With this post I am starting a series of updates on the books I am reading that could be useful to my connections here on LinkedIn.

One could ask, why read books in the age of GenAI and podcasts? Well, most importantly a good book can still be lots of fun, same as it was ten or hundred years ago. But there is also value of deep thinking and connecting the dots you can only ever get from a book, and the one I am sharing here is one of the best examples.

“The Japanese Consumer” by Penelope Francks is a unique source of insights in Consumer trends in Japan. It is written from a true historian perspective showing what New things appeared in society and economy in each period and what things have stayed relevant from earlier times until the very present day. Spoiler alert: the book clearly shows that if we look at the last couple hundred years, at least in the cities a lot of key Consumer activities and ways of being in Japan have been remarkably consistent. It is here that “dining out for pleasure at a commercial establishment have been an accepted practice long before Europe” (the book dates it to mid-17 century) so is it any wonder we have such an advanced eating and drinking industry in the country? It is here that mass production of clothing, books, utensils was well under way in Tokugawa time—with corresponding growth and sophistication of advertising which resulted in the creation one of biggest marketing industries in the world.

Of course, the book is also filled with examples of dichotomy of imported versus domestic products and their roles in everyday consumer life. The one that stuck with me is how bread is a food usually competing with onigiri and that’s why we mainly see sweetened or flavored bread in convenience stores as it is supposed to be eaten by itself and not as an ingredient for sandwich. There are many more fun and interesting stories in this book about consumer goods and different needs they satisfy, it wouldn’t be possible to recount them all here.

The book ends with a profound statement about the role of Consumption in Japan which “…continued to be practiced and justified not solely as a matter of satisfying individual wants, but also as an activity with ramifications for the community and nation as a whole”. That’s why Consumer Industry continues to be one of the best ways to learn and study Japan and understand more about the country and society—while also having lots of fun along the way! Read the book or at least any of its chapters and you will get lots of ideas for your work and everyday life.

Hope this was not a boring read and lets’s explore more next time!

*Originally published on LinkedIn here *