While you should always endeavor to be a real person on Twitter or other social media, you can’t always be online. I’ve started filling in those non-online times with scheduled tweets. FutureTweets makes scheduling simple and easy.

Here is a short list of WordPress based pages:

1. The Official WordPress Showcase
2. Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations (Our client’s site. Includes e-commerce functionality)
3. Hawaii Tea Society (NPO) (Our client’s site. Includes membership functionality)

Translated from Visualzoo.com:

This graph shows the expenditures of foreign visitors to Japan. While both domestic and international travel by Japanese tend to peak in August, foreign travel to Japan characteristically peaks in April and October.

Although expenditures by foreign travelers shows an upward trend, as with domestic travel, expenditures have slowed as a result of recession in the past few years.

April and October…cherry blossom and fall leaves?

This one is another very cool one in English:

Interested in more?

Check out this collection of 15 videos: http://www.marcofolio.net/video/15_stunning_motion_typography_videos.html

The beauty, practicality, and craftsmanship of traditional Japanese crafts have fascinated me for a very long time, ever since I began studying the Japanese tea ceremony. I was presented with the opportunity to investigate the potential of growing foreign markets for traditional Japanese crafts industry as I wrote my MBA dissertation, Physical and Virtual Exhibitions of Traditional Japanese Crafts: How to Increase Consumer Perception in the UK, at Roehampton University.

As part of my investigation, I conducted a survey with consumers in the UK to discover how physical exhibitions including those at art galleries, department stores, trade shows, and restaurants and virtual exhibitions via websites, social networks, blogs and other online exhibition formats influence consumer awareness of traditional Japanese crafts in the UK.

The survey revealed that although virtual communications based on the internet is increasingly important, physical exhibitions which encourage consumers to understand the products through the five senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch are quite influential on consumer purchasing decisions. This interesting result shows the importance of reconsidering promotional strategies that are more and more Internet based. In the traditional crafts industry in particular, how physical and virtual exhibitions may be integrated to support each other is challenging.

Furthermore, the survey indicated that Japanese culture, including woodcut prints, animation and Japanese food, is popular in the UK; however, there are not many people who know about traditional crafts. Japanese paper, pottery, porcelain, textiles and swords are already well known, although lacquer ware, wood and metal crafts need to develop consumer awareness. Products made in Japan generally benefit from consumer trust, especially regarding the high quality. This is partly because leading Japanese brands in a variety of industries have been successful worldwide and cultivated trust with consumers. The brand strength of “Made in Japan” has enhanced the attractiveness of Japanese products in general. Similarly, consumers in the UK consider that traditional Japanese crafts are beautiful, unique and high quality. In fact, there are some collectors of Japanese crafts who spend a large amount of money in purchasing crafts. Unfortunately, there are not many high quality and authentic Japanese crafts in the UK market so far, and consumers have few opportunities to experience or purchase crafts in their everyday life. In order to develop foreign markets for the crafts industry and increase the value of traditional Japanese crafts, brand-building should be further investigated. Promoting not only products but artisans and history as well to enrich the background stories of the crafts, and emphasizing the practicality of crafts would be effective to support brand-building in the UK market.

My research has shown that the industry has high potential to increase consumer awareness of Japanese crafts and sales in the country. Promoting traditional Japanese crafts can protect artisans’ special skills. It also increases the awareness of Japanese culture in countries around the world. In Europe, consumer perception of Japanese culture seems quite high in France and to a lesser extent in the UK; however, in other countries, there is much room to grow. Such activity would enhance Japan’s economic and political status from the point of view of “Soft Power”. It would be challenging for the family-based crafts industry; however, values of traditional Japanese crafts not only in Japan but worldwide should be investigated more carefully and highlighted.

In order to support the movement, I will continue my journey to promote Japanese crafts and culture in foreign countries—for instance, organizing physical exhibitions in each country where consumers can experience traditional Japanese crafts, learn their values, and learn how to use them in their daily lives. Furthermore, considering the accessibility to the crafts for foreigners, establishing online exhibitions would be highly informative and beneficial to the growth of the industry outside of Japan.

Naomi Ohki: Graduated with a degree in Cross Cultural Studies at Kobe University. After working for advertising agencies and a cosmetic company as a PR, she completed her MBA at Roehampton University in London in 2009. She currently lives in Seoul, South Korea and promotes Japanese culture and crafts as a freelance professional.