THEY may be putting off the new car purchase and the long-haul holiday this year, but Japanese consu...

1. Japanese confectionery industry robust in recession.
THEY may be putting off the new car purchase and the long-haul holiday this year, but Japanese
consumers are finding that they cannot do without all their little luxuries. For the 25th consecutive
month, confectionery sales increased in Japan in January. In contrast, the Japanese economy
contracted at its fastest rate in 35 years in the October-December quarter, wholesale prices fell
1.1% in January, the steepest fall in close to six years, and sales at Japan's department stores This is
a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store
is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department
stores. Â were down 9.1% on the same period last year. That figure was the worst ever for the month
of January and the 11th straight month of decline. But while Japan's famously sweet-toothed
consumers were skipping jewellery, clothing and electronic gadgets in the New Year sales, they
were clearly unable to resist the lure of cakes, sweets and chocolates.
The domestic confectionery market increased at an average annual rate of 0.8% in the period
between 2002 and 2007, with some of the key global players using the domestic market to promote
their products abroad, particularly in Asia.
Chocolate bars are less popular in Japan than in the European and North American North American
named after North America.
North American blastomycosis
see North American blastomycosis.
North American cattle tick
see boophilusannulatus.
 markets primarily because they are less suited to Japan's very hot and humid summer months--so
there is greater demand here for chocolate snacks, including chocolate-coated biscuits and wafers.
Those same products work well in Thailand, China and Singapore, which have similar environments
and consumers that are fans of Japanese products.
The popularity of snack items is one reason why Nestle's KitKat has such a following in Japan.
Indeed, the Swiss confectionery giant produces a number of KitKat bars purely for the market here,
including versions coated with an orange-flavoured chocolate and green tea varieties. Amongst their
biggest-sellers, however, are the pink and white mottled versions that are released onto store
shelves in the spring, to coincide with the arrival of cherry blossom season and annual exam season
for the top high schools and universities across Japan. Each year, thousands of students will find a
lucky cherry blossom KitKat that has been hidden in their school bag on exam day by a doting
dote Â
intr.v. dot·ed, dot·ing, dotes
To show excessive fondness or love: parents who dote on their only child.

2. [Middle English doten. Â mother.
Even though the confectionery market is holding up well in comparison with both the broader food
industry and Japan's economy as a whole, analysts warn that the 25-month run of improving sales
will inevitably come to a halt in the near future as rising unemployment and reduced consumer
spending Consumer demand or consumption is also known as personal consumption expenditure. It
is the largest part of aggregate demand or effective demand at the macroeconomic level. Â finally
take their toll on even this cheaper feel-good sector. "We are gradually seeing people trying to save
money across the board right now and this is now affecting the food market," said Shunichiro
Manome, senior analyst specialising in the confectionery sector for Shinko Securities Co. "In recent
years, confectionery sales have been gradually rising, but I think that we will soon see this sector
following the trend of the broader food industry."
It has not helped that the prices of raw materials and transportation costs have risen dramatically in
the last year or so, he said, while the food industry has been damaged in recent months by a series
of food scandals. None of the scandals directly concerned the confectionery industry--high levels of
pesticides have been found in frozen foodstuffs foodstuffs npl -> comestibles mpl
foodstuffs npl -> denrées fpl alimentaires
foodstuffs food npl ->
 imported from China and companies have been fined for mislabelling their goods as expensive
domestically sourced items instead of cheap imports--but there is a sense of distrust among
consumers, he said. The key to staying ahead of the pitfalls for the industry, according to according
to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.
2. In keeping with: according to instructions.
3.
 the top manufacturers here, is to come up with new products frequently and to ensure that quality
remains high. "To build a different position in the domestic market, we try to develop unique
products, ensure quality, use packaging, sales promotions, advertising and have a number of long-lasting
brands," said Naoto Takahashi, a spokesman for Morinaga & Co., Ltd., the fourth largest
confectionery firm in Japan.
Japan's consumers are notoriously fickle, he said, and have rarely made a decision on what to buy
before they enter a store.
"Instead, they make up their mind on what to buy when they reach the shelves," he said. "And that
means that novelty products are appealing." One way of reeling in the buyers, Osaka-based Ezaki-
Glico has discovered, is to add a small toy to catch young consumers' eye, according to company
official Tetsuya Nanga, but also by enhancing the existing line-up.
Pocky--thin, savoury sticks with a range of tastes and coatings--is Ezaki-Glico's flagship product A
primary product of a company, which is typically why the company was founded and/or what made it

3. well known. For example, MS-DOS, Windows and the Microsoft Office suite have been flagship
products of Microsoft. CorelDRAW is a flagship product of Corel Corporation. Â and the company
releases new flavours every four to six months to keep them in the forefront of consumers' minds.
The range is enhanced by completely new versions twice a year--and Japan's third-largest
confectioner has found a following abroad for the product. Since the 1970s, Pocky pock Â
n.
1. A pustule caused by smallpox or a similar eruptive disease.
2. A mark or scar left in the skin by such a pustule; a pockmark.
tr.v.
 have been produced through a joint venture in France, where they are known as Mikado
mikado (m?kä`d?), a former title of the emperor of Japan used chiefly in the English language. ,
while they are produced in China and Thailand and exported to the United States United
States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi
(9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in
population and the fourth largest country in area. Â and Canada.
The trend of consumers snapping up a new product only to drop it a short while later is "increasing
every year," according to Daigo Sugita, of Lotte Co. Ltd., the second biggest player in the Japanese
market with 17% of total sales.
"In order to deal with that, we have to work very hard on our branding strategies and promoting
products that have been available for a long time and are well known," he said.
"We know there is a recession on at the moment, but we have been very glad to see an uptrend in
the chocolate biscuits and snacks area," he said. "We are trying to make sure it stays that way by
sticking to our three principles of standing in the customers' shoes to see what he or she wants;
constantly looking for original ideas; and always using prime-quality ingredients in our products."
Lotte is an unusual company in the Japanese market; the parent company is actually South Korean,
but the firm is so firmly entrenched en·trench  also in·trench
v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es

4. v.tr.
1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending.
2. Â in the market here that consumers consider it to be Japanese. It has also been looking to expand
its reach into other markets in the last 18 months.
In February, it announce it was building a new chocolate manufacturing plant, while in June last
year it purchased a 100% stake in Chocolaterie Guylian, the Belgian company behind one of the
world's leading brands of chocolates, for Euro 105 million (US$164 million.) In late 2006, it also
acquired Ginza Cozy See COSE. Â Corner Co., a chain of around 300 cake shops based in the Tokyo
area.
But the largest single confectioner in Japan is still the long-established Meiji, which can trace its
history back to 1916 and presently has around 26% of the national market. After Lotte, Nestle is the
largest foreign operator while Fujiya and Merry Chocolate round out the top seven firms. "The
economic downturn has not had a severe impact on our business, even though Japanese people are
refraining from buying 'luxury items'," said Fujiya spokeswoman Yukiko Yoshioka. "We are finding
that confectionery set at a good price is selling better than smaller but more expensive items."
And underlining the rapidly changing nature of the market here, Fujiya launched no less than 30
new products in March alone. Quite how many of them will still be available in one year's time
remains to be seen, however.
*http://www.meiji.co.jp/en/index.html--For Meiji
http://www.lotte.co.jp/english/greetings/index.html--For Lotte
http://www.glico.co.jp/en/index.htm--For Glico http://www.morinaga.co.jp/english/--For Morinaga

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