It may come as no surprise to hear that Japanese high school students topped the list for being the most aware of brand goods compared to their counterparts in other countries.
According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the Japan Youth Research Institute conducted a survey of 5,394 high school students in Japan, the United States, China and South Korea.
The survey says that Japan ranked highest when it came to the question about whether students are influenced by advertisements on TV and in magazines. 56.5% said yes, while the figure for the United States, China and South Korea stood between 32.6 and 45.9 ％.
Although no figures are given in the article, “Japanese high school kids were also found to be most sensitive to fashion, ranking at the top [for positive responses] to such questions as: do you want to mimic celebrity fashions; do you refuse to wear out-of-date outfits?; and do you feel rich by owning brand goods?”
However, there is news that Japanese youth are gradually starting to view money as less important, compared to 13 years ago when a similar survey was conducted in 1995. Apparently the number of Japanese high school kids who think they can buy power with money dropped from 49.5％ to 29.1％ , while those who want to have rich friends fell from 31.1％ down to 18.6％.
However, with Japan’s obsession with brand goods still prevalent (50% of Louis Vuitton sales are made in Japan), it is clear that there is a long way to go before Japan’s youth becomes less money orientated and problems such as Enjokosai, compensated dating with school kids, become a thing of the past.
The Mainichi Shimbun article:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080409p2a00m0na018000c.html
Blog:
Other posts by Anna:
