152 - Japan & Hanami, Japanese Urged to Spend Again
TOKYO-Japan's economy minister is urging the nation to emerge from the shadow of self-restraint that has enveloped the country in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, in an attempt to foster consumer spending and boost economic activity.
"I think it's time to stop this feeling of self-restraint, and many ministers share that view with me," Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said.
Mr. Yosano's comments Friday represent the first official backlash against jishuku-the Japanese word for "self-restraint"-which has become a buzzword over the past month.
What started as an unspoken movement reflecting national solidarity, with people voluntarily turning off lights to conserve energy and organizations canceling events such as concerts, has threatened to bring Japan new trouble: a prolonged economic slump. Now, some Japanese are rebelling, as an anti-jishuku campaign has started to fan out, mainly across Tokyo.
The tipping point came when Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara strongly advised the capital's residents to refrain from holding boisterous hanami parties when the cherry blossoms come into full bloom-annual revels that typically involve drinking with friends and colleagues.
Makoto Takahashi, a 36-year-old Tokyo resident, said he realized the disconnect between the jishuku mentality and the difficult realities facing small businesses in the northeast when he spoke with a sake brewer in Iwate prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami, earlier this month. Canceling hanami parties would make recovery more difficult for such businesses, which are already burdened by damage to their factories, the brewer told Mr. Takahashi.
"I am in Tokyo so I thought it was better to practice jishuku. I thought it was helping the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami," said Mr. Takahashi, a self-proclaimed sake lover. But after speaking with the brewer, Mr. Takahashi reached out to a handful of sake brewers in Iwate prefecture and offered to create video messages explaining the economic hardships they face. After a sleepless night, he uploaded two homemade videos to YouTube under an umbrella campaign called Hana Sake Nippon.
The two-minute video featuring Kuji Kosuke, the fifth-generation owner of sake brewery Nanbu Bijin, became an immediate online sensation.
Mr. Kosuke tells viewers the best way to help the survivors in the Tohoku area is to refrain from self-restraint, partake in hanami-and drink sake.
"It can be said that in Tohoku's current condition this is not a time to be drinking sake, but if we continue like this it will bring a second wave of economic hardship," said Mr. Kosuke, in the message recorded in a fluorescent-lit room. "So from our position, we would be more thankful if you participate in hanami over jishuku."
Mr. Kosuke estimates his sales have dropped 40% since the disasters hit. "We appreciate the sentiment being conveyed through jishuku, but that's enough," Mr. Kosuke said. "If they don't go back to their normal lifestyle habits the economy will stop and that will become a vicious cycle."
The video has since been viewed nearly 390,000 times.
Mr. Takahashi has expanded the video library to include messages from brewers in Fukushima prefecture and from other businesses besides sake. He is working to get support from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was instrumental in encouraging residents to go out to restaurants and stores and welcome tourists in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Anti-jishuku sentiment was on display at Tokyo's Ueno Park on Friday afternoon and through the weekend. Boisterous groups crowded onto plastic sheets spread under the pale pink blossoms, feasting on picnics of rice balls, chips and corn on the cob. Cherry-faced revelers gripped plastic cups, fallen petals floating atop their clear sake.
"I was practicing jishuku, but then I started to wonder 'is this really helping the Tohoku people?' " said 24-year-old Makoto Tabuta, who had skipped work to save an ideal viewing spot for his hanami party, and who was sitting next to a suitcase full of beer and a bottle of sake from a Miyagi prefecture brewer. "We have to think about what matters in the long term. I don't know how far a donation or jishuku would go but I'd like to think that spending money will help the country's recovery in the middle of the night."
-By YOREE KOH
Takashi Mochizuki contributed to this article.
source: http://online.wsj.com