40-41_Grid 22/11/2017 11:37 Page 2
International Focus
A TASTE OF THE Trading is improving on the Nikkei exchange in Tokyo, which bodes well for UK greeting card publishers! “We always know that when the Tokyo stock exchange is up then sales of greeting cards from UK publishers will increase too,” reveals Kayoko Kubo, general manager of Toy Symphony, a leading distributor of UK publishers in Japan. PG enjoyed a whistle-stop tour of some key greeting card retailers in Tokyo to give a flavour of the Japanese market. If you were beamed in to the ground floor of the flagship branch of Itoya (a nine storey emporium dedicated to greeting cards and stationery), or found yourself in the middle of the card and stationery department of upmarket department store Isetan, or even descended into the top floor of the National Azabu supermarket, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Japanese public are as keen on UK greeting cards as they are on sushi and green tea. As soon as you walk through the door of Itoya, a fabulous store which celebrates all things stationery, you are greeted with leading ‘familiar faces’ - including The Art File, Ling and Five Dollar Shake - as well as cards from niche players, such as Louise Mulgrew Designs, Lola Designs and Rose Hill Designs. In fact, it is not until you reach the floor above that many Japanese cards are featured, and then they tend to be elaborate ‘wallet cards’ designed specifically to hold money with designs catering for weddings, funerals and new baby. If Itoya is the Japanese equivalent of Paperchase, then Isetan department store is right up there at least on a par
40
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Below: The front of the nine storey Itoya flagship in Tokyo’s Ginza area. Below middle: So many UK greeting card publishers’ designs are on sale in Itoya. Bottom left: Part of the greeting card department in an Isetan upmarket department store Bottom right: Young Japanese women in their hired kimonos ready for a day out in Tokyo.
with Harrods, Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges. There, displayed on polished wooden fixtures that few retailers could ever deem to afford, the ‘great and the good’ of Tokyo can take their pick from the foiled delights from Belly Button Designs, Wendy JonesBlackett and Sara Miller collections, among others. Elsewhere, UK card publishers receive a good airing too – including in branches of Maruzen, a WHSmith equivalent. Even here, amidst a much stronger showing from Japanese publishers (the designs of which at present show a distinct leaning to celebrating autumn) are plenty of designs from UK publishers, including Paper Rose, Second Nature and Noel Tatt. And in some ways, National Azabu, a boutique supermarket group that sees itself as the Waitrose of Tokyo, takes its support of UK greeting cards even further, being one of the few retailers in the country to stock a wide selection of ages and relations captioned cards. But before card retailers start planning a mass exodus to open branches in the pearl of the Orient, and card publishers book their first class flights to the land of the rising sun, Kayoko Kubo, general manager of Toy Symphony, a leading distributor of UK publishers in Japan, puts it into perspective. Having worked for the company for over 25 years, and together with the company founder Hiroshi Kawamura,