Japan is rapidly changing and the age of the small, independent shopkeeper is slowly fading into the sunset. Chain and franchise stores are sprouting like weeds in their wake, with bulk-buying discount prices these ancient shopkeepers could never hope to attain from their costly and inefficient wholesale network.
So when is it time for a shopkeeper to pull the blinds down for the last time?
One might guess “Never” when walking through these blighted, out-of-metropolis shopping arcades sprinkled throughout this country.
Shoppers are scarce and purchases are usually limited to off-the-rack schlock for the elderly, a light bulb or box of detergent. For other purchases, most opt to buy at mega supermarkets and the ubiquitous shopping malls.
On a financial basis, the time to have closed these inefficient shops must have passed dozens of years ago. As cheap imports found their way into the Japanese marketplace, stores that depended on the insular local network – a strictly Japanese one – found themselves unable to compete.
Many of these small storeowners have long been operated by a wife, retired husband or unemployed sibling by day, while the younger, able-bodied men went off to a regular job in the metropolis. At night and on weekends they (the younger offspring) have often felt obligated to put on the family business hat.
This act of futility is a sentimental attempt to carry the family business forward to the next generation. The next generation, however, is clearly NOT going to answer the call.
These shopkeepers often own the building from which they operate, and that fact alone allows them to open their doors each day and sprinkle the storefront sidewalk with water in order to instill a false feeling of freshness to the business corpse.
It is commendable to work and to earn a living. But to survive in this highly competitive world we live in, action not sentiment will win the day. Each of these store owners have their community friends who stop by for idle chatter, a fag and a cup of brew. Profit seems to have been lost in the shuffle.
Japan is the second richest economy in the world. The infrastructure, even in the rural areas, far surpasses anything in Asia. That is is why, as an entrepreneur or businessman, you should want to have a presence here. This country is smaller than New York State, yet has 130 million educated people with money to spend or invest.
These sinking shopkeepers and their sleepy shops are a cheap, golden chance to get your economic foot in the doorway to Japan. Go where the money and the infrastructure is in place. Your rewards will can be exponential.
No doubt manga and anime have a strong if not eternal foothold in many cultures outside of Japan these days. While the majority of American adults, for example, wouldn’t be caught dead reading manga in public, their children’s’ lives are a universe removed from that sentiment.
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