Facing a shrinking list of people they owe, Japanese shoppers are being asked to thank the one person who never lets them down: themselves.
TOKYO, Japan (Catchpenny Asia) – Japan’s department stores have unveiled their year-end gift catalogs with a bold new target customer: the person holding the catalog. Facing a nation of shoppers who have quietly stopped buying presents for their bosses, their in-laws and that one dentist they still feel indebted to, retailers are now encouraging consumers to wrap something nice, hand it to themselves with both hands, and bow.
The push, outlined in The Japan Times’ look at department stores boosting their self-gifting lineups, arrives just as the country absorbs another round of grocery price increases. Retail analysts describe the timing as either a masterstroke or a cry for help, depending on which floor of the building they work on.
The Rise of the One-Person Oseibo
Traditionally, oseibo is the winter gift season in which Japanese households send boxed ham, premium beer, or a single melon priced like a used scooter to people who did them favors over the year. The custom runs on obligation, gratitude and a deep national fear of being the only family on the street that sent canned peaches.
That system has been eroding for years as companies abandon corporate gift-giving and younger workers decline to thank anyone for anything. Department stores, which once depended on the season the way ski resorts depend on snow, have responded by redefining the recipient.
“We realized our most loyal customer has always been the customer,” said Hiroshi Tanabe, head of seasonal strategy at the Marukiya department store in Nihonbashi, standing beside a display of single-serving wagyu labeled “For Me, From Me, With Respect.” “She knows her own size. She never regifts. She sends a thank-you note immediately, because she is already there.”
Marukiya’s catalog this year includes a 12,000 yen box of six individually wrapped strawberries, each with a small card reading “You did your best,” and a 38,000 yen “Year in Review” set containing a bath towel, a bottle of sake and a framed printout of the buyer’s own overtime hours.
Prices Rise, So Self-Esteem Must Follow
The timing is not accidental. With nearly 1,500 food and beverage items scheduled to cost more this month, consumers are already paying extra for basics, and some economists believe self-gifting is simply what happens when a population can no longer buy groceries without first congratulating itself.
“There is a psychological threshold,” said Dr. Ayumi Kojima, a consumer behavior researcher at the Kanto Institute of Retail Feelings. “When soy sauce goes up again, a person can either feel defeated, or buy herself a 9,000 yen jar of yuzu marmalade and feel like an aristocrat who is being defeated. The second option moves more product.”
Kojima’s team surveyed 400 shoppers in Tokyo and Osaka and found that 63 percent had purchased a gift for themselves in the past year, 22 percent had written themselves a card, and 4 percent had sent themselves a formal letter of apology after checking the receipt.
The Floor Memo Nobody Was Supposed to See
An internal notice circulated to sales staff at one Ginza department store, shown to Catchpenny Asia by an employee who asked not to be named because she still has 14 months left on her loan, sets out the new etiquette for self-gift transactions.
NOTICE TO ALL GIFT COUNTER STAFF: When a customer indicates the gift is for herself, do not ask “Who is the lucky recipient?” Instead say “She will be very happy.” Offer to deliver the package to the customer’s home. If the customer is carrying it home herself, offer delivery anyway, then hand the package back to her at the store entrance with a second bow. Noshi paper should read “Otsukaresama” and nothing else. Under no circumstances should staff write “Sorry about the economy.”
Asked whether staff found the rituals strange, a 24-year-old clerk on the basement food floor shrugged. “Yesterday a man bought a melon, asked me to wrap it, then asked me to watch while he opened it and acted surprised,” she said. “It was the most sincere thing I have seen all year.”
Comedians Report the Material Shortage Is Over
The trend has been a gift of its own to Tokyo’s stand-up scene, where comics had reportedly been running low on department store jokes since several suburban branches closed.
“My mother sent me an oseibo box every winter for 20 years,” said Kenta Morishima, who performs at a basement club in Koenji. “This year she called and said, ‘I’ve decided to send it to myself instead. You can visit and look at it.’ That’s not a gift. That’s a museum with a guilt fee.”
Fellow comedian Yui Hasegawa said she has embraced the custom fully. “I gave myself a 15,000 yen box of rice crackers,” she told a crowd in Shimokitazawa. “Now I owe myself a return gift worth half the value, because that’s the rule. I’m in debt to me. I have never been so popular with someone I can’t stand.”
Producers Watch Nervously From the Orchard
Not everyone in the supply chain is celebrating. Fruit growers who serve the luxury gift market say the shift from family obligation to personal indulgence has changed what sells. Elaborate presentation boxes are out; smaller portions at larger prices are in. One Yamanashi grape grower said the squeeze reminded him of the American dairy herds in a farm report about cows rejecting the budget menu and eating the spreadsheet instead. “At least the cows got fed,” he added.
Meanwhile, readers polled by the American humor magazine Bohiney at bohiney.com were split on whether the custom would spread abroad. Most respondents said they already buy themselves gifts, but have never once had the decency to wrap them.
What Comes Next for Year-End Gifting
Retailers are already planning phase two. Marukiya has announced a loyalty card that rewards customers for gifting themselves on a regular schedule, plus a premium tier that mails the shopper a handwritten thank-you letter from herself, composed by staff, three days after purchase.
The Japan Self-Gift Association, a trade body formed last spring with two members and a laminated logo, is lobbying for a national holiday on which citizens exchange presents with no one in particular. A spokesman said the group was confident the proposal would pass, since several lawmakers had already bought themselves something nice to celebrate.
Back at the Nihonbashi gift counter, Tanabe watched a woman in her sixties purchase a single persimmon in a cedar box for 4,800 yen, then hand it to herself with a deep bow. She did not say thank you. “Of course not,” Tanabe said. “She is waiting to see what she gets herself in return.”
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/