Japanese Consumer Creativity User Innovations, Role Playing and Consumer Communities

This book explores how the process of adapting global products for local markets, a process in which consumers are increasingly involved, has become a rich source of product innovation. It examines a range of concepts, including product domestication and localisation, collaborative branding, product hybridisation, portrayals and perceptions of images of beauty, and the contrast between imagined and actual consumers. The book thereby provides rich insights on the interaction between business producers and individuals’ differing cultures of consumption in evolving globalised and localised marketplaces.

1. Introduction Heung-wah Wong and Miki SugiuraPart 1: Co-Creation and User Innovation Process in East Asia 2. We Are All In This Together: The Changing Role of Consumers in Brand Co-Creation Paradigm Shinji Oyama 3. Creating Market Place for User Innovation in Japan Kohei Nishiyama, Cuusoo. Com and Lars Bo Jeppesen 4. Role duality of Consumer and Developer. Creativity of elderly care product development in Tokyo Down Town Area Hidemichi Miyake Part 2: Domesticating, Remaking and its Intra-Repercussions 5. Borders of Imitation, Remaking and Self-Recreation. The case of Japanese "Select-Shops" Miki Sugiura 6. Domesticating the Foreign: Remaking Coffee in Taiwan Sumei Wang 7. From Japanese Adult Videos to Taiwanese A-Pian: A Telling Case of "Inventiveness" of Tradition Dixon Wong Heung-wah and Yvonne Yau Hoi-yan Part 3: Imaginary Role Playing and Consumer Communities: Case of Women 8. Advertising and the Technology of Enchantment: The Portrayal of Beauty in Women’s Fashion Magazines Brian Morean 9. "Housewives" as Imaginary Consumers in the Media in Postwar JapanKeiko Murase 10. Maids in Akihabara: Fantasy, Consumption and Role-playing in Tokyo Erica Baffelli and Keiko Yamaki

Heung-wah Wong is at the University of Hong Kong Miki Sugiura is at Tokyo International University