JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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In an OECD survey of 36 nations on people's perceptions of their living conditions, Japan ranked 21st in terms of quality of life; Australia, Norway and the U.S. were the top 3. What do you think of that?
( 12 )
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The Fukuoka mayor is banning public servants from drinking alcohol for a month; the Osaka mayor has declared war on tattoos on civil servants. What do you think of all this?
( 21 )
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Why do you think Facebook's stock failed to live up to the hype in its trading debut?
( 13 )
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Which sport, when played well, do you think is the most exciting to watch?
( 62 )
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What's the difference between an average burger and a great one?
( 12 )
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- Business Teaching Positions - Part-time - Kanto Region
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥3,000 ~ ¥5,000 / Hour
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- National Relief/Substitute Teacher - summer start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥275,000 ~ ¥300,000 / Month
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- 営業パーソン
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tochigi
- Salary: ¥240,000 ~ ¥350,000 / Month Negotiable
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63 Comments
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KitsuneYoukai
Get tired of the constant yelling, that's the greeting, everytime someone walks in the store. Makes it worse when you have more than 1 person saying it.
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some14some
Looking at the prices it seems they are selling Antique Items only, can't distinguish between perishable goods and durable goods !
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Gurukun
In regards to.....Compared to....Not really sure what we are asking here.
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Monkeyz
The foods always look and smell nice. I like how most of them list the allergens out front, but the prices are a bit steep.
The yelling or constant ring of "irrashaimaseeeeee" gets really annoying. Sometimes I'm the only person in the store besides the clerk, but the clerk just keeps saying it as if they have some kind of internal timer. Any other yelling is just obnoxious (announcing sales, etc.) and actually makes me leave a store or floor faster.
The prices are usually only reasonable during sale periods when everything is 50-70% off. And sometimes even then they're not that reasonable. Why should I buy leather boots for 12,000 yen (on sale!) when I can get good quality leather boots online for half that?
Ikebukuro's Seibu in particular ticked me off when they replaced their nice, central, easy-to-find sale space in the concourse area with a Louis Vuitton. Felt kind of like a slap in the face. I used to go in there all the time to browse sale goods. I don't know if they moved them somewhere else, but now I never go in there. I tried at first to see if they moved the sale floor elsewhere, but the store is so vast that I gave up. Good job, Seibu. You lost a customer. I almost always dipped in to check out the sale. I would never go into an LV store.
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thepro
They're good when you need a toilet. That's about it.
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blvtzpk
Narrowing the question would have been better. Are we talking about the dinosaurs like Mitsukoshi, which do have very yummy (but often pricey) food basements, or the Walmart/Target-ish Jusco, Ito Yokado or Daiei type stores (with lower prices). As for the former, I never enter them except for food - they seem to have as their target market people from another age and price bracket. The latter are more accessible in terms of price, but they can be a bit tatty. Service is never a major issue, but the yelling salespeople can be a headache, but I only tend to find them in electronic stores (bang - or is it 'bung'? - that taiko drum while yelling through a megaphone about some supposed bargain. Oh, and clap your hands while you're at it.) In short, service is usually good, but the dinosaurs are marking time and living in the past.
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hellhound
Irashaimase pisses me off. When I listen to that I do not feel welcome at all. Everything is overpriced, and made in china. I like the girls who work there, that's about it. I don't know if Loft is a dept. Store... But they always have annoying/repetitive music there... So I hate going there unless I have my earphones on.
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Madara
Most of the sales staff here are polite and they don't usually follow you around the store like a hound dog but the irashaimase shrill voice is painfull to the ear and it's very annoying.
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smartacus
I love the basement food halls. I go there at least once a week for a feed.
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combinibento
Way too in your face. From the greeting shouted at me the minute I walk in, to the constant following and offers to help (because every boutique in dept stores are overstaffed - why does a shop the size of a studio apartment need 2-3 chicks staffing the place?), to the seated dozens lined up before the cafes and restaurants... Just an overall unpleasant experience. And while the basement groceries have decent wares, on any given day they are more crowded than disneyland on xmas and walking through the throngs of obasans is unbearable.
