Room for a Recycle-Oriented Society

Just last month, a proper used clothing recycling system was finally created in Japan. According to the Japan for Sustainability (JFS) organization in this article, although there are proper laws in place recycling things like containers and packaging, home appliances, food, construction materials, and automobiles, there had been no such law for textile products. This is surprising considering the amount of waste generated from textiles alone every year! JFS estimates a total of 1.97 million tons of textiles per year in Japan are thrown away, incinerated using fuel or sent to the landfill. Even though some concerned people do take their old clothes to secondhand shops to sell or donate, the majority of these items, a hefty 90%, become waste. This not only shows the need for an established system for recycling clothing, it also shows the lack of publicity as far as recycling textiles is concerned. In fact, in recent surveys conducted during recycling textile events, an overwhelming 90% of respondents affirmed that they would be willing to pay the cost of clothes recycling, albeit in varying amounts. This shows that people are willing to recycle their clothing if only they knew how!

In the same article, it was reported that JEPLAN has established new technology to convert used clothing into ethanol, thus producing a new source of energy. However, the catch is that it is still relatively expensive to produce - one liter of ethanol costs 200yen. For it to be marketable, the price must go down to 100yen at least. Yet, this represents a source of hope for reducing waste in the form of unwanted textiles and carbon dioxide emissions. 

[Images from JEPLAN]

In addition to the establishment of a proper textile recycling law and new methods to reduce waste, I feel fashion-related companies must also do their jobs in reducing waste in the industry and in promoting awareness about recycling clothing. JFS has reported about the efforts made by environment-conscious corporations such as Muji, Uniqlo, Itochu Corp., and even large retailers like Marui Group Co.!


In 2006, Itochu Corp. launched a new recyclable brand of neckties called "MOTTAINAI". Appropriately named since the word "mottainai" carries the meaning of "waste not, want not", this brand claims to be the world's first clothing brand dedicated to the creation of a sustainable society. Made of recyclable polyester fabric, as opposed to the usual silk material, this material fits in with the principles of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) as it can be easily melted and reproduced as polyester fibers, as known as fiber-to-fiber recycling. For this purpose, the company has encouraged the collection of used neckties at their stores and has issued postage-paid envelopes for customers to send back their used neckties so these textiles can be processed to ensure recycling. 

In 2009, a "fashion swap" trend was reported as attraction attention not just in Japan, but also in Europe and the United States. This activity provides a platform for people to exchange unwanted fashion items for free. One example of an such an event in Japan, known as xChange, is not only designed to exchange fashion items, but also information and sentiments from the owners of the clothes, using an "episode tag". By attaching feelings to the items they receive in return for their items, people are made aware of the human connection and also of the need to cherish their items even more. In contrast to the food industry, the large impact the fashion industry has on the environment is not as widely known or reported about. One common example is cotton, which consumes large amounts of pesticides, insecticides and chemical fertilizers in the growing process. Of even larger significance is the waste produced when people throw away their clothing. Statistics indicate that the average Japanese buys ten kilograms and throws away nine kilograms of clothes a year. It is also said that women are often the main culprits as 80% of the time, most women wear only 20% of the clothes they own. Hence, events such as these help to reduce waste and most importantly, promote awareness of not overspending on clothing and of recycling one's clothing.

Last year, Marui Group Co. held an xChange fashion-swapping event as part of the company's Earth Smile Project. During the three-day event, a total of 232 people brought 1,157 clothing items and 768 of these were exchanged. This number still represents a small number as compared to the amount that gets thrown away but it is nevertheless a start in promoting awareness of recycling textiles in people.


SFS also reported clothes recycling projects carried out individually by Uniqlo and Muji last year. Named the "FUKU FUKU Project", unneeded clothes were collected at MUJI stores in the Osaka Prefecture for 15 days from January 30 to February 14. As a model for the recycling of textile goods supported by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, MUJI worked with companies such as Ryohin Keikaku, World Co., Mitsubishi Corporation, Toray Industries, Teijin Fibers Ltd., Tokai Senko K.K., Sekisui Chemical Co., and JEPLAN Co. on this project. Similar to this year's project, the aim was to generate ethanol as viable biomass energy source from the recycled clothing so as to achieve 100% recycling.

Around the same time, Uniqlo started the "All-Product Recycling Initiative" to recycle and reuse all of its used clothing throughout the year from March 2010. This recycling initiative is not new to the scene as it has been conducted three times a year regularly since September 2006. In 2009, Uniqlo successfully collected 2.62 million items of clothes, making this the largest volume of recycled clothes ever. Of the clothes collected, about 10% are recycled as energy materials and industrial fibers while the other 90% are donated to support refugees and disaster victims. 


The above examples mentioned have been very inspiring but this still represents only a very small amount of the total of clothing that turns into waste every year. There is still a need to promote awareness of such activities in the media and through the stores themselves such as in their publicity campaigns and social media. In this respect, I think Mode Off still has some way to go in promoting the need for recycling textiles. As such, there is still room for a recycle-oriented society to grow. 

Spaces In-Between: Shops at Ameyokocho, Ueno

In his book, East Asia Modern: Shaping the Contemporary City, Peter Rowe discusses the idea of spaces in between buildings and urban blocks and how this either relates to traditional village life or to commercialized spaces in a busy city (121). In particular, he mentions how extensive these visual effects are in intensely developed areas such as the commercial zone in front of Ueno Park (130). He categorizes these visual elements into an order of three: 1) signage and other advertising are incorporated into urban spaces in such a way that it conveys a "strong vertical dimension"(132), 2) the same advertising devices cover the entire facade of a building in a way that is not intrusive to both its inhabitants and its overall appearance, and 3) signs can be read "as a kind of running text" by pedestrians passing by or across the street. Rowe also states that these three parts combine to paint a highly visual sensation (132). 


If we consider Ameyokocho, Ueno, specifically the area of the main street adjacent to Mode Off, we will find that the area mostly conforms to the order of visual elements that Rowe has mentioned. 


First of all, we have 1) signage masquerading as upward extensions of buildings:

On the top right hand corner of the picture, we have the Mode Off signage, complete with its own lights to highlight the visual element at night, followed by that of another store somewhere in the middle of the picture. Both are structures that are not originally part of their corresponding buildings, but became so for purposes of advertisement. Both advertising devices also literally add to the height of the buildings, which create the sense that they are taller and more important than they originally are. 


Secondly, we have 2) signage which covers the entire outer appearance of the building in a way that blends into it:

In the picture above, banners and signs on the lower half of the image cover the white/grey spaces of the otherwise plain buildings. There are so many of them that it looks like they are overcrowding and encroaching on the free spaces of the buildings. However, the many different colors, shapes and fonts present a colorful picture of a busy city which has much to offer, such as (in this case): food, shopping, and other commercial services.  


If we look closely at the ground level in the picture below, we realize that these advertising devices are not, as Rowe says, limited to being on the premise of the building itself, but also between buildings and on the floor within the confines of the shops:

Bridging the two buildings in front of a small street is a huge sign named 上中 that characterizes one of the several complicated small streets of Ameyokocho. This marking is quite important, especially for first-time visitors to Ueno, since it is quite easy to get lost in the maze of similar-looking alleys and shops. Between the two buildings and in the shop itself like the jewelry shop on the bottom right hand side of the picture, signs are also placed to signal the presence of the shops. Somehow the main signage usually place above the entrance of the shop is no longer prominent enough to attract customers and shops require the aid of other banners and posters hung elsewhere to point to customers that they need to come patronize the stores. 


Lastly, we have 3) the "running text" sort of signage:

The "running text" is especially visible on the main street, where the banners and signs face the drivers of automobiles as well as riders and passengers in other types of transport. Of course, they are also meant to be read by pedestrians as Rowe says, but in the case of this picture, the banners on the top right hand corner appear to be angled and placed for the sakes of those on the road.

In comparison, the banners in between buildings on a small street like in the picture below, where cars rarely pass through, are ordered in a haphazard stacked manner that one cannot possibly see everything at one glance:

These signs, I argue, are then aimed at pedestrians since one can only full read each sign as they advance along the small street. Again, this "running text" aspect seems to convey the sense of a city culture that is exploding with too many things to do and see. 


In fact, Rowe explains the installation of signage with: 1) in history, banners and flags have traditionally been used in East Asian cities as a form of decoration and advertisement, 2) competition between establishments resulted in the "use of all available space for signage and advertising"(133), and 3) "there is an element of self-perpetuation and expectation in this practice"(133), that signage became to symbolize retail districts and this tradition has not stopped since then. 


I think this is true not just for signage attached to buildings, but also for advertising devices within the confines of the shop itself. Taking the example of Mode Off, which I may have mentioned a few times before so please bear with me: 1) banners and signs in the store not only liven up the atmosphere of the place, they also indicate information like a sale or the arrival of new items, 2) competition for space and customers in recent times has led to hard sell even within the space of the store - this is not just limited to the visual aspect but also audio (in the form of announcements) and face-to-face contact in touting for customers like in the picture below: 

The person in a white shirt in the middle is actually an employee of Mode Off touting for customers just outside the store. I suppose this is an example of using all available space and means to attract customers to come to their store. Lastly, which I think links to Rowe's notion of perpetuating local expression, 3) the practice of having signage and advertisements has been so ingrained in Japanese consumer culture, together with keigo, shop girls and layers of wrapping, that it is hard to imagine another way of shopping in Japan. The service industry in Japan is arguably the top in Asia and one of the top in the world, and it would be a mistake to say that their promotional techniques have nothing to do with, because I think it has everything to do with it. Everything that the employees do at Mode Off is for the purposes of attracting more customers and getting them to purchase or sell more items and increasing their overall sales.


To end off, I would like to make the point that promotion is so avid (at least in Ueno) that even before a store is due to open, signage and other advertising devices are already put in place, like in this example:

If this doesn't look familiar to you, it is because it isn't. This is the new eatery (read: fast food) which will replace the ramen shop opposite Mode Off and next to McDonald's. At this point in time, it clearly hasn't opened for business and is in the midst of interior renovation, but this hasn't stopped its management from promoting the food outlet in the form of banners and signage. This just adds to the busy nature of the city - that business never really stops because a closed store just means an opportunity to open another one. 


I know I haven't posted on Green House even though I said I would in the previous post, but I haven't gotten the chance to go back and gather more information. So I will try to do that in the next post.

The Department Store as Pioneer of Mass Consumption of Material Goods

My apologies for the long break between the last post and this one - I took time off to do the term paper so now I'm back. In the previous post, I mentioned that I would do a comparison of the other stores I've been keeping tabs on so I will do it here. But before looking at the other stores, I would like to consider the idea of the department store from Edo to Taisho era as illustrated by Edward Seidensticker in Low City, High City.


According to Seidensticker, Mitsui (now Mitsukoshi) survived the Edo period and beyond due to a few factors: 1) the company stuck to its practices of adhering a fixed price on their products, 2) it adapted from a specialty store to become a department store, characteristic of an initially Western tradition, 3) it promoted its goods by providing its customers with culture and entertainment in addition to merchandise (110-111). All these factors transformed the experience of mass consumption with things such as display cases for goods, shop girls, elevators, entertainment facilities within the vicinity of the shopping center, central heating, and perhaps most importantly, an aggressive advertising campaign which literally stood in Shimbashi Station. The result of an advertising culture promoting the department store was a creation of fashion and trends during the Taisho era (279), and thus the relationship between advertising and fashion in our world today can be said to be inseparable. 


The department store born in late Meiji paved the way for not just the department stores which exist in modern Tokyo, but that of any shop today, especially in its qualities of being adaptable to change and catering to the customers' needs beyond just supplying products directly. In a recycle shop like Mode Off, the last thing anybody might expect is an exceptionally orderly system of buying and selling that actually strongly encourages customers not to just buy but also to sell their goods. Promotion can be said to be aggressive as it sometimes entails the shop employees shouting out to customers on the street just outside the shop, which reminisces the shop girls of before. The customers' comfort in shopping is also catered for, with so-called trendy music, central heating/air-conditioning and minimal waiting time, which adds to the experience of a typical customer. Lastly, the emphasis on trends and fashion is extremely high, with a quick turnover of products that adheres accordingly to the current season and demand of the customers, thus revealing the sort of adaptability to change that their predecessors in the Edo period had.


If we were to compare Mode Off with high fashion shops such as Forever21, Uniqlo and the latter's subsidiary, g.u., we would realize that they are not all that dissimilar and that they can be related back to the concept of the department store in late Meiji. Let's start with the example of Forever21. A first look at the website targeting Japanese customers shows this:

The website is attractive to say the least, with its very colorful and friendly image that would appeal to the company's main target consumers: young women who are concerned about fashion and want the items to be pocket-friendly at the same. Now, this is not too different from Mode Off, Uniqlo or g.u., except that the first two also welcome slightly older ladies. Promotion in the F21 website tends to be high, with the slide show changing every 6 seconds and illustrating a theme or trend for its target consumers to latch on to so they might be tempted to buy their products. Another example of a trend shows this:

This is obviously taken from the original American website, meant for an American customer base on account of Independence Day. Yet, it is also used for the Japanese website, even though the initial meaning might be lost on a Japanese customer base. Nevertheless, the symbols of America printed on clothing may still seem attractive and exotic to the Japanese customers, who want to be trendy like their American counterparts. Advertising and fashion are thus carved into the site as inseparable elements. The experience of providing beyond just the merchandise is also taken care of as there are some English words mixed into the Japanese characters, which might seem cool to the customers. The models are also predominantly foreign since the pictures are taken from the original American website, so this might add to the whole experience of being exotic and might prompt customers to buy so they can somehow look like these models. Lastly, the price is obviously attractive and comparable to those of Mode Off - I will elaborate on this later.


