“Familiarity can no longer be a necessary condition for trust. We also confuse trust with familiarity
Robert C. Solomon Quote
To play their part in building a trusting relationship between the general public & market research, GRBN recently conducted The Global Trust Survey 2020 with many partners globally, including Rakuten Insight. Globally, approximately 10,000 people participated and in Japan, 1,000 participants came from Rakuten Insight’s proprietary panel.
Amongst many highlights was one chart showing Japan standing alone in the category which exhibits very low familiarity of the collection & usage of personal data combined with high concern of misuse.
At first view this can feel contradictory. The Germanic approach whereby once familiar with personal data usage, they start to feel more relaxed can be seen to be more logical. Likewise low familiarity & low concern is easier to imagine.
However, in Japan, although sensitive to data being misused, they seemingly don’t really make any efforts to get familiar with the laws. Two important values in Japanese business culture shed light on this situation – convenience & omotenashi (customer first).
Convenience isa highly regarded commodity in Japan. It’s a society where there is 24-hour shopping, automatic car doors and vending machines selling everything you may need at the push of a button, even opening a door can seem inconvenient! So Japanese consumers expect a convenient solution from companies who use their personal data, and they do not expect to have to understand the regulations themselves.
At the same time, Japanese consumers tend to have high expectations from companies that they will both intuitively understand their concern and manage their personal data properly. This expectation is that companies will demonstrate omotenashi or ‘customer first’ mindset.
Omotenashi has been central to Rakuten Insight for over 20 years but there are a broad range of different values contained in the word due to the cultural context of ‘customer service’ itself. In the West, salesmen have followed the mantra ‘customer is king’. In post war Japan, folk singer Haruo Minami coined the phrase ‘okyakusama wa kamisama desu’ or ‘Customers are Gods’. The original intended meaning was that if you imagine your audience are Gods, you will perform better and gain more personal satisfaction. However, this was misinterpreted and used by marketers, evolving to mean that one should worship one’s customers. Values included in omotenashi are a sense of wholehearted, sincerity, customer centric, anticipation of needs, caring touch, dedication, detailed & full attention. Omotenashi would be the expectation towards the collection & usage of their personal data.
When conducting research in Japan, it is a common experience to see the market as an outlier or identify apparent contradictions. However, with the support of those who know the culture, we can usually see that Japanese consumers have more in common with other markets than differences. Trust, familiarity & concern no longer need to confuse.
Neil Cantle
Rakuten Insight
Neil Cantle, Regional Head at Rakuten Insight lived in Japan for approximately 5 years and worked in Japanese companies for another 7 years. He speaks fluent Japanese and also has a deep understanding of the culture. Neil has experience of conducting research in Japan from fieldwork through to reporting for several blue-chip clients including RB, ITG and Amex and helped clients by providing cultural context and cross-cultural ‘translation’ through consultancy during research studies as well as conducting and attending Japan specific workshops. Neil is married to a Japanese national