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ratpack
Gotta love the "irrashaimaseeeeee" from a million directions as they zip by you at a million miles an hour. I also love the panic on their face when you ask them a question (in japanese). 99 times out of 100 when you have asked it in perfect japanese, they will say "Eh" as if they don't understand English.....but i just spoke japanese. After you have asked them twice or three times and their brain kicks into gear and realizes that you are actually speaking japanese.....they answer but by speaking to your japanese wife standing next to you.
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kokorocloud
I kind of like the greeting. I think it's really polite! And I'm also glad they don't follow me around like they do in a lot of stores in the U.S.. I know they think it's helpful but mostly it makes me uncomfortable, especially if I didn't come in there to buy anything, haha. In Japan, I like that they give you space (and I'm sure it's not just because I'm a GAIJIN, because I don't see them hounding other Japanese customers either). Anyway, I think most Japanese department stores are really nice, clean, and have good staff. Haven't had a bad experience yet!
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AzabuSamurai
elevator girls are the highlight for me.
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pamelot
Back when Isetan had an Art Gallery, it was worth it to go there... Now, I rarely visit Dept. Stores... It is nearly always an exercise in dissappointment, and futility. They rarely have anything outside their very small size range... And what is, is out-of-date, ugly, and priced to penalize. Since I've found the wonderful world of online shopping, where sizes and styles are not limited to Lilliputian sizes, and prices are reasonable- I choose to not visit stores where they yell in my face "your money is welcome", but their products speak otherwise...
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n3312
Sizes are small, prices are high, and a lot of ladies' wear in the men's wear floor. That was the last time I went to a department store to look for clothes. Now it's just Uni Qlo.
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tranel
Their overall concept is not to my taste, I like smaller shops, but I guess sometimes their good. Quality is usually quite good, but the prices overall... well.
Why is this a board topic? Does it matter what we think? These department stores cater to a certain Japanese demographic, which we do not belong to. You're only inviting whining gaijins.
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thepro
They could easily get rid of half the staff in these department stores and then possibly not have to keep closing them down because they don't have enough money
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Disillusioned
It peeves me that none of them open before 10am.
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kwilkins21
Hate the department stores in Japan. They only cater to those in a specific size range which they believe should be normal. Anyone outside those sizes like I, know the only thing I can do in a department store is go to the game center. There are no special ordering like most other countries leaving them in the not customer friendly category. Japanese are growing and most of these youg kids are in my range of 195cm but without my 115kg extremely muscular physique. They need to think of the new norm and cater to people and not just Japanese. Japan has became a meltingpot and department stores need to think internationally especially when they are 30 to 52%foreighn owned like Seiyu bought by Walmart.
Those of you other people living in Japan and think you are not being followed in stores you are sadly mistakened. They just wear plain clothes or stalk you with cameras.
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stirfry
decent service but mainly living in the past, and no fresh ideas...kinda like japan as a whole
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kujiranikusuki
pretty sweet. nothing to complain about. and let them follow me. I don't care. and they are getting paid. so what? and why complain about sizes. If a department store doesn't have your size, then Japan doesn't have your size (albeit there are a few big and tall stores here and there). what are all the complaints about. They are nice, clean, have polite service, bright, warm in the winters, cool in the summer. They are big. They are busy. Most have tons of food to buy, to eat. Some have grocery stores or markets. They have stuff to buy. They are exactly what they are supposed to be.
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UsagitoSaru
allot of japanese stores bug me, I am sick of irrashaimase over and over and over again everytime i pass a new employee sometimes i will walk out of a store and walk back in for a brief moment and they will do it again, I cannot STAND the fake voices the female workers use, it's high pitched and cutesy. The prices here are horrible, food is expensive and small in quantity, clothing is expensive, and every time I go to a Cainz with my japanese husband they act like they don't know what we are talking about when we ask where something is, and we have to find where it is ourselves and we always find it after allot of searching. I cannot stand some places like Apita and stores that support Waon. The music is annoying and the Waon advertisement gives me a headache while i am trying to shop, the whistle and the fake dog bark over and over and over and over....someone shoot me pleeease.