Uniqlo's website seems to also have the same kind of appeal, except the site looks a bit more flashy than that of F21:

Red is often used to highlight things that are thought to be important to the target customer like brand (UT) , price, sale, recommended products (おすすめ商品), notification of new items (新作), and special prices for the week (限定価格) with an indication of when exactly they end (7/8まで). I wonder if this is associated with the Japanese (and Chinese) tradition of using red which is connotative with something big and auspicious, but Uniqlo's site does look more jarring than F21's, although the same principles of trying to make the site more appealing to consumers apply. The "slides" also change within a span of 4 seconds - this is an image I caught when the slides were in transition:

Unlike F21 which is big on themes and trends, Uniqlo tends to employ the use of brand names to help promote its products, such as those of collaborations with uniqlo like Cath Kidston (in the first image), manga/anime tie-ins like Gundam and One piece, and movie tie-ins such as Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean, to name a few, and the latest being Harry Potter (below):

Brand recognition in Uniqlo seems to be used to attract a younger Japanese crowd made up of both guys and girls, and also foreigners who are somewhat interested in Japanese popular culture. I have heard of tourists who buy something from Uniqlo as a souvenir for themselves or friends before they head home, and Uniqlo seems to be doing really well outside of Japan. Moreover tying up with brands popular with the Japanese crowd like Cath Kidston and Franche Lippee seems to be the way to go for Uniqlo to attract local customers, since I've heard that Uniqlo has not been so popular with them in the past when it first started out.


Unlike F21, the models of Uniqlo are predominantly Japanese with some non-Japanese (or least non-Japanese-looking). Also, there is a larger tendency to rely on celebrity power, both local and international celebrities, as a means of generating more customer identification with the products, which hopefully translates to more sales. Before I move on to talk about g.u., the subsidiary of Uniqlo, and pricing, I'll just like to mention that Mode Off seems to work in the same fashion of using red as indicator of what the store thinks is important to customers. For example, some of the things that are red in Mode Off are: its logo, "sale", "new" and "change of season" signs, color of sale cart, and the color of the price on the price tag. If you realize, these things are almost exactly the same as those labelled in red for Uniqlo. To look at this further, let's look at g.u., which works on the same basic principles:

Again, the "sale" notification stands out in a way that most people cannot ignore, and in red, together with the price and "free delivery above 5000yen" notification. However, despite these similarities, I would say g.u. tries in some way to imitate F21 in promoting its fashion to young female consumers. A closer look at the website provides these images:

In order to market its products to a customer base different from Uniqlo, g.u. has created a label called "be a girl" (first image), which seems to rival F21 in style and pricing. A closer look reveals two categories of "sweet"(second image) and "cool"(third image). Like F21, g.u. uses non-Japanese-looking models specially for this label (a check on other parts of the site shows mainly Japanese models), and the photo shoot looks vaguely familiar as well, although perhaps arguably milder than that in F21's look book (below):

However, the effort for a real photo shoot in g.u. is prominent here in a way that does not resemble the Uniqlo website. Lastly, g.u.'s prices are in fact more pocket-friendly than those of Uniqlo and actually comparable to those of F21, thus making g.u. more of a draw for young female consumers as opposed to Uniqlo. From the images, a dress from g.u. "be a girl" label typically costs about 2500yen, which is average or slightly more than a dress from F21, while a top from g.u. may cost about 1500yen or less depending on the design, which is similar to one from F21. This pricing is comparable to Mode Off, where a dress can cost about 2000yen or more and a top ranges from 500 to 1500yen depending on design. The items from Uniqlo actually cost more than those from all of the above three stores.


In terms of design variety, I would say that F21 has the most designs followed by Mode Off and then Uniqlo and g.u.. A check on F21's website showed some 400 designs in a search for tops alone! On hindsight, this might not accurately reflect the number of designs they have for sale but just the number of designs they have added on the website itself, which is crazy if you think of just how many items they have and how much of a logistical nightmare it is going to incur. 


Anyhow, what can be concluded in this comparison is that: 1) promotion is definitely aggressive for all the sites reviewed, 2) advertising is inextricably tied to fashion for all the sites reviewed, 3) prices are extremely competitive, 4) a large variety of designs and appealing portrayal of goods are crucial to attracting customers, and 5) large emphasis is placed on the ease of buying e.g. being user-friendly be it on the website or in the store. These were lessons learnt from the original concept of the department store developed since late Meiji period and not only have they not waned, they have actually been developed and improved to suit modern day Tokyo. 


Considering all the above factors, the next obvious question we should ask is that: what, then, differentiates Mode Off from the rest? It's hard to point to one exact aspect and say this is the reason but I think the part that supports the environment does play a large role in promoting the products in Mode Off. This is something to think about for the next post as I end off this very long post. I will also update with pictures of Greenhouse, the recycle shop near my place then, so stay tuned!

The Summer Solstice at Mode Off

The Summer Solstice marked the start of a change of clothes (and things) on display at Mode Off. It also marked a change in the store manager's cold attitude towards me, I think - more about this later.


