AUGUST 9, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 5

Japan's Cuddly Cure
Savvy firms are raking in the money with soothing products that cheer the nation's depressed citizens
By MIKI TANIKAWA Tokyo

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Katsunori Takemono emerges with a satisfied smile from a Tokyo shop clutching stickers of his favorite cartoon character, a droopy-eyed, slack-bodied panda bear. "A mere glance at it makes me melt," says the 34-year-old company worker from Osaka.

Men and their pandas. That's what it has come to in Japan. A decade of recession has taken its toll, and relieving job stress has never been more difficult. Expense accounts have been slashed, so a round of golf or a pricey lunch on the company tab are a thing of the past. After-work drinking sessions with office-mates have become shorter and less lively. The threat of being laid off is a growing worry for workers who once felt secure that companies would take care of them for the rest of their lives.

What's a salaryman to do? Hug a bear, of course. This age of economic uncertainty now has a mascot: a stuffed animal called Tare Panda. While women--and some men--are still devoted to the whiskered princess of schlock, Hello Kitty, many men have fallen under the spell of the panda, the latest merchandising fad to emerge from Japan. Takemono, who owns Tare Panda stuffed toys, Tare Panda-shaped candies and a Tare Panda CD-rack, trades information about the object of his affection with male colleagues at his office the way men used to swap baseball statistics. He also checks in on panda gossip on several panda websites. Sighs Akemi Ikemoto, his girlfriend: "He is completely hooked."

Panda-mania is just one manifestation of a marketing push to make money by helping people alleviate tension and anxiety during downbeat times. Stressed-out Japanese are flocking to massage and reflexology therapy sessions, watching feel-good movies and listening to soothing music. Tare Panda, like Hello Kitty, has a round face and soft contours that comfort people, says Yutaka Kubo, a consumer trend analyst at Mitsubishi Research Institute. "Companies are trying to produce a gentle image with their products."

Pharmaceutical firm Sankyo's recent shift in tack typifies this embrace of the healing theme. Sankyo's popular drink Regain, a syrupy tonic, has been on the market since 1989. Back then, the pitch was to help hard-working salarymen work even harder. Its television commercial, with heroic martial music in the background, showed a young man in a business suit courageously boarding a giant ship, on which he inks a major deal with his foreign counterparts. "Can you work 24 hours a day?" went the song's lyrics. Regain sales went flat along with Japan's economy, so the company developed a new image. The latest TV ad portrays a salaryman, but this time he is weary and downcast. Leaving home in the morning, he inadvertently dumps his briefcase in a garbage dump and carries a bag of trash to work. "Regain--for such fatigue," an announcer intones. "It's quite a change," says Tatsuo Sekine, chairman of CM Data Bank, a research company that studies TV commercials. "That tireless Japanese salaryman has now become a boke (blockhead) salaryman." The shift in appeal is working: Sankyo expects Regain sales to jump 50% this year to nearly $40 million.

Recession relief has turned out to be one of Japan's few growth industries. A chain of 12 reflexology salons called Queen's Way handles about 14,000 customers a month, says founder Keiko Fujita, while her reflexology school will graduate 2,000 students this year. Sales of the tea beverage Nohohon (it means "taking it easy") have grown 84% since early last year, according to Suntory. "I am tired with my job," American actress Meg Ryan says in the commercial in Japanese, holding a can of Nohohon. Another Suntory soft drink, Gomenne ("sorry"), is a fruity soda popular with teenagers. "High school students these day are stressed out, what with bullying and bashing by the media on issues like teenage prostitution," says Suntory marketing manager Koichi Kitagawa. The company picked the name Gomenne because it is a term used among young Japanese not to apologize but to console one another.

Can the healing industry pull Japan out of its doldrums? San-X Co., which makes Tare Panda, says sales of its panda paraphernalia have exceeded $250 million in the last 12 months alone. An impressive enough figure, but eventually Japan will have to break out of its funk and put some entrepreneurial zip in its ailing economy. And when it does, at least one consumer products firm will be ready. Suntory is coming up with a new brand of drink to ride the next wave of consumerism in Japan. They don't know what it will taste like and they don't know what it will be called, but Kitagawa says the sales pitch will focus on "individual efforts and dreams."