Category: Japan Business Setup

Sunisa Lee joined an impressive club on Day 6 of the Tokyo Games, becoming the fifth straight U.S. gymnast to win the individual final at the Olympics.

As she earned gold with teammate Simone Biles supporting from the stands, Lee headlined a superb day for Team USA. Caeleb Dressel and Bobby Finke—who attended the same college—swam to a gold, and two beach volleyball teams added another win.

Additionally, international stars Novak Djokovic and Luka Doncic continued their impressive runs in tennis and basketball, respectively. And a long drought ended for Ireland, too.

Here’s a recap of the biggest results from Day 6 in Tokyo. As always, it’s a mix of good and bad, featuring a heavy dose of Team USA.

Winner: Team USA in Beach Volleyball (x2)

As far as dreams of advancing out of pool play and into the knockout portion of the beach volleyball tournaments are concerned, Day 6 was a massive positive for Team USA.

On the women’s side, Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil were facing Kenya’s Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi in the second of their three pool-play matches. The Americans had already won their opener in dramatic fashion, but they have a very difficult matchup remaining against Brazil’s Ana Patricia and Rebecca. A win against Kenya would just about clinch a spot in the Round of 16, but a loss to Kenya would leave them in a very vulnerable position.

No need to worry about that latter scenario, though, because Claes and Sponcil blew out Kenya 21-8, 21-6. Considering overall point margin is the first tiebreaker for determining who advances and in what seed, it was a big win in more ways than one.

On the men’s side, Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser entered their final match of pool play with one win, one loss and no clue whether they would finish at the top or the bottom of their pool. A lopsided loss to Argentina’s Julian Azaad and Nicolas Capogrosso would have surely meant elimination, while a blowout win could have assured them no worse than second place in the pool and a ticket to the next round.

They landed somewhere in between with a close, three-set victory over the Argentinians.

Neither side led by more than three points in the opening set, which the Americans won 21-19. In the second set, Argentina gradually opened up an 18-12 lead before Team USA almost came all the way back. Though they failed to win that second set (18-21), Lucena and Dalhausser were able to carry that momentum into the final set for a 15-6 win.

Tiebreakers sent Lucena and Dalhausser to third in Pool D, but they should advance directly to the Round of 16 with a 2-1 record.

Loser: The 3 Swimmers Who Were Ahead of Bobby Finke After 750 Meters

The first men’s 800-meter freestyle final in Olympic history was an instant classic.

Down in Lane No. 8, Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri jumped out to a big lead within the first 100 meters and held onto that lead until the final 75 or so meters. That’s when Germany’s Florian Wellbrock overtook the Italian for first place.

With 50 meters to go, it appeared to be a three-man race with Wellbrock 0.11 seconds ahead of Paltrinieri and 0.33 seconds ahead of Romania’s Mykhailo Romanchuk. The man in fourth place was Team USA’s Bobby Finke, but at 1.52 seconds behind the leader, he was an afterthought.

Until he wasn’t.

From the second length through the thirteenth length, Finke swam at a metronome-like pace, going 50 meters between 29.1 and 29.36 seconds 12 consecutive times.

In the fourteenth length, he trimmed that down to 28.75 seconds.

In the next-to-last length, he swam a slightly faster 28.59 seconds.

But he must have saved a Mario Kart mushroom for the final 50 meters, because he swam that final length in 26.39 seconds, zooming past the Romanian, German and Italian as if they weren’t even moving. Just an absurd closing stretch for the gold medal after swimming nearly half a mile.

Winner: Florida Gators Swim Team

Day 5 was an exciting day of swimming for the University of Virginia with teammates Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass taking silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 200-meter individual medley. And the Cavaliers celebrated another medal on Day 6 with Paige Madden swimming the second leg of the silver-medal winning women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay. 

However, Day 6 in the pool was even more exciting for the University of Florida.

That’s where Bobby Finke will return to college with his gold medal in the men’s 800-meter freestyle, and it’s where Caeleb Dressel went before setting the Olympic record in the men’s 100-meter freestyle.

