American Express and 12 hours of sleep

I went to bed at 6pm last night, to wake up at 6am this morning. *This was a good decision, seeing as I had not slept more than 5 hours any one night since arriving in Japan, and it was starting to take its toll.  I had my blood pressure taken on the street, 160/79; I’m assuming it was an error, but could also be the effect of days sans rest/pachinko (see picture below).  :-P

Today will be Mount Fuji, I’ll be sure to post some pictures up later in the day.

 Yesterday was our last formal meeting with a Japanese corporation.  American Express was gracious enough to give our group a formal executive presentation describing the B2C dynamics of their industry in Japan.  This was a fascinating look at the internal perceptions held by a fortune 500 company operating abroad.  Some of the basic Japanese trends they alluded to included:  a high contextual/group/relationship oriented culture, detail driven, quality demanding, and of course exceptionally high standards regarding service.  Interesting, a high level of customer service is hard to articulate in promotions, due to the fact that it is assumed that an organization will give service only at a 100% level.  What I found to be most striking was the level at which Japanese credit card users’ pay off their monthly balance, 83.5%!  This is in stark contrast to the 54% of Americans who pay in full monthly.  This 83.5% is also in contrast to how Japanese people view national debt, which is very high.  High Japanese national debt could be an indication of a disconnect between the Japanese citizenry and their government/represented officials.

The use of cell phones as an integrated means of communication, banking (being used as credit cards), GPS, and entertainment, is omnipresent.  Smart phone integration with the world of B2C is staggering, an example could be the 30,000,000 Japanese using an app which provides discounts to McDonalds.  That means ¼ of the population of Japan has McDonald’s sending them direct and relevant communications!  What I also find as amazing, is that fact that because of its sheer market potential and relevance, this already developed concept, in many ways represents a technology in its infancy.