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kyotovalentine
The periodic art galleries are GREAT! and get over the "irashaimase' that's EVRYWHERE in Japan and a major part of the culture if it ever changed I would TRULY worry about Japan. The basement foods are THE COOLEST! not to compare with Kyoto's nishiki dori of course but GREAT place to sample truly Japanese fare. The music on some floors lacks ALOT to be desired but overall much more fun than any American Depato
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UsagitoSaru
oh yeah and it drives me crazy how most stores in japan aren't open til 10 am and close by 7 pm!! what kind of trash is that! some of us don't get off work until then.
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herefornow
Dinasaurs. Relics of the pre-bubble days. Don't shop them, ever.
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Blue_Tiger
On the whole, not too bad.
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johnnyreb
too expensive.
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perspective
Monkeyz - exactly right!!! I think of George Carlin doing his "have a nice day" spiel in that dippy voice - especially when it's a male/herbivore clerk. Sometimes I screw around with them and say it to them before they can say it to me.
I use to hate going into the grocery store part because it seemed every section had a cassette player set at stun playing some dippy song - until I learned the best course of action is to sing along. At first my wife was upset because she thought I was embarrassing her, but now she just starts laughing because she agrees. Although she is still angry at me because I ram other people's shopping carts when they block the aisles in Costco, of course saying sumimasen, wouldn't want to be impolite.
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kumakuma
Well, well, for the Japan-based readers, to a certain point, familiarity breeds contempt it seems. But for this former Japan-based Australian reader, this is what I think of Japanese department stores:
They are massive emporiums for residents of Japan, mainly Japanese people. The role they play is more than to sell merchandise - hence the art gallery space and so on. The cultural side to retailing is pretty important and interesting. The role of department store as transport player and land/housing sales agent is pretty interesting - vast swathes of western metropolitan Tokyo would probably not be in existence, or perhaps not be so desirable and convenient to live in without the role of Odakyu, Tokyo, Keio and Seibu.
The role that Seibu played in literature in particular is an interesting phenomenon - the community college attached to the department store being a case in point.
The convenience of opening hours stands alone - were I come from, the city centre shuts down at 5:30 p.m.
The department store is a great place for a visitor to the country to get a snapshot of the country, from aspirations, cultural values, cultural expectations and son.
Plus, with very few exceptions, the service is second to none, like the rest of Japan. Sure it is sometimes cold, insincere and formulaic, but you can at least tell who the service staff are, unlike quite a few cases in australia, by the prevalence of the staff uniform.
The depaato should not be seen as identical to the department store as readers here know it, and having said that, it is probably fair to see that some sort of hierarchy is necessary - Harrods, Nieman Marcus, David Jones and La Rinascente might not be able to be said in the same breath. One man's poison is another man's poisson, so to speak ...
Still, one begs to ask, why the question in the first place? I guess navel gazing never loses its charm for those who enjoy it.
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daley
The food basements are fantastic and the service in the clothing departments is usually exceptional. Western servers could learn a thing or two from the Japanese.
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my2sense
I always say piss off with a smile and they keep following me....
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presto345
Japanese department stores are the best in the world. You get top quality and excellent service, but of course, at a price. And I agree with daley.
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SiouxChef
Maybe it's just me, but it seems that department stores always seem to have a horrible time keeping anything in stock.
That said, let's not forget the big ball of awesome, DEPACHIKA!
LOL! To the horror of my kids, in that situation I sometimes perform what I call the Exaggerated Grocer's Jingle March. The laughter keeps the ears from bleeding somehow.
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TanakaTaro
If you want to just browse and not actually buy anything they are great for wasting time.