When I went down this afternoon on a hot, sunny and humid day, it surprised me that many things had changed. On the outside, well, there was a bright red awning extended over the sale carts:

Since it wasn't likely to rain, I assume it was meant for the customer's comfort. The minute I stepped inside the shop, I could also feel the cool breeze of the air-conditioning - quite a relief from the overwhelming heat and humidity. The inside of the shop looked completely different from when I last visited! Not only were the mannequins' clothing changed (which is normal), the racks now boasted "new" sleeveless tops such as tank tops and shorts, and even the entire contents of the display cabinet had transformed! I didn't think I would be this shocked encountering this sort of seasonal change in a store, but it was quite a big surprise for me. 

Another thing that caught me by surprise was the manager's attitude towards me today. He wasn't suddenly friendly and warm but he was at least cordial and willing to speak to me. I suspect it has to do with the fact that business that day was on the quiet side, at least according to me, or maybe with the change in season and people get all happy and sunny, or perhaps it was because I was looking like a familiar face at the shop already. Anyhow, since it also caught me by surprise, I remarked that the displays have changed for the summer season and casually asked how business was. He revealed that actually they only totally changed the right side of the store just yesterday, and that the left side was virtually untouched. Also, the "new" contents in the display cabinet were reshuffled with the ones in the display cabinet on the second floor, so the "new" contents now comprised of lots and lots of sunglasses, wallets and other accessories. The other thing I also noticed was that one section was specially arranged for the men. This was not so prominent in the previous display which focused more on the ladies' items like branded handbags. Perhaps they realized or noticed an increase in the number of men and teenage boys who not just patronize the store, but also take a peak at the first floor display cabinet. In fact, I have seen this happen quite often myself, but did not think it out of place. On hindsight, it might have been a pretty significant thing for the men to linger on the right side of the store where all the items on the racks there are for women. 

The manager also revealed that business has been slow in recent days because they had a sale and it just ended a few days ago. If you were wondering, these are pictures of the sale during that period:

I think they were trying to get rid of the "old" spring stock as much as possible before they bring in the summer clothing. As it is rather impossible to sell off all the spring clothing, it is logical to assume that they left the left side of the store i.e. spring stuff virtually untouched because they want to continue selling them since the spring and summer items look rather similar. It is also not easy to change all the displays at once overnight, so the strategy might be to change them bit by bit so that it becomes noticeable that there are "new" items arriving at the store every day. This not only acts as a form of promotion for customers, but it also makes the regulars feel happy in knowing that some part of the store has been changed for their sakes. 


I guess that makes me feel like a regular, even though I am really one in disguise, but this could explain the initial shock I experienced at first. I wanted to record these emotions before I leap into comparing Mode Off with other stores such as Green House, the recycle shop near my house, and other online high fashion stores - I am currently stalking Forever21 and Uniqlo. I promise the comparisons will be in the next post! To end off, here's the picture of the sushi place near Mode Off which I missed in the last post:

The Food Connection

This post is written partly in response to one of the suggestions that Dr Braiterman gave on nearby food outlets as well as in response to Carolyn Steel's Hungry City. So I cycled down to Mode Off last Thursday but spent most of the time standing outside the store. Here's a rough sketch of its immediate surroundings:

As you can tell from this brief sketch, Mode off (in red) is quite close to the main road, and there are many food outlets (colored yellow) nearby ranging from ramen to sushi to McDonald's. The interesting thing about five out six of the food outlets is that they can be classified as offering differing degrees of fast and/or automated food services. Now, there are a few implications here.


Firstly, the most obvious aspect is that the side street is definitely going to be crowded during mealtimes, specifically during usual lunch and dinner hours. This is an assumption still as I've yet to prove this but let's assume for now that this is the case. The question that arises is: how would the lunchtime or dinnertime crowd affect the space of the shop both inside and outside? Will an increase in traffic outside the shop necessarily lead to an increase in the number of customers who patronize it?


Secondly, the fast/automated food services seem to stretch the short span of time an average employee gets to take his/her meal, and this enables him/her to do other things during that one hour besides eating, which is what Steel talks about when she described mealtimes in cities (224). Steel comments that people are so busy doing other things besides eat during mealtimes that they have completely missed the animated atmosphere of eating out in cities. Therefore what these fast/automated food services tend to do is to encourage and hasten the pace of life in cities. Like Steel's example of the tavern(227), the food outlets we see here surrounding Mode Off are an extension of home dining and the kitchen in your own home. However, unlike the tavern and with the exception of perhaps 和民, the izakaya, there is not much of a social space in which socializing takes place all the time in the other food outlets. Before you begin to disagree and say that friends do go to such food joints and they socialize, yes I agree that is possible. But what I also have in mind are the people who patronize these joints out of convenience and by themselves so what we have here is a scenario in which people eat together but not with one another. This scene is well-illustrated by Steel's quotation of Antoine Rosny's account of the Parisian restaurant in 1801, that people enter what was still called the dining room without greeting or knowing each other, "seat themselves without looking at each other and eat separately without speaking to each other, or even offering to share their food."(231) Of course, this is taken for granted in our society today because outside the private sphere of the home, people generally mind their own business, even and, perhaps one might say, especially when it comes to public dining. In this sense, I feel that we seem to have lost this act of socializing in public food outlets.


