Family Mart

Family Mart is a convenient store chain that opened in Japan in 1981, and is own by the FamilyMart co ltd. As its competitors Family mart sell mangas, drinks, prepared food like onigiri, bento etc, but also fist need products like shampoo.

We all know that the group notion is one of the most important in Asia (they have franchises store in Thailand South Korea, Taiwan and China) and especially in Japan that’s why Family Mart play on this field to attract people by saying "FamilyMart, Where You Are One of the Family."

The company has more than thirteen thousand shops worldwide and six thousand only in Japan, and represents its biggest market. Since 2005, Family Mart want to enter the USA, they plan to open 250 in Los Angeles by 2009. They will adapt their stategy by calling their shops “Famima”

In France there are no convenient stores like Family Mart or any of their competitors that are open all night long every day. The equivalents are small independent shops were we can find only food and drinks at expensive price, those shop are not open all the night, they generally close between eleven pm and one am.

Camel Tobacco in Japan

Camel is an American tobacco brand introduce by RJ Reynold Tobacco Company in 1993. The name, the packaging style and the logo was found in the early 20^th when traveling so far was in vogue, Camel by this way supposedly that nicely.

In France as in America and all over the world, Camel is one of the two most smoked tobacco brand (the other is Marlboro) and have more than fifty different kind of cigarettes like Filters, Medium, Light, Menthol. They sometime make limited exotic blend edition as Samsun, Rare, and other Bayou blast. To faithful their customer and push other brand’s smoker to buy Camel, the company regularly do special limited edition packages and boxes that people can collect.

Here in Japan, it is very difficult to find any Camel tobacco, few convenient stores like 7 eleven or AM PM or even cigarette dispensers have Camel blend to sale. The only Camel I have seen was “Camel Menthol” and “Camel Crush” which are both menthol cigarettes.

As Japanese people smoke Menthol for most, Camel have adapted their marketing to Japan (indeed, I have never seen Menthol Camel’s both in France and in USA) to compete the giants of Menthol cigarettes which are “KOOL” and Marlboro”.

Yakult

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Yakult is a Japanese Probiotic milk made with protein L casei.

The begining :

The company that produces this drink is Yakult Honsha, created by Minoru Shirota, graduated from the Medial School of Kyoto.
He started to produce his drink in 1935, in a way to create a great taste of yogurt (yogurt = yakult...)

After being sold all over Japan and Asian countries, it was introduced in Western Countries first in Brazil, in 1966. Today it is sold everywhere.

The product :
The ingredients of the little bottle are : sugar, skim milk powder, dextrose, natural flavours, L-Casei, water.
Japaneese love this drink. It is viewed as a medicine but in the way to keep the good taste of a yogurt. While drinking Yakult, they enjoy the taste while keeping a good health.
Moreover, its small size encourages the consumer to take it every day, as a medicine ; it is quick to drink, small (you can put it in your bag if you don't have time to take it).

We can find Yakult in vending machine (in some subway stations we can find Yakult Vending machine) at a price of 80 Yens each small bottle (standard size)





Yakult in other countries :
It is drunk in most countries in the world, but sizes and tastes change.
In fact, in Australia, Europe and Indonesia, 65ml are the bottle you can find. In America and Philippines, it is 80ml.
In Singapore and Taiwan, 100ml. Singapore is the only country where you can find orange, apple and grape taste.

In France, Yakult is less consumed because of Actimel by Danone. People drink more Actimel than Yakult, only because of the advertising and the selling (you can find more Actimel than Yakult)

Tokyo no chikatetsu

The Tokyo underground is composed of two major companies, Toei and Tokyo Metro. There is another line called the Yamanote line but it is something different from the underground, it is a suburban circular line with a lot of correspondence with the underground. The Tokyo Metro is composed of nine different lines whereas the Toei has only four lines. As far as ratemaking is concerned, it depends of the route, calculated thanks to the number of kilometers made; the price of each route could be seen on the subway’s map. The minimum price of a route is one hundred and sixty yen.

In France the system is quiet different. There is only one company which is in charge of the “intra muros” Parisian subway and the suburban’s lines that we call RER. The ratemaking system don’t depends of the kilometers made but the network is divided in 6 areas: Areas one and two represent Paris then further you go in the suburban more you pay. The price for a ticket in Paris is one euro seventy, which is more expensive than in Tokyo but it is a unique price. The Tokyo underground works out more expensive than the “Métropolitain”.

Kidsbeer

Kidsbeer or “Kodomo no biru” is Guarana-based soft drink for children presented more like a beer than a soda. Since the owner of Asaba restaurant gave this beverage the name of Kidsbeer the sales skyrocket to 75,000 bottle a month. I think this is a weird concept as the legal age for Japanese to drink alcohol is 20 years old, it push kids to use to drink something they know as beer and may conduct to alcoholism.
In another hand drinking beer after work with colleague seems to be a kind of cultural thing in Japan. As I can see every night, lots of Japanese workers go to the restaurant after work and drink beers to relax from their hard day work. In addition the will of children to imitate their parent show why such a kind of product can reach such a number of bottles sold.
In France, we have a product that use the same concept; a non-alcoholic beverage for kids, that is an imitation of an alcoholic one. Champomy is a apple-juice based soft drink that is a imitation of the famous French Champagne. Maybe this situation is different than kidsbeer because Champagne in France is a cultural product known around the world; it is a way for children to discover this traditional drink without alcohol.