan is a modern nation affected by the same global trends, opportunities and problems as other nations. ( 2 ) Japanese responses are constrained by institutional and material frameworks specific to Japan, which are not uniquely Japanese, if only in their concentration on one geographical place, and ( 3 ) there are specifically Japanese ways of perceiving what has been going on in Japan, which are influenced by tradition and its transformations). Like other nations he sees Japan as a post-modern economy in respect to changes that have been made in the sources of economic value, from hardware to software, from products to services, from things to information, and from substance to style. Demographics alone have ceased to be a strong predictor of individual lifestyles (McCreery 2000: 259).