Another thing I want to point out about the fast/automated food services is that not only do they applaud the independent diner for going to eat on his/her own and leaving other fellow diners alone, they also attempt to reassure these diners by pampering them with services so that they don't feel like they are missing anything in this eating experience. To quote Steel, "fast food is popular precisely because of what it does not provide: satiety, companionship, well-being."(245) This effectively means that to the independent diner, fast food can be his/her friend, comfort, tummy filler and perhaps even cathartic experience. And when you add the chain restaurants which are mechanically feeding you processed food after getting you to order via an automated machine to the equation, the human touch in food seems to be lost from the very beginning.


Before I digress about food further, I just like to point out the placement of the game center nearby and how this, together with the food joints popular with young people kind of determines certain demographics in their shared customers. Yet, if you stop right there and assume that only young people come to this side of the very long and winding side street, you would have missed a very robust crowd of women in their 30s and 40s. This is because next to Mode Off is a jewellery shop that serves such patrons. I think this is an advantage for Mode Off because they can attract customers from both groups. This also connects to what I've mentioned so far in previous posts about how the shop tries to project a certain image in a bid to maintain a strong customer base - mainly those who either are very trendy themselves or strive to be trendy, and trendy in this sense also has the "young" factor in it.  


Ok, I guess I will end here and give you a photo galore of the shops that are in the rough sketch:


Clockwise from the left, this is the umbrella shop. They also sell bags but mainly umbrellas and small knick knacks:

and this is the unagi shop, where I have incidentally been to with Susan once:

 this is the ramen shop next to it:

and next to it is McDonald's:

 and next to McDonald's which is very strategically placed is the large game center:

and next to this is the izakaya, otherwise known as watami:

across the street is yet another ramenya:

next to it is the sushi place, which unfortunately I missed out, so I'll show you the spectacles shop next:

and then of course we have Mode Off:

and lastly, we have the jewellery store:

 Ok I guess that ends my post today. In my next post, I am hoping to look at some small recycle shops in my neighborhood and compare them with Mode Off as part of a large organization. This is partly inspired by Susan's comment in the last lesson that Mode Off doesn't cater to the older crowd, and I've seen a few small-scale recycle shops in my neighborhood (hon-komagome) that actually do target mostly older women, so I think I'm going to have a look around for the next post so stay tuned!

Company Motto & The Business behind the Business

The Brochure


I picked up this brochure from the store some time back but hadn't had the chance to blog about it until now. The moment I laid eyes on the website, it hit me why the name was kind of familiar even though it wasn't. This is the same company that produced "Book Off"!


Anyway, this is what the brochure looks like (pardon the bad photography skills and bad lighting on the tatami of my room) in the front:

and at the back:

Before I discuss the website, I'd like to talk a bit about the brochure that I picked up. On the front, it shows pictures of relatively young consumers and shop helpers who are displaying the items for sale. This, I would argue, creates an image of a store that is hip and fashionable - not at all like one resembling a recycle shop, because very often, the ones you see here are usually old and the clothes look rather old as well. But in the case of Mode Off, the store looks awfully like a normal store selling new clothing instead of old ones. This I think is reinforced by the three small photos on the right, which seem to demonstrate an image of cleanliness and orderliness within the store, although the actual store in Ueno looks messier inside as compared to these photos. Below the photos are the company's logos, followed by examples of what the store offers for sale like outers, tops, bottoms etc, and then there are a few maps of a few stores in Tokyo. Interestingly, nothing except the company logos reveals that the goods for sale are secondhand. The image of the store presented in this brochure (at least on this side) seems to shy away from the stereotypical images of recycle shops in Tokyo, which is probably part of their marketing strategy.


At the back of the brochure is all about the "please sell to us" part. Unlike the front, which attracts customers to patronize their store and buy from them, the back is drawing customers to sell their items to them. And in order to do this, they illustrate the steps taken to sell the items, emphasizing how easy and (again) orderly it is to get rid of one's old wear. To make this deal seem even more attractive, there is a Q&A for customers who are interested but are apprehensive about certain issues, coupled with a list of some brands the store is targeting. At the very bottom, the name of the company and website is printed, so I finally know the business behind this business! Anyway, again there is this sense of professionalism in the buying process depicted at the back of the brochure, because that is what they think will appeal to customers. If customers think that this deal of selling clothes is fuss free, enterprising and, very importantly, saves the environment, they might be more than willing to swing by this store. 


