Trend: The Mobile Taste of the Beijing Games

Innovative ways of applying mobile devices give audience worldwide unique perspectives of the event.
Trend Description:
Not being able to launch 3G does not mean this year’s Olympics keeps  the hottest mobile media outside China. A bunch of companies are rolling out their mobile applications for the Games, which, if not becoming popular right away, carry [...]

Trend: Raw food

Healthy, eco-friendly and innovative, raw food is offering a new way to excite and engage customers.
Trend description
Interest in raw food diets is growing, as cooked food gets slated in the media. Raw food proponents believe that cooking food destroys nutrients and enzymes as well as altering chemicals, so that food no longer benefits the consumer, [...]

Trend: Informal Performance

Events previously shrouded in formal procedures are being replaced by semi-rehearsed, impromptu interventions that rely on audience participation.
Trend Description
New forms of entertainment are challenging traditional notions of what being an audience member involves. Static seating, ticketing, start times, staging, linear plots, perfectly rehearsed performances and passive audiences are all concepts that new entertainment companies are [...]

News: Article in Japan Inc. Magazine on Digital Shopping

Now that the Japan Inc. magazine has gone monthly once again, CScout Japan’s contributions will be ramped up as well. Look out for us every month in the Trends in Japan column, but be sure to check out the entire magazine as well by getting a subscription.

Read the rest of the post at the CScout [...]

Trend: Affordable Air Travel

New private planes are making bespoke, convenient air travel more accessible.
Trend Description
Affordable new planes known as Very Light Jets (VLJs) are hitting the aviation market, slashing the costs of private aviation and creating opportunities for new aviation businesses. A fraction of the price of traditional small planes, The Cessna Mustang and Cirrus ‘Jet’ are about [...]

Trend: OWND Cafe Brings O2 to Your K9

While we’d heard about oxygen tanks for dogs in Japan (and seen them in doghouse form), but a cafe in Tokyo is taking the idea and running with it.
The OWND Cafe (Oxygen, Water, Nutrition, Detox + Dog) in Yoyogi Uehara was closed for the day when I stopped by, but, being dog-less, I probably avoided [...]

Trend: Green Lifestyle Hotels

A host of eco-friendly hotels are opening across the world.

Trend Description:
Since 2006 we have continually reported on the growing importance of eco-friendly travel (please read our blog entries Eco Luxury Resorts, Green Upgrades and Eco Tourism).
Understanding that customers are now seeking sustainability in all parts of their lives, a wave of new build eco-hotels are [...]

Trend: Handset Hairstyles

Free cellphone-based makeovers target young female mobile users in Japan.
More signs indicate that virtual makeovers—using real photographic images—are on the verge of becoming a major trend. Last week we reported on Awaseba, the new PC-based virtual fitting room for online shops, now this week So-Net entertainment is launching a mobile-based site called “Hair Style,” that [...]

Trend: Mobile Payment at McDonalds in Japan

McDonald’s new cashless RFID system goes nationwide in Japan.
After nearly a year in development, McDonalds Japan has finally released it’s innovative new Kazasu Coupon (Contactless Coupon) loyalty and payment program, beginning with 175 stores and expanding gradually to its 3,800 nationwide stores by 2009.
Kazasu Coupon uses Felica RFID technology installed in [...]

Trend: Magazine Shopping

Japanese website Nekore transforms fashion magazines into catalogs.
Critics of Japan’s mainstream fashion magazines are quick to derail them as mere brand catalogs. Thanks to online shopping site, Nekore, they literally can be. Nekore users can simply enter the magazine title, page number, and placement of the item in demand and the Nekore staff will track [...]