For Dressel, it was his second gold medal in Tokyo and the fourth of his Olympic career, and it was a nail-biter.

He led the entire race and appeared to be in a relatively commanding lead with 25 meters to go, but Australia’s Kyle Chalmers closed the gap in a hurry. Had it been a 100.5-meter race, the Aussie probably would have won. But Dressel got his hand to the wall 0.06 seconds ahead of Chalmers and set a new Olympic record of 47.02 seconds.

Shortly after getting out of the pool, Dressel joined Michele Tafoya to watch the replay of his wife and parents watching his race before getting to do a video chat with them.

I don’t know about your house, but it got dusty in here in a hurry. This whole “no fans because of COVID-19 restrictions” situation is a colossal bummer to put it lightly, but that was a heart-melting moment.

Loser: Ireland’s Gold-Medal Drought in Rowing

Ireland has sent at least 25 athletes to each Summer Olympics since 1960, but gold has mostly eluded the Emerald Isle over the years.

Prior to Tokyo, the Irish had won just five gold medals in the past six decades, three of which were won by swimmer Michelle Smith at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. And up until a silver medal five years ago in Rio, Ireland had never won an Olympic medal of any type in rowing.

But in the men’s lightweight double sculls, Ireland’s Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy narrowly edged out Germany’s Jason Osborne and Jonathan Rommelmann for the gold. The Germans jumped out to a fairly significant lead in the first 500 meters, but O’Donovan and McCarthy gradually caught up and pulled ahead over the final 1,500.

For what it’s worth, the subsequent women’s lightweight double sculls final was much more dramatic. Ireland won the men’s event by 0.86 seconds, but there was only a 0.50-second gap between first-place Italy and fourth-place Great Britain on the women’s side, as well as a 0.01-second gap separating Great Britain from Netherlands’ bronze medal.

And before we move on from rowing, let’s also be sure to mention Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic. Their gold medal in men’s pair in Rio was Croatia’s first ever in rowing, and they repeated as gold medalists on Day 6. It’s the first time since Team USA’s Paul Costello and John B. Kelly Sr. took gold in both 1920 and 1924 that teammates repeated as Olympic champions in this event.

Winner: Sepp Straka, Austrian Golfer

It will be three more days until any Olympic medals are awarded for golf. However, the first round of the men’s tournament took place on Day 6, and the early leader is a little-known golfer from Austria.

Per CBS Sports, 36 of the 60 golfers in the field had gold-medal odds of 125-1 or better.

But if you bet on the guy who shot eight under par in the first round, you’ve got to be loving your 150-1 odds on Sepp Straka right about now.

Though he has been part of the PGA Tour for a couple of years now, Straka has only played in two majors in his career, placing 28th in the 2019 U.S. Open and 66th in the 2020 PGA Championship. In other words, if you’re the type of golf fan who only watches Saturdays and Sundays of the majors, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Straka before now.

However, after a bogey-free opening round in which he had eight birdies in the span of 15 holes, Straka could be well on his way to becoming a household name.

That’s only if he can avoid what happened to the first-round leaders in Rio, though.

In the men’s tournament in 2016, Australia’s Marcus Fraser also shot a rather stunning eight under in the first round before shooting par the rest of the way for a fifth-place finish. And in the women’s tournament, Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn led after Day 1 (six under) before withdrawing with a knee injury on Day 3.

Considering 2016 was the first year with golf at the Olympics in more than a century, that’s the extent of the history we can reference on the matter. But what a story it would be if Straka is able to ride his hot start to a medal.

Loser: Attempts to Eliminate Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic is on the brink of two medals in Tokyo.

To begin Thursday, Djokovic breezed through his quarterfinal in men’s singles. The world No. 1 dispatched Japan’s Kei Nishikori—the bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Games—6-2, 6-0.

“He was defending amazing today—everything deep—and I was trying to stay with him but I couldn’t,” Nishikori said, per Andrew Dampf of the Associated Press. “I thought I was playing OK, but my serving was bad today and he was attacking every (time).”

