The changing meaning of luxury in Japan

The middle-class consciousness that Japan was so famous for is being questioned. In the midst of this hype further confusion is caused by a perceived breakdown of traditional values such as the lifelong employment and the seniority based wage system. These changes are more than a trend or fashion. They are part of the social and demographic changes in Japan and the rest of the world, connected to such phenomena as the information age, the retirement waves of the baby boomer generation, the rising affluence among consumers, and the disappearance of clear segmentations. All these factors have led to a much more diversified surrounding for marketing products, and transformed the consumer with modest influence into a sophisticated and discerning consumer with substantial buying power (Silverstein and Fiske 2005: 9).
The term kakusashakai 格差社会, meaning a society with an income gap, has become a buzz word with political relevance. In the “lost decade” of the 90s, after the bursting of the asset price bubble, increasing social inequalities began to surface, betraying the international image of Japan as a country of equality and a population where 90% are seeing themselves belonging to the middle-class. A change in the demographic structure of an aging society with a declining birthrate can lead to a consciousness of perceived inequality (If we take a closer look at the development of the Gini coefficient, we can see that about 90% of the change in the last 10 years can be attributed to factors other than an actual change in income, namely the impact of changes in household membership and the aging population of Japan. For contemporary discussions on this topic see Tachibanaki 2005; Sugimoto 2003; Nihonsôgôkenkyûsho 2006; Hayashi 2005, and also Hashimoto 2006. The image that 90% of the Japanese used to view themselves as belonging to the middle class is analyzed critically by Sugimoto 2003: 35-46). Although the economy might have regained momentum and salaries are about to rise, this is not true for most of the part-time workers, leading to a strong polarization of living standards (Nikkei Konwakai 2005).
The transition from the bubble economy to the long economic slump, and now back to an economy of regained strength, left an enormous impact on the mind set of Japanese people (McCreery 2000: 29). The terms kachigumi (winners) and makegumi (losers) have appeared in the media and illustrate how Japanese see the effects of the “lost decade” on their society. In reality, the word kachigumi refers to at the most 1% of the Japanese population, but since these people are featured frequently on TV and in magazines, they appear to be a much larger group. Furthermore, the media portrays kachigumi-lifestyle as accessible to everyone, which has led to a perceived change in lifestyle role-models. Being a salaryman in a prestigious corporation has lost part of its appeal (Hui 2006: 42). After being disillusioned by the economical recession, continuing social turmoil have led to a desire for stability in Japan, where companies used to be the provider of social security. With additional impact arriving in recent years from global competition, and the anticipation of a time when performance is rewarded and not being persistent in adapting to predifined patterns of social selection, taking their lives into their own hands is becoming the new trend among consumers. Hakuhodo (2006b) sees people having developed a “creative sensibility” during the years of the “lost decade”, a kind of adaptive skill for consolidating and rebuilding their lives, giving way to the pursuit of distinctive lifestyles. Consumption in Japan has become more symbolic and meaningful, in contrast to the mass consumption, mass production times of the 1980s. Its is now a way to construct a personal identity.