I must say that I am now more impressed by how they have revamped the entire idea of the recycle shop than I was initially about the concept of the store as a recycling shop. If they've managed to present this hip and cool image of recycling and have gotten customers to buy it, there could be hope for other companies to think harder about the aspect of recycling in their businesses.


The Website


This is the URL of the company's website: http://www.hardoff.co.jp and it's also the main website for all the concept stores under the company, Hard Off, such as Mode Off, Book Off, Garage Off, Hobby Off and Off House.


Here's a snapshot of the website:

As you can tell, there is a very large support for "eco" from just one glance of their page, and there are (at the bottom left corner) a startling total of 643 stores for all their chains and only 16 of them belong to Mode Off, so I would say the latter is a relatively new concept that was developed in recent years. In fact, I think Mode Off might be the company's latest addition to their chain of recycle shops because the company only started in 2000, so it is quite shocking if you think of how much they have expanded in the last 11 years. Anyway, I want to draw your attention to the company motto here:

The motto "Reuse Nippon" has four things on the list, next to a very big recycle and reuse logo, in order of priority:

1. For the good of society
2. For the good of our customers
3. For the good of our employees
4. For the good of our company

As you can see, there is emphasis on the environment since the point on society tops the list, and below the motto, the tagline reads "in the era of ecology, our company wishes to be of help by communicating the concept of 'reuse'." I suppose this tells it all - Hard Off is a company that is riding on the "eco boom" that has been going on since the 1990s, as discussed in the previous post, by re-presenting the image of recycling in a way that is cool and accessible to customers. I feel this is really interesting because if the attitude towards consumerism can be not just about buying but also about selling, then recycling can be manageable even from the point of view of the average person. People are usually more reluctant to consider the environment if there is a lack of information about it, lack of awareness, lack of convenience to do it, but most importantly of all, lack of motivation which can be propelled by one's environment and the people also active about it. 

A check on the Mode Off section of the website shows this:

Look again at how the recycling point is almost missing from this page! It's more about pandering to the customer's desires, and yet, the items are still secondhand. If the company has a fashionable concept to sell their goods, I think this is it: customers can buy any amount of items and not feel so guilty about harming the environment. However, the cynical voice comes in, and this echoes Skov's point which I mentioned at the end of the last post, and I wonder if it is all a ploy to get customers to buy their stuff? Then again, as Skov also pointed out, who cares as long as they get people to recycle, because doing something for the environment is better than nothing, and clothes and other items covering the body is not something we can do without in our daily lives, so as minimally as we can, we can reduce the harm we bring about to the environment.  

To end off, now that we know there are 16 stores of Mode Off in total in the entire country, there are some questions that I want to keep in mind to ask the manager on my next visit:

1. Do the stores do stock exchange between stores to keep the flow of goods going, or is each store fully self-sustainable in this aspect?
2. What happens to off-season items? Do they store the stock somewhere while the current season's stock gets displayed in the store?

Un/Wrapping Mode Off and the Female Consumer

I know I did promise at the end of the previous post that this post was going to be on the company's motto and the business, but as I was reading a few articles, I felt compelled to respond to them in relation to this online project, so I'm afraid I'd like to pick up where I left off in the last post.


The first reading is one of the readings for ITASIA201, Brian Morris's "Un/Wrapping Shibuya: Place, Media and Punctualization". In Morris's analysis of the area of Shibuya, he notes that there is this "extended verticality of the street" (291). What he means is that there is a vertical spread of shops upwards and downwards which are part of the same building. In this sense, there is a spatial reach of customers in the way that the shops are densely populated with goods as well as customers, due to the efficient use of space. This relates directly to what I was talking about before in which Mode Off literally stuffs their store to the brim and makes use of even the staircases to hang clothes on. There is also a vertical spread in the space of the store itself, since it stretches up to four floors. However, as I am focusing only on the ground floor, I also noticed that there is stacking in terms of the racks. Each rack holds up to two tiers for clothes, and three or four tiers for bags, wallets and other accessories. Clothes are also stacked along the staircase, where hangers are strategically placed not just to appeal to the customers, but also to cover all the empty spaces on the staircase railings. Lastly, there is stacking in the buying process during the physical folding and unfolding as well as the use of the shelf-counter. 