If you want to buy something in particular then go elsewhere. The floor layout is designed to make you walk around as much as possible and they are horribly over priced.
I went to try and buy chocolate the other day. According to the floor plan they had chocolate on floors B1, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 13. No list of what stores were selling chocolate, they just expect you to check everything. Of course the escalators are laid out so you have to walk round a lot of the store to find the next one and the whole place is full of obaachans.
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Stonecoldsoba
That's a nice oxymoron! Surely the exception would be when it's not up to its usual standard.
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Betting
I enjoy the food basements, but that is about it. The shop assitants with endless "irrashaimase" calls are just irritating beyond belief. On the whole, I don't think the service is all that great, but on occasion it is nice to find a few individuals who are nice people to begin with.
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Junnama
Fun dept store story: I went looking for a shirt and eventually found one in my size. It was twice the price of the same shirt in the more common size. I asked why and they said because it was harder to sell they had to charge more for it....
Huh????
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seesaw
Full of Chinese tourists!
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LostinNagoya
If you have money to spend, they're great. But they're not fun, people don't go to depatos to spend time, like you see in other countries. Mostly due to staff watching you as if you are about to run away with their goods.
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LostinNagoya
As I explained before, their constant yelling is a warning to other staff that there's a not so welcome customer inside the store. Pay attention and you will realise they don't keep saying "irashaimaseeee" when a J-customer enters the store.
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TanakaTaro
Haha. I love the thought that went into that.
"Hmm, this is hard to sell.. maybe we should increase the price and make it harder to sell?" "Great idea!"
Then again Japanese people think a higher price means better quality so it might make it easier to sell?
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guest
You are so right about that.!! Now that times are tough I notice that its happening much less though. I used to get it a lot at a certain shoe store and was so annoyed that I yelled back at them, it works... Too bad that some people feel the need to s..t on random people for no good reason.
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LostinNagoya
well, a Japanese friend of mine taught me the magic words: "damare!". It worked wonderfully.
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Monkeyz
Actually, they do. If there are just two or three of us in the store and the other two are Japanese, they still do it. (One of my days off is a weekday, so I go shopping often at a boring, non-peak time when no one is around.) The only difference between me and the Japanese customers is that they don't talk to me as much, which is probably the fear of not being understood. Sometimes they do. More often than not, they don't unless I start to actually touch things. As soon as I touch something, then the "irrashaimase" turns off and turns into a pounce and a, "Do you want a dressing room?"
But, as far as observations go, I've noticed it helps to wear clothes of a particular store's brand when you go shopping. Then you get GREAT service at that store (and maybe neighboring stores of the same genre) because they know you might spend money since you spent it before. Not such a good tactic unless you KNOW you're going to go there and buy something, however.
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ajjan3
Things I hate about it:
10am open is a bit late.
Constant nasal irashaimaseeeee/arigatou gozaimasita (echoed by ALL staff members)
TIME SALES: Constant yelling, rushing, people desperately fighting for their brand name items. I don't need your megaphone pointed at my face.
How the staff talk to you and try upsell stuff. I was looking at a jacket and the guy started talking to me about the weather, etc. I don't give a damn really. If I want your opinion/help I'll ask for it. I just find them irritating. Plus, because many japanese people mistake me for being Japanese (because all foreigners are white people with blonde hair blue eyes still -_-) they keep talking to me. I think after the first No they would get the message.
Also, there isnt much variety.
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Branded
I think of myself as a typical consumer in Japan, so in light of the ongoing decline in sales and large numbers of store closures, I'd like to add my two cents.
The biggest problem with J department stores is the products are ridiculously overpriced ! We know this now as many consumers are happy to go to uniqlo or wait for the mega bargains.
Next- lack of variety. Go inot any major department store in the country and you will find the same things being hawked at every store !
Another problem- Way too much focus on women ! Sorry ! But that market has all but dried up- time to show more attention to the male shopper.
