DESIGNING underwear to fit human curves is tricky. For decades, Wacoal, a global manufacturer of lingerie based in Kyoto, has been measuring the female form and making products that factor in the toll of time and gravity. Its research is proving ever more rewarding. The company’s sales to senior citizens—who are just as interested in a graceful silhouette as women decades younger—are growing by double-digit rates each year.
Many societies are ageing, from America to China, but Japan has a head start. One in four Japanese are over 65; by 2035 it will be one in three. So the country is serving as the world’s laboratory for selling to older consumers. Elderly Japanese outspend younger ones, says a study by the Boston Consulting Group. They now account for two-fifths of personal consumption.
Many of the country’s biggest firms have adjusted their strategies to tap into the grey yen. Panasonic, a maker of domestic appliances, has rolled out a string of new products, including foot heaters and lightweight vacuum cleaners. Aeon, a giant retailer and shopping-centre operator, has a “Grand Generation” strategy, which ranges from providing one-stop medical clinics on the premises to making in-store signs easier to read. Fujitsu, an electronics firm, has sold 20m of its “Raku Raku” mobile phones, with larger buttons and simplified functions, and is now introducing them into Europe.
Japanese firms have been equally inventive in the area of medical products for the elderly. But this is an area where cumbersome regulation can hold them back. Cyberdyne, a spin-off from the University of Tsukuba, designed a robotic exoskeleton suit to give mobility to the elderly and disabled. Although it gained approval for clinical use in Europe in 2013, it has yet to do so at home. Testing for medical products is costly as well as slow in Japan, and getting new devices covered by health insurance is a long and arduous process. Having opened up a lead in robotics for nursing care, the country risks losing it.
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Useful blog.
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