Hiking and enjoying the outdoors is experiencing a big boom in Japan, especially amongst young women. Dubbed “Yama Girls” (yama is the Japanese word for mountain), the women often wear the latest hip hiking fashion – hi-function tights or shorts, and a “yama-ska” (a miniskirt especially designed to be worn with these for hiking) or maybe a “yama-one-pi” (a dress for hiking).
I was struck when I first came to Japan what a mountainous country it is (over 70% of the country) and I immediately set out to explore the beautiful trails. Hiking has long been popular here, especially with seniors, as a way of keeping healthy and enjoying the outdoors. But with many young people taking up the sport, the number of hikers continues to grow. There are now several female-only hiking clubs and this year 43,400 people climbed Mount Fuji, double the number a decade ago.
All this means continuing business opportunities in this sector. A recent research White Paper of Leisure, by Japan Productivity Centre, claimed 12.3 million hikers in Japan, up 110% from the previous year for the third straight annual increase. As a result, Yano Research Institute has reported that outdoor goods sales grew 3.4% to JPY136 billion in 2009.
The market for trendy outdoor clothes is also spilling over into urban life and I sit in the hairdressers reading magazines featuring all the latest gear and gizmos to take to events like music festivals. These illustrate the Japanese consumer’s passion for a wide variety of interesting colours (especially from women), good design and quality. The market here is demanding and it is often a good idea to localise for Japan by adjusting sizes, developing new products etc.
Another spill-over from sports to everyday life is the rise of “functional underwear” or “compression wear”, designed to reduce stress on joints and stimulate circulation. Women are wearing these as part of colourful, layered outfits and this market segment is also showing healthy growth.
The emergence of a distinct women’s sports market is also very much in evidence in the running market, where “bi-joggers” (a mix of “jogger” and the Japanese word for beautiful) are creating a market for fashionable running wear. As I was plodding around the 5km route which goes round Tokyo’s Imperial Palace today, I saw several women wearing “runska” (running skirts). Since the launch of the Tokyo Marathon in 2007, the numbers of joggers have increased dramatically, fuelling increases in sales for running apparel and shoes. The White Paper of Leisure states that 25.5 million people in Japan jogged or entered running events in 2008, up 25% from 2005.
This August, the Japanese Government launched a 10 Year Strategy this year for developing the nation’s sport. This includes developing new facilities, including 300 new sports clubs. Possibly another business opportunity for UK companies here?
UK Trade & Investment in Japan can help you explore the potential in the Japanese sports and leisure market. We can provide market research and advice on entering the Japanese market, through our OMIS service. We can also help introduce you to potential local business partners. For more information, please contact melanie.barlow@fco.gov.uk.
Mel Barlow
UK Trade & Investment
British Embassy Tokyo
2 comments
Comment by Steve Crane posted on
This post reminds me of an experience I had this summer. I took the chance to escape the heat and humidity of Tokyo at the weekend and headed to the beach at Chiba looking for some peace, tranquillity and cool air. As the train made it’s way from the city I started to notice the steady influx of young Japanese people wearing ‘surf wear’ as we stopped at stations along the route. The general look was typically casual ‘surf style’ but on closer inspection it was clear that a huge amount of effort, time and money had been put into perfecting the look. Not just clothes, but hats, bags, accessories, trolleys, surfboards and cool boxes, make up and probably the odd dose of fake tanning cream. I overheard a very lively debate about Hiza, Koshi and Mune which I think was reference to wave size (Knee, waist and chest). As we reached the beach I was amazed by the sheer numbers and size of the surfing culture, there were imported VW camper vans, high handlebar chopper bicycles (like the ones Raleigh used to make in the UK in the 70’s), beachside BBQ’s playing reggae music, and surf shops renting and selling boards and wet suits/accessories to long lines of patient young people … I felt like I had stepped out of Japan and straight into California, Hawaii or even Newquay (except everybody on the beach was Japanese!).
I could not help thinking about the business opportunities here, there were literally thousands of young Japanese people participating in this beach/surf culture, and clearly spending very large amounts of money to be part of that scene. The most ironic thing (but also enlightening too) was that on the particular day I visited the sea was a flat as a pancake!, but somehow that didn’t seem to be important to the people there ……. actually doing any surfing was not the main propriety, being part of the scene and having the look seemed to be what it was all about!
Comment by David Morton posted on
Good to read about the popularity of hiking increasing with younger people. In my years hiking in the west of Tokyo I had to get used to elderly ladies bounding past me, always dressed perfectly for the conditions. It doesn't seem that well known that you can leave Tokyo on a Sunday morning and within a couple of hours be sitting on your own having lunch on top of a fairly serious hill.
Along the same lines as the earlier post, I remember being on Izu one weekend and turning the corner onto a beach, completely full of scuba divers, so many in fact that there were queues to get in to the sea. Maybe some didn't even bother. But it occurred to me that whoever had supplied the scuba gear would have been doing alright, because there was a lot of scuba gear...