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E ight years ago when I first came to Japan and was showing pictures of my pet back in Canada to my Japanese female friends, they were amazed (and clearly disgusted) that my pug dog ‘Brutus' lived indoors and slept in my bed. At present there are over 11.1 million dogs in Japan, which has encouraged the creation of an industry designed to cater to them – an industry estimated to be worth approximately 950 million JPY (9 billion USD). Keeping pets, especially dogs, is most popular among young women ages 19 – 29: a group noted for generally having the highest disposable income.
After settling into my surroundings, I went in search of a sports club and found one near the train station. When I inquired about the fitness program, at that time in very broken Japanese, I thought it was the language barrier that caused the gym staff to become flustered I repeated myself in various tones and tempos until she said ‘Now, no women'.
At first I thought that females were not permitted to join the fitness program, but then a nearby male gym member who spoke English informed me that women were allowed to join, they would just never think to. Female members of sports gyms only participated in pool and sauna activities – nothing that would cause them to sweat in an unattractive manner. At present, there are enough females interested in fitness programs to open female-only facilities offering programs from free weights to aerobics to aqua kickboxing. As with the ‘pet movement', this market also targets young women with time and money to spare.
What was able to change societal views? How did the image of pets go from unhygienic to adorable? How did the image of physically active women go from butch to sexy?
Pets were branded. Starting with Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson and Japan 's Ayumi Hamasaki, celebrities starting appearing in public and at photo shoots with their adored pet in a manner similar to the way they would display a handbag. Predicting fortunes to be had, pet markets, pet clothing accessory and pet beauty care shops began to open one after the other.
Likewise, physically fit females were branded. Muscular celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Brittany Spears and Japan 's model / marathon guru Rie Hasegawa have drastically changed the image of muscles on women and the sweat accompanying their acquirement. Sportswear specialists such as Nike, Adidas and Champion were the preferred, and oft photographed, clothing brands of these women, cementing the popularity of these brands. Such sportswear specialists continue to introduce colorful and trendy ‘ladies lines' to support this new and fast-emerging lifestyle trend.
Chanel. Armani, Prada, Jill Sanders and other such top fashion designers have also started pumping out sportswear lines, predicting a continued lifestyle change form glamorous to sporty. Although the ratio of males to females in the Japanese athletic world is still far from equal, the number of top female athletes has increased dramatically in comparison to even four years earlier, as evident in the recent Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
But did Japan really need pets or physically fit women? After all, dogs look near dead during the sweltering weather from June to October and even without muscles Japanese females have more power or influence than ever before in this country's history.The optimum situation would be to brand a product, and its associated lifestyle, that would have a positive and measurable affect on a problem.
In 2003, a birthrate of 1.29 (Japanese National Statistics Office), the lowest ever postwar birthrate, was recorded in Japan. This birthrate is also one of the lowest among developed nations. The number of births in 2004 has been stated to be even lower than 2003 and considerably below government predictions (Japan Times, March 30 2005). As government predictions of society's quantitative structure (gender, age, births, deaths, etc.) are the basis for designing the pension system, the detrimental effects of unrealized predictions is obvious.
Much like the images of indoor pets and sweating women nearly a decade ago, childbirth is not trendy in present-day Japan. In fact, in Tokyo (where the birthrate in 2003 was below 1.0) it feels rare to see children at all. Many Japanese families move outside of the city to start a family for financial (more space with considerably lower rent) as well as social and environmental reasons (greenery and parks for children to play in, higher population of children, fewer lurking dangers) reasons.
During pregnancy and for a considerable period after childbirth, Japanese women disappear from the public eye altogether. Pregnancy has yet to be glamorized in Japan. Although magazines featuring pictures of a naked and pregnant Demi Moore and a pregnant belly-exposed Madonna also reached the bookshelves of Japan, the women took more note of their accessories than their taut and exposed bellies and the men (many of whichtote pedophilic tendencies) picked up ‘Seventeen' instead.
Even after child birth Japanese women do not fully re-enter society. Although there has recently been signs of change in the younger and very carefree generations, Japanese are very much concerned with causing a nuisance to others around them. Taking children that may burst into tears, burp up, or require an immediate diaper change in public is a potentially nuisance-causing situation. Japanese society still does not possess the leeway for tolerating or even grinning at the qualms of being human.
Over the past ten years it has become quite obvious that it is Japanese females that control consumer trends here. Many recently successfully branded items, including pets and sweat, and their suggested lifestyles, have only expanded on and glamorized a ‘practice' that already existed – but the ingenuity lies in having targeting these efforts at a fresh market. Just imagine the benefits to the struggling Japanese birth rate if someone could make babies fashionable!
Avent U.K. came to life in 1984. Headquartered in England, Avent produces more than 98% of its products in the U.K. a fact that speaks loudly about their commitment to quality control in lieu of cheaper labor rates available abroad. At present, Avent products are available in more than 70 countries worldwide and possess 75% and 40% of total market shares in Europe and the U.S. , respectively.
Avent products are trendy (great design: simple yet colorful), practical (durable and stackable) and environmentally friendly (reusable and recyclable). In addition to this, Avent products are used by celebrities (paparazzi photographs of David Beckham and his children, as well as Claudia Schiffer and her children) and as lifestyle promotion props (Avent bottle are featured in a Microsoft advertisement for home offices).
Avent products possess the power to make having children trendy and as a result the potential to positively influence the Japanese birth rate. I mean, really, how different are babies and puppies anyway? And from what I have heard childbirth works up quite a sweat………..
In all seriousness, it has been stated by many social experts that fertility rates reflect confidence in the future – from the low Japanese birthrate, low optimism is evident. A high-quality and well-branded product may in some way influence the target market sector towards starting a family, and this may work for a time to increase the birthrate, however, permanent improvement will depend on society as a whole making motherhood a possibility for women who do not want to give up ‘everything else' to become a mother. If Japanese society can achieve and maintain such a society, a healthy and stable birthrate is certain to follow. 
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