Morris also mentions that there are "crucial consequences for advertising signage, which colonizes every available space in order to maximize the chances of customers finding or choosing a particular establishment to patronize"(292). This relates to the space outside the shop, where large signs are hung to advertise the store in front of the shop as well as on the side of the entire stretch of buildings facing the main road. Of course, there is also blatant advertising while the customer is within the premises of the shop itself, as mentioned in the previous post with sound recordings. This means that space is used not just physically with the signs, but also digitally with sounds and websites, thus reinforcing the image of the store before, after and during the browsing and purchasing processes.


Morris uses Joy Hendry's wrapping/unwrapping theories to emphasize how meaning is found in the wrapping process in his article, which I found particularly interesting in relation to analyzing Mode Off. First of all, we have the basic idea that clothes, bags, wallets and other accessories in the shop wrap the body. This reflects an overwhelming concern with fashion in Japanese society with issues such as how should one dress the body, and how can one look good. Secondly, clothes in the store function as advertisements (as mentioned in the previous post) in the form of promotional materials to wrap up the shop. In fact, even the use of paper bags brought in by the customers are employed for this purpose! And yet, one could also argue, depending on how you look at it, that the shop is bare (unwrapped), since everything for sale is displayed as it is. There are no "display" pieces in the store for trying and purchase pieces for customers like in the large departmental stores, because in this store, you get what you see on the racks. In this sense, there is no inner level of deception. The customers know that the clothes are secondhand and therefore some aspects attached to secondhand clothes are to be expected. At the center of this wrapping and unwrapping lies the question of recycling: where does recycling play a role in the wrapping/unwrapping process?


The second reading is Lise Skov's “Environmentalism Seen Through Japanese Women’s Magazines”, which I found randomly while looking for books for my own research. Skov examines magazines for young unmarried women from their teens to their late twenties which were published in 1990 when environmentalism became a hit in the form of a phenomenon called "ecology boom". She noted that "women’s magazines featured headlines such as ‘Ecological summer’ and ‘We love the Mother Earth’, but references to actual environmental politics were few and far between. Rather, ecology excelled as a style, apparently detached from the problems that had given birth to the trend." (171) This is interesting as a cross-analysis to the concept of Mode Off, because in a critical point of view, the magazines, like the store, may want to be part of the boom or what is trendy and fashionable at the time, but want none of the problems associated to actual environmentalism. So the question is: is Mode Off focusing on ecology because it is an appealing and trendy concept to its consumers or is it because they it truly cares for the environment? 


Skov has pointed out that "The translation of environmental concern into consumer culture has by no means been exclusive to Japan,"(171) since many women’s magazines have since taken up issues of environmentalism, and designers of different nationalities have not only donated parts of their incomes to environmental movements, but also worked to develop less polluting production methods and explore the possibilities of recycling. However, what makes the Japan case so unique is that environmental concern was adopted by the media in a very immediate and thorough manner, thereby creating an ecology boom, which "was celebrated in Japan with the launch of a torrent of so-called ecology products, many of which had little or no positive impact on the environment."(171) There is then this implication of whether or not the image that shows that one is aware of the environment is more important than the actual awareness itself. Is the theme of recycling in Mode Off just for show or as a means to boost sales in promoting its name as a environment-friendly store?


Skov goes on to note that "in general, women are the main activists in Japanese environmental groups –hardly surprising in a society marked by a pervasive gender segregation and full employment with long daily working hours for practically all men."(188) A 1993 estimate by Iwao showed that approximately 10% of the married, suburban women who do not hold any employment are involved in a social movement – frequently one focusing on consumer issues such as eliminating pesticides and chemical additives in food, avoiding pollution by synthetic detergents, or promoting recycling. Of course, the figures would have increased rapidly since then as this was an old survey. However, what the figure does show is that women are concerned about the environment and many are active in the recycling process. This is similarly reflected in the proportionally large number of female customers in Mode Off, which is probably a factor why three out of four floors are allocated to serving their needs in the first place.

Finally, in her conclusion, Skov maintains that "the selling point of ecology is precisely that it is more than ‘just a fashion’. It encourages potential consumers to look behind the appearances of media images to see whether commodities are produced in an environmentally sound way, to know in what direction product development is going, and to check whether companies donate money towards the protection of the environment."(193) This, I think, sums up the attitudes of Mode Off's customers towards the shop. Although the relationship between the ‘image’ and the ‘awareness’ of ecology may not be straight-forward, people are often critical of this relationship, and "a company which advertises its care for nature runs the risk of losing more than its credibility if it is revealed that there is no action behind the environmental image." (193) Therefore, in the end, an attempt at trying to get people to participate in recycling of any sort is better than nothing at all. 

I guess in my attempt to deal with the shop during the period of this online research, many questions did pop up in my head such as: do they really care about the environment at all or are they just doing this for the profit? I'm not sure if I can find answers for them but I suppose I can try while revealing more about the shop. This links nicely to my next post, which will be about the company motto and its business(es).