Next- The noise ! Many people have offered this up already. Departments stores are... well, full of "departments". But for some reason in "harmonious Japan" they all want to have their own music ! Their own announcements ! Their own volume for getting the shoppers attention ! PLEASE- Tone it down a few notches !
Don't get me wrong- there are some things I enjoy. The wrapping service provided upon request, the friendly and efficient manner of "most" store clerks. The overemphasis on female staff ! All are quite nice- but not enough to outweigh the negatives I'm afraid.
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TokyoRoughGuy
Japanese department stores are the greatest in the world. Any claim otherwise is simply Japan bashing.
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Icewind007
I'm always amused as all that stuff is still alien to me. The stores are colorful and people are loud and cheery, even if it's fake. Just another reminder that you are not in your home country, unless they do that stuff in your home country...
What I don't understand is all you people going in these places with such a negative, cynical attitude. If you don't like them, pass them up. I often will go in just for a look, even without the intention of buying anything just to get a look-see.
No matter what, don't be rude! They are just doing their job, after all.
That's just rude. It may be effective... but still plain rude.
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presto345
I don't get it either. My city has 4 large department stores, Fukuya, Tenmaya, Mitsukoshi and Sogo. It's a joy shopping in all of them. The clerks are all very polite and helpful and won't bother you if you indicate you are just looking. And there is no shouting.
I suppose some (many?) aliens have adjustment and attitude problems. That is too sad.
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Richard_III
Japanese department stores are not too bad. Although they tend to all sell the same brands they do have slightly different stock between stores. Paul Smith in Isetan in Shinjuku is slightly different from the Paul Smith in Mitsukoshi in Ginza.
Sometimes I wish there was more diversity in their stock however. For instance, at the moment it is virtually impossible to get a classic collar double cuff white shirt - and that's across the whole of Tokyo. They all stock the rather natty variety preferred by the natives. Naturally, it's very depressing.
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ajjan3
The only time I've noticed a real difference in stock was when going from Osaka to Tokyo.
I thought the Disney Jewellry was exclusive to one shop, but i wanted to look around a bit more, turns out every other jewellry store had their own 'exclusive disney designs'
Really kills it when everything is so similar.
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bakabakabaka
The real reason is probably the fabric. If the shirt uses twice as much fabric shouldn't it reasonably cost up to twice as much?
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bakabakabaka
Department stores don't bother me too much really, but I prefer the more mall-type ones (such as Lalaport. I just wish that it was more conveniently located!).
What I really dislike though, is that a lot of stores won't let you try on tops. Then the still try to convince me to buy it even though there is a no-return policy! Sorry but I don't buy unless I know that it will look good on me! (And having broad shoulders, unfortunately most Japanese clothes don't fit me correctly)
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Katsuro1000
I get stared at alot, Then i tell the owner to stop staring but he does it again....>.>
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nisegaijin
Nothing.. i don't think there is anything that matters less to me than Japanese department stores.
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dracpoo2
Well I share the sentiments of some of the comments but, my main problem esp with women's clothes is the size of the clothes, most things are a bit broad and baggy, no shape to them. most dresses are made for an under blouse or two, even summer clothes.Every thing is LACY. The most important however, is the price as mentioned above the stuff is waaay overpriced. I didn't realize how much until a recent visit to New York. I have toned down my shopping since.
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SimpleLife
the restrooms are really clean
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dolphingirl
SimpleLife: LOL! I don't shop at department stores much but I do use their washrooms!
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realist
I love Japanese Department Stores - except that they are sometimes overpriced. Also, Id like to see bigger sizes in the clothes departments. Japan is far behind other Asian countries when it comes to providing bigger sizes.
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borscht
By that logic, bikinis should cost less than my shorts. They don't. Or a miniskirt should cost less than my shirt. They don't. It's usually either the department store jacking up the price for a reasonable profit or it's the manufacturer selling it to the store at a higher price. Whatever the market will bear.
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