As the year rushes toward its finale, Japan's media devotes a lot of coverage to identifying hitto shōhin (ヒット商品, hit products) that have succeeded in capturing consumers' hearts and minds over the previous 12 months.
Consumer preferences have changed remarkably since the baburu keizai (バブル経済, bubble economy) of the 1980s. For a few short years, people spent on goods and services like there was no tomorrow. At the time, a market-research company hired this writer to produce a periodical covering Japan's consumer, social and demographic trends. Trend-watching is an inexact science, but there was plenty of data to work with — Japan didn't get its reputation of being a jōhō-ka shakai (情報化社会, information-intensive society) for nothing.
Much of my mornings were spent poring over stacks of mainstream newspapers, magazines, trade publications and government white papers. As I skimmed the headlines, I kept my eyes peeled for kīwādo (キーワード, key words) indicating consumer markets were in the throes of change.