Gustavo ドリ Rodrigues, 3061037
Wow!!! It's Expensive. (but for Japanese it worth)
Why people go to a place that only has expensive things? To buy, of course. The westernization of Japan, like Joseph J. Tobin explains in his article is more like domestication. They take the western culture and transform it their way. The department stores in Japan are a example of a place that sells a west with a Japanese face and sell the japaneses things with a look of a foreigner. It shows the duality of the japaneses culture. The department stories came from the Togukawa era but growed up in the Meiji era because of the western products. But now they are a place of massive consumption and keeper of japanese culture. How is that possible? I will try to explain in the nexts paragraphs.
Why people go buy things in a departo if they are expensive. Like most of the Japanese aspects, they are based in a 'High context culture'. It means that most of the things don't really matter what it is but the value we put on it. When you buy something in a departo in Japan and give to Japanese, he or she will really enjoy, no matter what it really is. It will happen because there is a status related with the department stores, most of the things are from famous brands and most of them are peculiar and special stuff like a different kind of food. The department stores in Japan are the best place to buy presents in Japan. Because is very important in japanese society to keep a 'mutual reliable relationship'. If you spend a great amount of money with somebody you show that you care about this person. That's why the Johnny Walker lowers his sells when it became cheaper. If you gonna buy a present the money that you spend on it is more important than the present itself.
One of the most interesting things is how the departo cares about the maintence of the japanese culture. After a long research with the japanese population they offer courses and manuals teaching how the japanese should live, mixing the west and the east. I saw a lot of food courses and a kimono course, teaching japanese people how to be japanese. I said west and the east because sometimes they give english or french courses too.
A thing that surprises me was the Temple upside SOGO departo. They mixed religion with shopping. In Brasil it's not possible because we are a catholically country and they don't stimulate the consumption of material things. Its very interesting that japanese can mix it and transform it in a thing in accord with capitalism. We can say that a departo store is one the higher levels of capitalism. The selling is all based in brands. Every big western brand has a stand in a japanese department store, and we have just a few japanese. But most of the products they sell are not western at all. When I was looking the clothes was easy to see that we don't use it that way in Europe , in America or even in Brasil. Even the toys are different, but all have a western brand on them.
The food is another important topic because I can say that 99% of the food is japanese. Even when they have another country food it tastes like japanese. Millie R. Creighton, author of the article about departo, explains that they have to change to adapt to the japanese taste. I tried a pizza e it really doesn't look or taste like a Italian pizza, but the japanesse consume like it was. It's interesting to think that it happens in all countries because people have different tastes. In Brasil there is a lot of japanese food` that doesn't exist in Japan . They create things to sell as eastern and we buy because is exotic.
Other interesting point is the `self exotism`. With so many western things, the japanese become to be the exotic. The same thing happens in Brasil with things we sell as brasilian, like capoeira and carnival. To most of brasilians , nowadays, this kind of thing is exotic, but it makes the value of things increase. We became more proud to show it as a brasilian thing, like happens with the japanese culture.
In Brasil we don't have that kind of store. We have shopping's like the one we can see in Lalaport but for the brasilian way of life, the disposition of things n a department store is not very good. Brasilians like to enter the store, proof, stay for a while and they prefer stores that are specific of one brand. In Brasil the stores are more silent, trying to stop the noise. But departo are a bit crowded with to much noise. There are too many people buying at the same time. For me, as a Western, there's no glamour in buying in a department store, but for japanese the glamour is different. They really believe in the importance of a departo and it makes all the difference.
--
Sejam legais Uns com os Outros
Gustavo Dore
gustavodore@gmail.com
