All Nippon Airways (ANA) has released new content for its special website, Is Japan Cool?, which is designed to evoke demands for overseas travel to Japan.
The new content is geared towards Japan’s shopping culture, a popular attraction among foreign travellers. From shopping in Tokyo with cutting-edge goods from around the world in one place, and traditional crafts that are uniquely Japanese, there are many ways to enjoy shopping in Japan.
As an essential element of any narrative about Japan, ANA is introducing Japan’s shopping to the world with this fresh content.
The Is Japan Cool? project aims to give the world an in-depth look at what makes Japan attractive as a culture and destination in order to generate demand for travel to Japan.
So far, the site has introduced cities like Tokyo and Okinawa and various elements of Japan’s unique culture such as cosplay, kawaii, traditions and ramen to highlight the country’s charms.
The content has been well received by foreigners, garnering more than 2.5 million You Tube views and over 600,000 website hits. With Tokyo having been picked to host the 2020 Olympics, the city is still fresh in people’s minds, and with Japan attracting increased attention from around the world, ANA has continued to promote Is Japan Cool? to share what Japan has to offer, from its culture and traditions to anime and characters.
In the latest content, there is a special focus on department stores in Japan, popular among foreign travellers as places for ‘entertainment shopping’. Department stores condense the charms of Japan into one package, and ANA works with the Mitsukoshi and the Isetan, Japan’s leading department stores, to share information on the country’s shopping culture.
The project takes a look at depa-chika, the basement levels of department stores that assemble high-quality foods from all over Japan in one place and allow shoppers to fully take in the world of Japanese cuisine, which was even added to Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list last year.
The shopping section introduces the world to a shopping culture filled with the hospitality of the Japanese people and uniquely Japanese products
The project also details gift-wrapping services, which offer a selection of more than 70 varieties of wrapping paper and 100 kinds of ribbons to wrap gifts just the way customers want with a uniquely Japanese spirit of hospitality.
In addition, along with back stories, ANA introduces products that embody Japan’s traditional techniques of craftsmanship, with a selection of the highest quality products from that only a department store could assemble, including Nambu ironware, Japanese sake and kimono clothing.
The Is Japan Cool? shopping section introduces the world to a shopping culture filled with the hospitality of the Japanese people and uniquely Japanese products.
In the latest news, the Mitsukoshi Isetan will open the pop-up store Nipponista for exhibition and sales to share its selection of Japanese fashion, art, cuisine, lifestyle elements and technologies during New York Fashion Week, which runs until Thursday.
The themes are Fashion and Art and Food and Design. Their vision to energise Japan and reintroduce the magnificence of Japanese manufacturing is a perfect match for the purpose of Is Japan Cool? and is the reason for this latest collaboration.
On the Is Japan Cool? website, users can vote on content by clicking cool when they think something is cool or great, and not so cool when they disagree. This ranks the charms of Japan in real-time from the perspective of foreigners.
The results of the cool rankings from the first season of content might come as somewhat of a surprise to Japanese people.
Hospitality got the most votes, followed by high-tech toilets, hot spring baths, Mt Fuji and next-generation vending machines.
The system also retains comments shared on Facebook, so users can see at a glance why other users found particular content cool.