Identity and Uniqueness as Market Entry Barrier (Perspectives on Japan)

The following abstract came out of a discussion at a symposium that I had with several Japanese and where at one point a statement such as “…腸 (ちょう = intestines) is known to be longer than that of Europeans or Americans…” would fill the air.

Several days later after the symposium, I started to do some research and found several discussions (1,2,3,4,5) raising around this topic with more or less opposed arguments.

In an article from the New York Times (18 Aug 1999), Kristof mentioned that “…Japanese could not eat much foreign beef because of the special nature of Japanese intestines…” and in the book Handbook of Japanese Mythology, Ashkenazi described that “…Japanese intestines were longer than those of other people, proving their physical uniqueness…” (Ashkenazi 2003).

This is only one argument that aroses around the discussion of Japanese identity and its society. Ashkenazi  argued that  ”…Japanese uniqueness myth as justification for limiting imports of meat…stated as such in the 1980s by Hata Tsutomu, then the Japanese agricultural minister …” (Ashkenazi 2003) to underline an uniqueness factor and used as  social and political instrument to unify identity and create a market barrier.

Overview

The questions is, does this kind of identity proclamation and its correlated uniqueness approach have an impact on other market development strategies. Challenged with this question, thoughts and research have been collected in an article (download via email link) that will pose questions such as

Thoughts and research have been collected in an article (download via email link) that will pose questions such as put

How does uniqueness influence and discriminate a market development and product introductions?

Does an uniqueness approach support a society model that will better preserve a societies identity across borders in  globalized world?

Does accelerated social changes will force people to adopted an uniqueness approach in order to protect their identity (self, group and society)?

The article will not take party for any particular argument, it will rather look on motives that support strong and weak argumentation in terms of its influence.

Framework
In order to summarize an support the thought process and main factors. I developed a framework that put the different influence factors into schemata. The framework allows to discuss influence factors on identity patterns (self, group and society) and further looks at factors such as urban migration, social system and technology as accelerator of social change.

Download
The article can be downloaded via a link. If you want to request a download link, please leave a comment to this thread.

Reference

1. 10 Reasons Japanese don’t have longer intestines, August 18, 2006 by matt
2. questions and intestines, July 30, 2006
3. Japan and Its People are Unique, Jun 25 2009
4. WHEN IN TOKYO, DON’T SPEAK AS THE JAPANESE DO FLUENT FOREIGNERS OFTEN VIEWED WITH SOME ALARM AND SUSPICION, October 27, 1996, Source: By Michael A. Lev, Tribune Staff Writer., Section: NEWS Dateline: TOKYO, Chicago Tribune, ”…infamous claims was that Japanese intestines are longer than Westerners’, making American beef an unsuitable import…”
5. Kristof. N D (1999).Walk This Way, or How the Japanese Kept in Step, New York Times, (Online Link)
6. Ashkenazi (2003). Handbook of Japanese Mythology,

Filed under: Japan , Innovation, Social Change