Djokovic’s semifinal foe will be fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany.

But the Serbian superstar wasn’t finished. After a short break, Djokovic returned to the court with Nina Stojanovic for the mixed doubles quarterfinals. They quickly beat Germany’s Laura Siegemund and Kevin Krawietz 6-1, 6-2.

Next up for Djokovic/Stojanovic will be Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev of the Russian Olympic Committee.

Regardless of the results, Djokovic is guaranteed a medal match in the competitions. But if he wins both—alongside Stojanovic in one—Djokovic will have a chance at a double gold in Tokyo.

Winner: Sunisa Lee’s Moment in the Spotlight

Sunisa Lee headed to Tokyo with medal expectations in the women’s all-around final. And when U.S. star Simone Biles withdrew from the competition because of mental health concerns, Lee had a clear path to an individual gold medal.

The 18-year-old from Minnesota is now a legend.

Lee posted a 57.433 to edge Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade (57.298) and Russian Olympic Committee duo Angelina Melnikova (57.199) and Vladislava Urazova (56.966) for gold.

During the final rotation, Andrade stepped out of bounds twice in her floor routine. The errors assured Lee of the highest spot on the podium. Andrade took home silver, becoming the first-ever Brazilian woman to medal in gymnastics. Melnikova ended with the bronze.

Lee became the fifth consecutive U.S. woman to win the all-around competition, joining Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008), Gabby Douglas (2012) and Biles (2016).

Jade Carey, who replaced Biles for the United States, finished with a 54.199 score in eighth place.

Loser: Slowing the Luka Doncic, Slovenia Hype Train

Three days earlier, Luka Doncic set the record for most points (48) in an Olympic debut. If you’re a glass-half-full person, the good news for Japan is he only scored 25!

But in a 35-point drubbing of the host nation, the Dallas Mavericks guard put together a strong outing. Doncic shot 8-of-15 for his 25 points, adding seven rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals in Slovenia’s comfortable 116-81 win.

Through two rounds, Doncic is the leading scorer in the competition. It’s possible, even likely, he’ll remain atop that leaderboard.

Doncic shouldn’t have all the attention, though.

“It’s not only Luka,” said Japan’s Rui Hachimura, who plays for the Washington Wizards and had 34 points in defeat. “They have a lot of guys who can hoop. … They’re a great team. They beat us.”

Zoran Dragic scored 24 points, and three others hit double figures. Seven players had multiple assists, and Slovenia outrebounded Japan 54-33. Mike Tobey, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year at Virginia in 2014-15, grabbed a game-high 11 boards.

If the rest of the roster keeps complementing Doncic at that level, Slovenia is every bit a gold-medal contender.

Like millions of other Tokyoites enduring month after month of “soft lockdown,” Megumi Takesawa has been stocking up on non-perishables such as canned tuna, tomatoes, and corned beef as well as boil-in-the-bag curry. She also stores a wider selection of alcohol in her pantry now, from bottles of wine and sake to cases of beer, as dining out and gathering with colleagues after work for drinks have become a rarity.

Meanwhile, the 39-year-old office worker says she’s spending less on tickets for live concerts, movies, and theater performances, and has substantially cut down on vacation expenses, as long-distance travel is frowned upon. She also tries to buy books from local bookstores so the smaller shops won’t go out of business, and, in order to stay fit while working remotely, she’s taken up jogging.

Some hygiene practices that have become commonplace over the past year to curb the risk of contagion will likely stick, Takesawa says.

“I think I’ll be carrying around disinfectant sprays and wet wipes regularly even after the pandemic,” she says.

COVID-19 is upending Japanese shopping habits like never before. Stay-at-home requests, social distancing measures, and the surge in remote work have seen consumers reprioritizing what is essential.

Healthy dietary and lifestyle choices, as well as demand for home cooking and baking, have seen products such as protein powder and flour fly off the shelves while the ubiquitous use of face masks has hammered cosmetics sales. And with physical contact being largely avoided, more people are swapping supermarkets for online shops.

A Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo’s Nihombashi neighborhood is closed during the state of emergency in April 2020. | KYODO

For corporations buoyed or burdened by the phenomenon, the big question they are asking themselves is whether these trends are temporary or here to stay.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Toshimitsu Kiji, a data analyst at market research firm Intage Inc. The company collects weekly sales data from approximately 4,000 retail outlets nationwide, including supermarkets, convenience stores, and drug stores, to assess consumer trends.

According to figures it compiled for the whole of 2020, sales of face masks, disinfectants, and thermometers jumped by 380%, 296%, and 255% year on year, respectively. While that may be unsurprising considering the ongoing pandemic, more unexpected products also made its top-30 list of highest-selling goods last year.

At the sixth place on its list is “malt beverages,” which grew by 173%. Behind the spike was a social media-backed campaign purporting the health benefits of Milo, the malt-based chocolate drink produced by Nestle. Its sudden popularity saw the powdered product disappear from supermarkets, with opportunists selling them at a premium on resale sites.

“Snacks produced by toymakers” come in at No. 7, with sales climbing 154% compared to 2019. Kiji says the phenomenon was partially the result of people flocking to snacks that come with stickers and other toys that feature characters from “Demon Slayer,” the manga and anime series that was the basis for a film released last year became the biggest-ever box-office hit in Japanese history.

Protein powder follows in eighth place with a 141% surge.

“From around June last year, young women began buying soy protein powders in order to stay in shape during the pandemic,” Kiji explains. “Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while remote working has been a big topic affecting shopping trends.

“Others on the list include non-perishables such as frozen seafood as well as whipping cream and baking mix for home cooking purposes. With people spending more time at home, we saw sales of detergent, deodorants, and dehumidifiers grow,” he says. “And with restaurants facing closures and asked to curtail business hours during a state of emergencies, alcohol sales have been robust.”

Sales of face masks in Japan rose 380% in the 2020 year on year, according to figures compiled by market research firm Intage Inc. | REUTERS

Meanwhile, cosmetics took a hit in 2020, with lipstick faring the worst with sales down by more than half at 42% compared to the previous year. Sales of face blushes, foundations and makeup bases also plunged to 63%, 68%, and 72% year on year, respectively, with fewer opportunities to go out and people encouraged to work from home. Drugs for motion sickness fell out of demand as trips became less frequent, while better hygiene over virus fears put a damper on common cold medicine.

“Sales of chewing gum and candies — things often purchased by office workers to stay alert during the day — have also fallen,” Kiji says.

So which products are going to maintain their edge when the pandemic subsides?

“It essentially comes down to goods that consumers feel are useful,” Kiji says. “For example, recent data suggests hair treatment products are gaining popularity. If people feel they can take care of their hair by themselves rather than frequently visiting beauty salons, that could become a lasting trend. The same goes for bath additives. If consumers feel they’re effective in relaxing and rejuvenating, they will continue using them even when they can freely go out without the worry of contagion.”

A report on the impact COVID-19 is having on Japanese consumer behavior compiled by Nomura Research Institute (NRI) says stockpiling of non-perishables will likely decelerate as the pandemic subsides, but home cooking will still be popular and interest in healthy eating is expected to continue growing. Sales of large television sets and other home entertainment audio-visual systems are expected to remain strong, while the outdoor activities boom may see demand for SUVs rise.

The outbreak is understandably accelerating spending on online services as well — not only shopping for daily necessities, but also for games and video-on-demand streaming and rental services.

Hiroyuki Hayashi, a consultant at NRI and an expert on consumer trends, says the ratio of those surveyed by the think tank who are subscribers to Amazon Prime, for example, jumped by 6 percentage points from 16% to 22% in the two months from March to May last year.

“Prior to that, it took two years for the ratio of subscribers to grow 3 percentage points, so this was quite a surprise,” he says. “It shows how the first state of emergency issued last April turbocharged digitalization in Japan.”

Online shopping, banking, and free video-streaming services such as YouTube have all seen strong demand, Hayashi says, although there’s a catch.

“Online shopping activity remains strong amid the pandemic, but the number of money users spends per transaction has decreased,” he says. “Whereas people used to buy in bulk when shopping online, they are now buying more frequently in smaller quantities.”

Surveys conducted by NRI in December 2018 and December 2020 showed that the number of times respondents said they shopped online annually grew from 33.8 to 37.4. In terms of the amount spent per transaction, however, the figure dropped to ¥2,136 from ¥2,484.

“When analyzing the number of transactions and payment amounts, we notice purchasing activity is most robust among youths,” Hayashi says. “Those in their teens, for example, spend roughly ¥600 on average per transaction, while those in their 20s typically spend around ¥1,000.”

China leads the pack with one of the most sophisticated digital ecosystems in the world. According to Mckinsey & Company’s China consumer report 2021, the nation has more than 850 million internet users, with mobile payment penetration triple that of the United States. It also boasts the world’s largest e-commerce market, accounting for about 45% of global retail e-commerce transaction value in 2018.

The report says around 55% of Chinese consumers are likely to continue buying more groceries online after the peak of the crisis. The consulting giant said that, according to its mobile survey, 74% of Chinese citizens increased their online grocery visit frequency during the pandemic, and 15% said they will increase visits after its peak has passed.

Japan, in the meantime, has been a slow starter when it comes to digital payments. Cash remains king, and contactless transactions including credit cards and smartphone apps account for only 20% of personal spending, according to 2016 data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. That’s compared to over 95% in South Korea and nearly 70% in the United Kingdom.

Hayashi of NRI says surveys show that even during the pandemic, the Japanese have been relatively hesitant compared to other developed nations in using services such as online learning, telemedicine, and smart speakers. But when users were asked whether they plan on utilizing these services after the pandemic, a large portion was optimistic.

“Digitalization will be here to stay,” he says. “Japanese tend to be reluctant to spend money on new services, but once they do and realize the benefits they can enjoy, they tend to become loyal customers.

“Internet shopping will also take a stronghold, especially when movement has been restricted for so long,” he says.

“There’s no comparable event in modern history that has impacted consumer behavior at this scale,” Hayashi adds, expressing concern that a growing digital divide and financial hardships endured by many during the crisis could exacerbate economic inequality.

“I fear the economic fallout from the pandemic will widen the wealth gap.”

The outbreak is already taking a severe toll. According to the health ministry, as of early April, more than 100,000 people have been dismissed or seen their employment contracts terminated without renewal.

Under the circumstances, job insecurity is likely to remain high especially among workers in the manufacturing, retail, and restaurant industries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. That, in turn, is impacting consumer behavior.

In order to understand how the pandemic is changing consumer psychology, online market researcher Macromill Inc. launched its own consumer segment — the With COVID-19 Segment — in December. It features six segments based on analyzing the company’s 1.3 million consumer panel.

These include average consumers (33%) who are adapting to the new lifestyle yet feeling stressed and inconvenienced, as well as those who are “home nesting” to avoid virus risks but are struggling with their social lives (14%) and feeling financially pinched (14%). The latter two segments are mostly women in their 40s and below.

Then there are the digital natives in higher income brackets who have quickly adapted to the “new normal” (15%) and those who have taken the pandemic in stride (11%) without letting the crisis get in the way of their personal lives and hobbies. The latter segment is led by men in their 40s to 60s.

Finally, there’s the segment composed mainly of men in their 30s and younger who are feeling inconvenienced by virus-induced restrictions but nevertheless continue to go out and meet with like-minded people (13%).

Tomoyuki Shibuya, a senior consultant at Macromill, says half of the six segments representing roughly a third of all consumers surveyed are enduring a lower quality of life amid the outbreak compared to the rest that is typified by older men and high-income white-collar types.

“Those feeling financially strained are most often members of small to midsize businesses that are facing the wrath of the pandemic,” he says. “This divide will likely remain after the crisis. Japan has long been described as a middle-class society, but that may no longer be the case.”

Source: Japan Times